windows 7 upgrade - crashed half way help :(

[_Jimlad_]

Hey guys, stupidly volunteered to help my friend upgrade a vista laptop to windows 7 - she was adamant she wanted the upgrade option rather than a clean install, dude to lots of programs and having 4 users worth of data. 95% through the upgrade it locked up and crashed. now on reboot i get

"the computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install windows, click "OK" to restart the computer, and then restart the installation."

This just loops up and i can't seem to get round it, i have tried booting the disk, and trying to reinstall the upgrade, but it wont let me continue or start over, tried 'repair' and system roll-back but still no choice.

Bit worried im gonna now have take the drive out get the data off and wipe, any ideas?

 

[apatia77]

If you didn't back up your data use Ubuntu and boot from the disk and then backup whatever you can, user profiles ie documents etc should be untouched and you should be able to make backup onto usb hdd or memory stick depending on amount of data.

You probably will have to reinstall OS from scratch now, ie format disk and do a fresh clean install.

I have also used a disk in the past just like Ubuntu but it booted windows xp instead with some preinstalled tools but I can't remember the name now.

 

[_Jimlad_]

yeah sure the data is fine, i totally agree with you...clean install is the best - if it was my pc yes! but i really dont wanna have to do a clean install ... she has 4 users and lots of installed programs and data!

 

[apatia77]

I don't think there is anything you can do but a clean install in your situation. Call your mate and explain what has happened. Programs can always be reinstalled.