My friend's compaq presario v6000 won't run windows vista 64 home premium. I have no history or disks on the computer. I have my Dell laptop's vista 32 disk, and I can use it to at least get to a command line and a basic system repair screen.
I can also get to regedit from the command line, but I don't know what to do when I'm there.
The system repair screen tells me it can't fix the problem, something like "OS missing".
HP doesn't offer a download of the original software, and they no longer carry recovery discs.
Hmm, what else have I tried? I can start up and hit f11 (for recovery) but nothing happens.
I have the original vista 64 key for the computer, but I don't know where I can download the installation file. MS website had only SP1 & SP2.
I just restarted the computer again, and it gave me the windows boot manager screen telling me windows failed to start, status 0xc000000f, the NLS data is missing or corrupt. I then hit enter to continue, and f8 for advanced options to start vista home premium 64, and I get another error message that windows failed to start because windows/system32/winload.exe is missing or corrupt.
(Why is it looking for system32 anyway when it is 64 bit? - I don't understand this)
Thanks for your patience and help!
Only Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 (32-bit or x86) download is available, but if, during the install, you do not enter the product key when initially prompted for it (which you must have to use the download), then you will be prompted to select the version of Vista you want to install.
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Ultimate
There is no .iso to download, you download 3 files for X86 or X64.
X86:
X14-63542.exe
boot.wim
install.wim (this is the big one)
X64:
X14-63543.exe
boot.wim
install.wim (this is the big one)
Then as is stated on the site,
If you want to create a setup disc for clean installation, run the EXE file and it'll extract the required setup files in a folder which can be used to create a setup disc using a freeware given here.
Okay, so I followed all the directions.
When running the X14-63453.exe file, to extract to the (now bootable) USB drive, it gave me an error message. I looked at the folders on the USB, and everything was extracted, so I decided to try booting from it. I discovered that I had to move all of the extracted files out of the folder "Vista" that the extraction automatically created in order for the installation to work.
I then ran the installation and typed in the Vista 64 key that came with the laptop originally. It's still installing now as I type.
Question: Will it automatically activate or do I need to do something online? Will the original key allow the activation?
Thanks
This does not work.
The bootable USB will start the installation, but then when the computer restarts to continue the installation, the USB drive starts with a new install screen.
I tried removing the USB and then restarting, but after 3 hours of watching "completing installation…" I've given up.
Incidently, the install is behaving exactly as when I tried to install Vista 32 yesterday, before I realized that the computer used Vista 64.
I tried to run the system recovery/startup repair from the USB, but I get a Corrupt Boot Data error message, that the recovery program can't fix.
I'm leaving the laptop running with the "Completing installation…." screen up, but the disk drive light is not blinking, so I have no hope that it will actually finish because the drive is not doing anything.
The last time I got to this point, and waited several hours, I decided to restart the laptop. It restarted with an error message and told me to start the installation over again. grrr.
I have not tried to do this as I have not had a need to reinstall Vista on my laptop.
From what you described, it sounds like you made USB the first boot device which is why it kept starting the install over again.
My Vista laptop allows me to press a Fn key to access the boot menu where I can pick what device I want to boot from. I always have the hard drive as the first boot device. If I need to boot a CD or USB I press F12 then select it from the boot menu. Perhaps yours has this capability as well?
