What does Repairing Vista Remove?

[Xavier434]

I need to repair my installation of Vista because I am experiencing the "OS will not boot" problem after getting that bad prereq update for SP1. I do not have a System Restore point previous to that update. Unless someone knows of another fix, I wanted to find out what data I need to back up (if any) before proceeding with the repair process. Does it delete any of my installed programs or files other than those related directly to the OS?

 

[NoelS]

Xavier434,

I don't have that much experience with Vista, but I've done quite a few XP repairs, and they don't seem to lose anything (programs and/or settings). I would assume Vista would be as forgiving...

Still wouldn't hurt to back up your data files, though.

Noel

 

[Swampster]

Kind of late to backup when you can't boot to the OS, isn't it <VBG>.

Seriously, this is exactly what the Repair function on Vista is supposed to fix. I have had fairly good luck with it. If it is within the scope of problems it is set to correct, then you are back up and running with no changes to programs or data.

Boot to the DVD, Click on Install, Select Repair.

EDIT: It is not like XP where it in effect does an upgrade install over the installed OS, it just fixes problems that cause it to not be able to boot, such as MBR problems and such as that.