FlightSimBoy
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As some of you know, I upgraded to a 64-bit version of Vista Ultimate the other day. It has so far been one of my worst experiences with computers. Here is what happened:
First try: Install was successful, but I had to talk to a Microsoft rep on the phone for an hour to get it activated. All was well after that, I installed all critical updates, including SP1. This was an upgrade install, or partial reformat, or whatever you want to call it. This installation worked great for a day, but then I booted up yesterday morning and found that chkdsk needed to run, so fearing there was a problem, I let it run. Huge mistake. It corrupted my Windows installation. I could only access my desktop and main user profile in safe mode. I also tried booting from the system restore utility on the installation disk. So, not wanting to deal with the trouble of the Microsoft techs (even though they are very nice and respectable, but sometimes hard to understand), I did another partial reformat/ upgrade, so that leads me to
Second try: Install was successful again, but this time with errors. The chkdsk utility tried to run on the first bootup, but I canceled it. Everything appeared to run normally, that is until I try to install drivers and updates. It appeared that even though I was the systems administrator, I could not install anything except for basic programs like Firefox. I got countless errors when I tried to install upgrades, and one time I booted, my system hung at the startup screen with a message "Updates failed, reverting changes made" or something like that. I left it at this screen for 10 minutes and got nothing. So, I force-restarted the system (switch on PSU) and tried again. Same message. This time I waited 5 minutes. I put my installation disk in, and restarted. So, that leads me to
Third and current try: This time, it was war. I did a complete reformat. I have all of my music and personal files backed up on DVDs, flash drive, and memory card, so I'm not worried about my data. Chkdsk did not run at start. Everything appears to be fine so far, in fact the installation was extremely fast compared to the others, but I'm sure that was because it didn't have to overwrite files this time. It appears that the updates are downloading and installing, but I will have to check after I restart here in a few. If this works, then I will call Microsoft and re-activate, but I'm giving this installation a few days to sort out. I will also ask them why this happened. I know it was probably because of my own stupidity somewhere. I am really hoping this installation works out. I get stressed out when I have to do a total system restore and/or reformat, because of all the updating and driver downloading/ installing I have to do.
First try: Install was successful, but I had to talk to a Microsoft rep on the phone for an hour to get it activated. All was well after that, I installed all critical updates, including SP1. This was an upgrade install, or partial reformat, or whatever you want to call it. This installation worked great for a day, but then I booted up yesterday morning and found that chkdsk needed to run, so fearing there was a problem, I let it run. Huge mistake. It corrupted my Windows installation. I could only access my desktop and main user profile in safe mode. I also tried booting from the system restore utility on the installation disk. So, not wanting to deal with the trouble of the Microsoft techs (even though they are very nice and respectable, but sometimes hard to understand), I did another partial reformat/ upgrade, so that leads me to
Second try: Install was successful again, but this time with errors. The chkdsk utility tried to run on the first bootup, but I canceled it. Everything appeared to run normally, that is until I try to install drivers and updates. It appeared that even though I was the systems administrator, I could not install anything except for basic programs like Firefox. I got countless errors when I tried to install upgrades, and one time I booted, my system hung at the startup screen with a message "Updates failed, reverting changes made" or something like that. I left it at this screen for 10 minutes and got nothing. So, I force-restarted the system (switch on PSU) and tried again. Same message. This time I waited 5 minutes. I put my installation disk in, and restarted. So, that leads me to
Third and current try: This time, it was war. I did a complete reformat. I have all of my music and personal files backed up on DVDs, flash drive, and memory card, so I'm not worried about my data. Chkdsk did not run at start. Everything appears to be fine so far, in fact the installation was extremely fast compared to the others, but I'm sure that was because it didn't have to overwrite files this time. It appears that the updates are downloading and installing, but I will have to check after I restart here in a few. If this works, then I will call Microsoft and re-activate, but I'm giving this installation a few days to sort out. I will also ask them why this happened. I know it was probably because of my own stupidity somewhere. I am really hoping this installation works out. I get stressed out when I have to do a total system restore and/or reformat, because of all the updating and driver downloading/ installing I have to do.