Ok... So two days ago I took a hard drive I had laying around and wanted to install Windows 7 on it so I could put it in a different PC that I'm building. So, I figured I could just plug in this hard drive (SATA), let's call it D:, into my existing desktop PC (as a slave) and mount a "Windows 7 Ultimate w/ SP1" (.ISO) and install Windows 7 on the new D: drive for the new PC. Already installed on my PC, I've got Windows 7 Ultimate x64 running (on my C: drive). So that's just what I did; I mounted the .iso (GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso) onto Daemon Tools and began running Windows 7 Setup. I chose to do a custom install and selected the D: drive to install Windows 7 on. After a few minutes into the setup, I realized that doing this might mess up my current Windows 7 settings, so I cancelled the Setup. I'm not sure exactly how far it was in the installation, but not far. After cancelling the Setup, it didn't immediately seem like anything had been changed. So I went about my day. It wasn't until later on the NEXT day, I installed a Windows update. Well, of course, because of the update I had to reset after the update installation... This is when I noticed what had changed. My PC boots up, past the BIOS screen, then asks which to boot to: Windows Setup -OR- Windows 7 Ultimate (Recovered). If you don't touch the keyboard within a few seconds it will automatically boot into Windows Setup. Once Windows Setup is open, before you can do anything, an error pop-up QUICKLY states the installation cannot continue. The only option is to click OK. Then the PC resets, and unless you quickly select Windows 7 Ultimate (Recovered) it will continue to loop back to Windows Setup (which stated, can't continue). Once I finally booted into Windows I realize Windows is now telling me I need to activate, and my installation might not be genuine, etc... Everything seems to be the same as before the cancelled Windows setup, but the desktop background has turned black and in the bottom right it shows the Windows build and says not activated. I then ran 'msconfig' and immediately noticed in the 'Boot' tab that it lists: Windows Setup (C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Windows) : Default OS -THEN- Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered) (C:\Windows) : Current OS. What can I do to get back to the way my settings were before the cancelled Setup? I looked into System Restore, but there doesn't seem to be a restore point that goes back far enough to before I ran the Windows Setup. So I didn't try that. I also proceeded to reactivate my Windows 7 with the Daz Loader. But could someone, anyone, help lead me back the way things were running before this stupid mistake. Thanks! My setup: GOTO:valid.canardpc.com/2598773
Yeah, I realized that it was a mistake, unfortunately it was during the setup... But I did what you said, and everything seems to be working normally. I was wondering though, why did my original Windows install get deactivated?
So other than messing with my boot sector and deactivating Windows, is there anything else that could be out of order caused by the Windows setup?
No I would not think so it did not actually start installing it had copied files over to the C:\$WINDOWS.~BT then edited the boot sector so it would boot from C:\$WINDOWS.~BT