Reinstalling Vista, and no longer know what the heck it's doing...

Hi there, thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Basically I'm in the process of re-installing Windows Vista from a disc. I heard it took forever to install, but now I'm at a stage where I can't honestly say if it's doing anything at all. It was in the final installation stage... for a while... but now my screen is black with just a curser. It moves, so I know the computer isn't frozen... but is this normal? Should I keep waiting... or is something wrong?

Help!

M

 

Are you reinstalling to an empty drive? Or are you trying to reinstall on top of an existing installation?

 

Hi there,

I was attempting to re-install overtop of what was there.

It was recommended for me to try and re-install Vista overtop of the Vista that was all ready there.

After doing some research, I realised that I didn't deactivate or uninstall the virus software that was there. Now I can't even boot up in safe mode, so I have no clue what to do.

I tried going through the process a second time and the same thing happened. Everything seemed to be going well untill the final completion stage... where waiting forever for something to happen, the screen went black. Save for the curser.

Thank you,

Moris

 

Unlike with XP, there's no way in Vista to do a non-destructive reinstallation. So, any reinstallation is most probably going to trash what you already have there.



If you need to save off data files, we have a pinned post on how you can boot from a Linux LiveCD and copy files to an external drive. But you will need a PC with internet access to download the CD image, and you will need a CD burner to burn the ISO file to a disk.



You can also use that same CD, open something called Partition Editor (I believe it's in Administration --> Partition Editor) and remove the Vista partition.



Then, when you reboot from the Vista DVD, you will be installing to a clean drive.