Reinstall windows vista without reformatting harddrive?

Question

one day i was looking through my appfolder and decided to delete folders that were created there by the games i just uninstalled.
well stupid me, didnt realize that it totally messed my system up. ever since then, test drive unlimited crashes insanely and i deleted the appdata that i needed to fix it lol, also my internet explorer freezes when visiting sites.

Can i reinstall windows vista without reformatting the hard drive? or is this not going to fix my problem.

davejohn · Answer

Have you tried a system restore? That might work.

Vista's counterpart to XP's repair install is to do an upgrade install over your existing installation. This will lay down a new copy of the OS and *should* keep your apps and data in place. However, this won't recover any applications or data you've already deleted.

bherbert77 · Answer

i tried to do a system restore but it was way too long ago when i did this so its not there.

i guess i might just have to do a full reinstall....if i reformatt my harddrive, do i have to install xp first then vista? i had XP MCE preloaded on my E520 and had that express install kit for vista.

snowshine · Answer

Hi bherbert,

Reinstall is not too challenging.

There are very good advice available in Dell's .

You will be better off to down load the needed VISTA 32 bit drivers for your system from Dell's Drivers & Download to save it on a disk.

Now run your express VISTA DVD & you can do a clean install after a format.

{ you will need to reactivate VISTA if you choose to reinstall after a format.}

Start here for the beginning:

Windows Vista Installation Super Guide, Part 3: Clean Install Windows Vista

There are wonderful people around in Dell's forum with abundant knowledge on the subject[installing using the exppress VISTA upgrade disk] if you have any questions.

I infact have had reinstalled three times since March 2007 with the help of Forum.

Snow

Dimension 9200
Intel ViiV Core 2Duo E6400 Processor 2.13GHz 1066 MHz 2MB
Windows XP media Centre Edition 2005 now VISTA OS 32bit
Memory:2814MB Dual DDR2 533 MHz [2x1024 & 2x 512]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse Dell Wireless Bluetooth
Video Card: 1GB nVidia GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual graphics card[169.25 WHQL Driver from nvidia site]
Sound Card Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme music
BIOS 2.5.3
Intel 82801 HR/HH/HO SATA RAID controller
Intel Matrix Storage Manager v7.8.0.1012
Chipset v.8.1.1.1013
HL-DT-ST DVD +/- RW GSA-H31N
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDRH10N
Hard Drive: 640 GB [2*320GB]SATA stripe RAID 0
Media Card Reader 13-in- 1 internal

Message Edited by snowshine on 03-14-2008 01:28 PM

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Reinstall windows vista without reformatting harddrive?

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