Windows 7 System Repair Disc Misconceptions

There’s a lot of confusion over the Windows 7 System Repair Disk and what it can do. And the time to find out the real deal is not when you need to repair your system or reinstall your operating system. The good news is that Windows 7 has a lot fewer boot issues and can often repair itself unlike Windows XP and Vista.

That being said, there still are situations that occur that can require some serious troubleshooting and if push comes to shove, a clean install. And a lot of these scenarios are caused by malware and viruses, which both can be very troublesome to completely eliminate if they have infested your operating system.

Before we get the into the System Repair Disk issues, I highly advise you setup a reliable and fully tested backup of all your data files and maybe a few system files. You should also have good virus and malware prevention software installed and make sure it gets updated often, like daily. Once you have those two elements in place, no system crash will ruin your life and any problem will be an inconvenience instead of a disaster. It's not very much fun re-installing your system operating software but it sometimes is necessary.

OK, in order to use your System Repair Disc you have to make one. Here’s how:

- Open Backup and Restore by clicking the Start button, click on Control Panel, click on System and Maintenance, and then click on Backup and Restore.
- In the left pane, click the Create a system repair disc, and then follow the provided steps. You will need to have administrator rights to make a System Repair Disc.

Once you have your disc you can use it to boot up on when your Windows 7 will not boot up. You simply place the boot disc (normally a CD) in the CD player and then boot your computer. The screen that comes up has the following information and options.

Startup Repair - Fixes certain problems, such as missing or damaged system files that might prevent Windows from starting correctly.

System Restore - Restores your computer's system files to an earlier point in time without affecting your data files, such as email, documents, or photos. Unlike the normal System Restore, you can't undo this restore once it's completed.

System Image Recovery - You need to have created a system image beforehand to use this option. A system image is a personalized backup of the partition that contains Windows, and includes programs and user data, like documents, pictures, and music.

Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool - Scans your computer's memory for errors. For more information, see Diagnosing memory problems on your computer

Command Prompt - Advanced users can use Command Prompt to perform recovery-related operations and also run other command line tools for diagnosing and troubleshooting problems.

As you can see there is no reinstall option, only options to restore files from your existing operating system with the exception of restoring an entire image. If you need to do a complete reinstall most new computers come with a separate partition that you can access during the boot up sequence. But be aware that once you do that, all data files will be gone forever. And like any clean install, you will need to install any applications that you installed when setting up your computer.

Does the System Repair Disc work? It’s been my experience that if it’s just a damaged file, bad update of system files, or abnormal shut down the disc has a good chance of solving the problem. If hardware has failed, nasty boot viruses have invaded, or other possible configuration damage has occurred the disc may not be able to work it’s magic.

So the bottom line is the Windows 7 System Repair Disc is a good tool to have but it won’t fix everything and it cannot reinstall Windows 7 operating system. I would definitely suggest you have a System Repair Disc on hand to use so if you haven’t created one, do it now. And also make sure you have a good backup strategy in place that you have tested.

John Dow owns Houston Computer Repair, and a website that offers computer utilities to repair and fix many common computer problems. His Power Solutions CD has helped thousands of customers format, fix, and repair hard drives. Click here to learn more: Format Hard Drive.

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