Windows Vista in-place upgrade/repair, on a non booting system.
by Carl Farrington on Sep.16, 2008, under Computer Stuff
So, I have a customer’s laptop here, which is broken & won’t boot. I can’t get it to boot in any way shape or form. Startup Repair doesn’t work, System Restore fails, I have manually taken all registry backups from RegBack and put them in \Windows\System32\config. Still, I get the same message:
“Stop: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The initial session process or system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0×000000000 (0xc00000001 0×0010034c)”
This is one of those situations where the good old repair install would fix it. This was known as an “in place upgrade”.
With Vista, an in-place upgrade can only be started from within Windows, which means the system must be bootable.
Also, the System Restore data files are not user accessible (they are VSS diffs or something, rather than just RPxx files) like they were with XP, so that’s two repair processes out the window.
In place upgrades have been a standard repair method for as long as I can remember.
I remember deleting win.com out of the Windows directory and then proceeding to re-run the OEM Win95 setup. (Or was that my trick for upgrading to Windows 95 with an OEM non upgrade disk? I can’t remember - it’s been a while).
Does anybody remember the “clean install without reformat” technique from the Windows 95 days? You would rip out the HKLM\System\CCS\ENUM, Services and other hardware parts of the registry, then do an in-place upgrade over the top.
All the way from Windows Nothing to Windows XP SP2, in-place upgrades have been the way to “re-install over the top”.
None of this is possible now on Vista because to do an in-place upgrade on Vista requires the system to be working. How’s that for stupidity. You can only repair a working system!
I hate Vista. I wish Microsoft had not hyped it up so much, maybe then they’d let it slip on by like the Millennium Edition that it is.
So, I will install a clean copy, and then pull in the registry files and user’s data from the broken install. If that looks good I’ll go with that, if not I’ll just go clean and move data files back into place.
September 16th, 2008 on 6:25 pm
I’m having the same problem.
So I’m having to reinstall vista,(BIG SURPRISE) because a windows update hammered my system.
Last known working config doesn’t work,
system restore doesn’t work.
So I’m trying to do a “in-place upgrade.”
If you boot from the DVD it wants to do a clean install.
It says “upgrade has been disabled. Run from windows if you want to upgrade”
The whole point of doing a “in-place upgrade” is because (imagine that) WINDOWS WON’T BOOT.
So I can only barely get the system up in safemode, so I boot into safe mode and try to run it again.
It says “Upgrade can’t be ran from safe mode”
So my question is, what were the Microsoft programmers smoking the day they were writing this recovery tool. (“oh, vista’s gonna’ be so stable, nobody will ever have to do a recovery, just like linux.” ) NOT
I really think that Vista is really a build on windows ME. And we all know where that ended up.
Why doesn’t Microsoft just can this Vista crap and go back to XP and finish its security.
September 16th, 2008 on 6:33 pm
if you’re having the stop c0000021, see my next blog post, it might help:
http://www.css-networks.com/2008/09/vista-stop-c000021a-fatal-system-error-the-initial-session-process-or-system-process-terminated-unexpectedly.html
December 6th, 2008 on 8:43 am
Apparently you CAN still do a repair install (UPGRADE) installation from the Vista DVD – here is a page telling how and why it is disabled sometimes. http://vistasupport.mvps.org/repair_a_vista_installation_using_the_upgrade_option_of_the_vista_dvd.htm
December 8th, 2008 on 3:36 pm
Hi Joey. Unfortunately you have to start the in-place upgrade from within Windows, so the system needs to be working for this to work.
You can’t boot the computer from the DVD and do a repair install.
December 9th, 2008 on 4:33 am
I am SO frustrated with Vista too – this is ridiculous. At least XP would allow an in-place upgrade booting with the XP oem CD and installing again leaving all or most user settings intact. Vista would not work correctly – tried all the usual options, booting to safe mode, system restore points, etc. Scanned for viruses and none – Customer was on a website making a purchase at a respected electronics site and it just locked up – after 20 minutes of no response customer shut off the pc. I’m a computer tech and I could not get Vista repaired. Had an error slui.exe failed to initialize. I couldn’t get past the logon screen after typing the user password. Then it just booted me out to the windows logon screen again. This is MADNESS that Vista will not fix it’s problems with a startup repair or a system restore, also did a full chkdsk and no disk problems. I did another install using the same boot drive and all and Vista backed up the old windows folder and program files, user folders and renamed it windows.old. Yes, that is fine BUT now all the purchased DRM crap is no longer good- the licenses for all the purchased music are invalid and Vista screwed another customer. And of course, media player 11 no longer lets you backup your music licenses! Then they wonder why people would do p2p downloading! Crazy – and I was starting to get more faith in Vista up until this past week. Slui.exe I believe has to do with windows validation crap.
August 27th, 2009 on 2:43 am
LOL Windows Me!
I had not thought about that until now and you are so right!
I DO have Vista though… came with my laptop… and now I am trying to get the darn SP2 to install… how’s this for stupidity: Windows needs a lot of stuff to be disabled so it can upgrade (isn’t it supposed to be… like… you know… the OS?).
Fortunately I can do the in-place upgrade… gonna try that and see if SP2 installs but geeeeeeez.