Can you fool the Windows 7 DVD?

How about fooling the DVD into thinking that it was started from the Windows 7 desktop. Solve that and we could boot the DVD and do an in-place upgrade (er... repair installation) from the DVD. Anyone?

 

Not quite, I am afraid. That tutorial only repeats Microsoft's stance on what Microsoft supports, not what is possible.

The fact that the DVD "knows" that it started the PC is what is preventing an in-place upgrade (repair installation) from being run with the booted DVD.

How might we fool the DVD into thinking it did not start the PC, but is being run from the Windows 7 desktop?

Think outside Microsoft's box!

 

Hi Detection -- With all due respect, you do not know that to be a fact. I have been thinking outside Microsoft's box for over 30 years, and the fact that they say that this, Microsoft's supported path, is the only way that an issue can be resolved, does not mean that there aren't unsupported ways to do it.

I am not concerned about whether the solution is supported by Microsoft or not. I care only whether the solution resolves the problem.

While you think that you know, I know that I don't. I'll take knowing anyday.

 

I saw Fred's article when it was released and I have been in contact with him (along with others of his ilk) since.

I did not say that what you posted would not work. It will.

You said "You can not upgrade the OS by booting from the DVD"

It is that where you are incorrect, despite the link you provided, the article Fred published, or whatever 99% of Microsoft techs will robotically answer.

What I was saying is that that is not the only solution. It is the only Microsoft supported solution (think importing registry hives, renaming/deleting files and/or folders on your system boot drive via the DVD's command prompt, etc. prior to running setup.exe from the booted DVD).

I have an active case escalated from the Windows 7 Professional support team to a Microsoft Sr. Engineer who is looking into this with his team.

Being among developers for a very long time, if you told them that something could not be done, they would look at it as a challenge to prove you wrong, rather than accepting what they were told as the gospel.

So, the question is how do you fool the Windows 7 DVD into thinking that it did not start the PC, but was launched from the Windows 7 desktop?

 

If you can get to the Windows desktop, you are absolutely right.

Let us presume that getting to the deskop is not possible, and that an in-place upgrade is the only acceptable solution.

If that is the case, how might you do it? Would you modify the DVD, the system boot disk, or both?

Would it be done to simply get you to the deskop to run the in-place upgrade, or to actually do the in-place upgrade?

 

Thanks, Josh -- That's worth looking at. I would presume that there would be associated keys that would need to be addressed along with that one, no?

 

Hi Detection -- I never heard of RT Se7en, and I appreciate you turning me onto them.

I think that the DVD is looking at the system boot disk to determine whether it will proceed, so for the moment, I am examining %systemroot%, its sub-folders and the registry. That should keep me off the streets for awhile (and in my wife's hair).

Thanks.

 

I came across a routine used for repairing a similar situation for Windows Server 2008 R2 that might do the trick for my issue, as well.

What would happen if I were to boot the Windows 7 DVD, have it install/custom, not have it format or anything like that, and let it proceed to its first copying routine, and then abort (PC reset, if that is what it takes)?

Then boot the Windows Recovery Disk or DART7 and have it repair the Windows 7 system boot disk.

Thoughts?

 

Hi Detection -- I made a copy of the C-Drive, easily accessible from the command prompt. FWIW, it took two hours to successfully copy via FastCopy (loaded onto a usb thumb drive) and over six hours to create an Acronis (corrupted) image (from their recovery disc, latest version). I have never had good luck with that company, but I am always up to date with their software as a "just in case, ya never know... " type of thing.

Anyway, this is what I was thinking to do:

• Abort the Win7 install just as the first copying files indicator ended
• Reboot with a Windows Recovery Disc (or DART7) and go directly to the command prompt
• Use DISPART to ensure that all drives were properly associated (drive letters), that there was only one disk set as active and bootable (C-Drive), and ensure that the DVD devices were also associated with the proper drive letters.
• Copy over my backed up registry, saved the day before all this happened
• Copy \windows.old to \windows (and possibly ApplicationData, Users, Document Settings, etc. if need be)
• Exit command prompt and choose repair

It is a starting point that might work, and if nothing else, it will give me the sense of doing something.

 

Hi vladxed666 -- thanks for the idea, but things like creating a new setup routine, etc., is beyond my ability. I have many years of troubleshooting under my belt, I can read code, but I lack the ability to code from scratch.

Microsoft and I are about to close the ticket as unresolved since Microsoft does not see a Microsoft supported solution, but I have not given up.

As an aside, despite my exhaustion and disappointment, I must say that the Sr. Engineering team assigned to my case, really put 110% into my issue's resolution and showed great concern, so I cannot find fault with them (as much as I would have liked to, out of frustration).

Right now my brain is about to explode, so I plan on giving it a day or two of rest to recharge.

 

Hi Urie -- With all due respect, if you believe that it is a lost cause, you are certainly within your right to have that belief, and should exercise that right by choosing a thread that interests you. If vladxed666 is game to try, who are you to dissuade him? Sheesh!

 

Thank you, vladxed666. I appreciate the thought even if nothing materializes from it.