Vista Repair Disk

MikeHunt79 · 8 Jan 2010 at 14:08

I;ve got a Dell laptop, that has a Dell OEM version of Vista installed.

I need to run the Windows repair feature, but a Vista disk did not come with the machine. It does have a recover partition however...

Can I use any old Vista disk to repair or does it have to be the Dell OEM disk?

Also, I guess 32-bit or 64-bit has got to match also...

paradisiac · 8 Jan 2010 at 14:18

yeah aslong as its the same 32/64bit then any vista disc will do, ideally you want to have the same or higher version of service pack disc aswell.

MikeHunt79 · 8 Jan 2010 at 14:30

Excellent, thanks. Once the new hard disk is in and cloned I'll give the repair feature a go.

paradisiac · 8 Jan 2010 at 14:33

obviously the repair features in vista are nowhere near as good as xp was, but worth a shot.

MikeHunt79 · 8 Jan 2010 at 14:42

paradisiac said:
obviously the repair features in vista are nowhere near as good as xp was, but worth a shot.

If it was my laptop, I would have wiped Vista ages ago...

I'm hoping the repair feature will do something however, as right now it wont even boot!

paradisiac · 8 Jan 2010 at 14:48

ah right, no boot, with my experience of vista, probs going to need a fresh install, the repair features are very limited at best.

MikeHunt79 · 8 Jan 2010 at 15:45

Yep right now I'm using an XP Live CD, I think I may try a fresh install is the repair fails, but for this I'm going to need the Dell OEM Vista disk which I don't have.

PhillyDee · 8 Jan 2010 at 15:47

paradisiac said:
yeah aslong as its the same 32/64bit then any vista disc will do, ideally you want to have the same or higher version of service pack disc aswell.

I wouldn't bet on it. Dell keys are special keys!
At least, the repair might work, the reinstll wouldnt.

MikeHunt79 · 8 Jan 2010 at 15:57

PhillyDee said:
I wouldn't bet on it. Dell keys are special keys!
At least, the repair might work, the reinstll wouldnt.

Indeed, with XP I've found unless you have the proper OEM disk, then it all goes boobs north with a reinstall. I can't imagine Vista being any different.

paradisiac · 8 Jan 2010 at 15:59

never had any problems with dells installing vista on them with our standard dvds, but might just of been lucky i guess.
only thing is you would need to download the drivers/software from dells site after install, but saves on running all the dell stuff you dont need.

IAmATeaf · 8 Jan 2010 at 16:23

If you need to do a reinstall can't you just boot up off the recovery partition?

MikeHunt79 · 8 Jan 2010 at 16:55

paradisiac said:
never had any problems with dells installing vista on them with our standard dvds, but might just of been lucky i guess.
only thing is you would need to download the drivers/software from dells site after install, but saves on running all the dell stuff you dont need.

Well, I want to avoid that if I can... Do you mean you can use the Dell keycode on the label on the laptop with a Retail disk? I've never managed this and always needed to use an OEM which which is pre-activated...

IAmATeaf said:
If you need to do a reinstall can't you just boot up off the recovery partition?

The original hard disk is dying/dead, so I want to avoid using the recovery partition.

paradisiac · 8 Jan 2010 at 17:03

MikeHunt79 said:
Do you mean you can use the Dell keycode on the label on the laptop with a Retail disk? I've never managed this and always needed to use an OEM which which is pre-activated...

yup, thing is to activate it you normally have to do it by the automated phone option, but so far never had a fail.