over-the-top repair

[Jim1]

Hi to all: Just wondering! Is there a criteria that can be used, kinda rule of thumb, concerning when it might be advisable to use the over-the-top repair feature in XP? Can it be used in Vista, Win 7? I've used the feature a few times, and it worked fine. But, I'm not sure if there is a criteria as to when it can be used effectively. Regards, thanks, Jim S

[Broni]

I'm not sure about criteria, but it's not available anymore in Vista and 7.

[Midknyte]

You'd use Startup Repair in Vista and 7.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial148.html

[Welshjim]

Jim1--I am not sure what an "Over-the-Top repair "means, but here are some of the repair options available in Win7
http://www.technospot.net/blogs/how-...and-windows-7/

[SuperSparks]

My criteria for doing it would be when Windows is so hosed that you can't boot into it, or when so many things are missing or unusable that there is no realistic hope of fixing things in any other way - after a malware infestation for example.

You can "upgrade" Vista or Win7 over themselves. That's sort of the same thing as an over-the-top reinstall. Having said that, I've yet to come across a situation where it was ever necessary - for all its bad press, Vista is a heck of a lot more robust than XP.

[Broni]

I'm very happy Vista user, but surely, I've seen number of threads, where Vista "repair installation", or "upgrade installation", could have possibly helped.
The main issue here is, that the ownership of Vista DVD is even more scarce, than the ownership of XP CD.

[Midknyte]

If you don't have a Vista DVD, you can try this:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/downlo...recovery-disc/

[Broni]

Yeah, but you can't run Vista repair install with that disk.
I'm talking about full repair: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88...all-vista.html not startup repair.