BleepingComputer.com: No Repair on Vista Ultimate?

Hello. I'm hoping someone can help me with this. I want to do a Windows Repair and have tried to follow the instructions on this site for repairing Windows, but no repair option comes up on my Vista display.

I have Vista Ultimate, 64-bit. On booting from the DVD, the first screen displayed is not a language selection screen. It goes straight to the installation screen, and there is no option for doing a repair. Is there a way to get to a repair mode?

Regards,
Heidi

There are links to Startup Repair ISO's in this topic: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/blogs/usas...?showentry=1261

John,

I followed BleepingComputer's instructions, with the result stated. Why an ISO? I'm not trying to do a restore.

I suggest the ISO file because it will create a disk that will allow you to log into the Startup Repair function.
When you boot from the disk created from the ISO file, it will look just like the tutorial that you were following.

Thanks, John. If I understand, you're saying that the ISO instructions are to prepare a disc that's not identical to the Vista disc? That is, it contains only the Repair function?

I'm trying to understand why the Repair function isn't on my Vista Ultimate disc, or at least doesn't come up on booting from the disc. It's supposed to be a complete setup - OEM, by the way. Do you know?

Is this a Microsoft OEM disk, or the disk from a PC manufacturer. If it's from a PC manufacturer, what's the make and model of the PC?

The ISO file is an image (picture) of the boot portion of the Vista installation disk. It allows you to select the "Repair this computer" option in the second screen. All other options will eventually fail as the image only contains the stuff necessary to run the Startup Repair functions.

When you download a file for a bootable CD, it's usually in the ISO format. When you burn the ISO to a disk, it results in a bootable disk. If you don't use a burning program that can handle ISO files, then you can't make the disk bootable.

It's a Microsoft disc. There is no make on my computer.

My understanding was that an ISO file is a burnable image of an entire disc, not just the bootable portion. In any case, how does this help when I have a fully functional original Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64-bit disc? If we're just getting a copy of what's already there, then what's accomplished by burning another disc?

If there's a problem with your disk, the new ISO will work. Another way to test your disk is to see if you can use it to boot on another computer.

An ISO is a copy of a disk. But a copy is easy to make - it's getting the boot stuff in the proper location on the disk that is the critical factor. It must be in the beginning of the disk - which copying doesn't do. The ISO places everything on the disk where it needs to go.