How to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista

To restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista, you can perform a clean installation of Windows Vista on a hard disk partition that contains an existing Microsoft Windows installation, and then restore the Boot.ini file for the previous Windows installation. If you do not format the hard disk, all the following items will be saved automatically in the Windows.OLD folder after Windows Vista is installed:

•	The previous operating system
•	User data
•	Program files

To confirm that these items have been saved, make sure that the Windows.OLD folder exists in the root folder of the Windows hard disk. Typically, the Windows hard disk is the C drive. If the Windows.OLD folder exists on this drive, files from the previous Windows installation are saved during the Windows Vista installation process. Therefore, you can restore the computer to the previous Windows installation.

This article is intended for a beginning to intermediate computer user.

You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first.

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To restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista, follow these steps.

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Step 1:

Determine whether you have sufficient free space on the Windows hard disk

To determine whether you have sufficient free space on the Windows hard disk to copy the contents of the Windows.OLD folder, determine the size of the Windows.OLD folder, and then compare the size to the total amount of free space on the hard disk. You will need this information in step 5.

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Step 2:

Start the Windows Recovery Environment

Start the Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), and then open a command prompt. To do this, follow these steps:

a.	Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disk drive, and then restart the computer.
b.	Press a key when you are prompted to restart from the disc.
c.	In the Install Windows window, select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard input method or other input method, and then click Next.
d.	In the Install Windows window, click Repair your computer.
e.	In the System Recovery Options window, click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
f.	In the System Recovery Options window, click Command Prompt.

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Step 3:

Rename the Windows folder and the Program Files folder

To rename the Windows folder and the Program Files folder, type the following commands at the command prompt, and press ENTER after you type each command.

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Step 4:

Remove the Documents and Settings junction point

Remove the "Documents and Settings" junction point.

Note A junction point is a pointer to another folder.

If the Windows Vista installation was a clean installation, the "Documents and Settings" folder will be empty. To remove the "Documents and Settings" junction point, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

Important After you type this command, you may receive the following error message:

If you receive this error message, the "Documents and Settings" folder contains data and is not a junction point. Back up the data in this folder by copying the folder to another drive on the computer. Alternatively, you can rename the folder by using the ren command.

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Step 5:

Copy the contents or move the contents of the Windows.OLD folder to the root folder

To copy or to move the contents of the Windows.OLD folder to the root folder, follow one of these steps, as appropriate for your situation:

•	If there is sufficient space on the hard disk to copy the Windows.OLD folder, type the following command, and then press ENTER: xcopy /s /h c:\windows.old\*.* c:\
•	If there is insufficient space on the hard disk to copy the Windows.OLD folder, type the following commands. Press ENTER after you type each command. move /y c:\windows.old\windows c:\ move /y"c:\windows.old\program files" c:\ move /y"c:\windows.old\documents and settings" c:\ move /y c:\windows.old\users c:\

Note When the previous operating system that was installed is Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000, skip the fourth command move /y c:\windows.old\users c:\. When the previous operating system that was installed is Windows Vista, skip the third command move /y"c:\windows.old\documents and settings" c:\.

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Step 6:

Restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation

To restore the boot sector for the previous Windows installation, follow one of these steps, as appropriate for the situation:

•	If the previous Windows installation was Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows 2000, type the following command, and then press ENTER: E:\boot\bootsect /nt52 c:
•	If the previous Windows installation was Windows Vista, type the following command, and then press ENTER: E:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:

Note In the previous commands, drive E is the ROM drive, and drive C is the system partition. The system partition contains the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store and the Windows Boot Manager files.

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Step 7:

Restore the Boot.ini file for the previous Windows installation

If the previous Windows installation was Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows 2000, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:

Note During the clean installation of Windows Vista on a drive on which a previous operating system is present, the boot.ini file is renamed to "boot.ini.saved." This is a hidden system file. Therefore, you cannot see it unless you use the "dir /ah" command. If you do not follow these steps, you may encounter the following error message when you restart the computer:

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Step 8:

Close the Command Prompt window, and then click Restart

Close the Command Prompt window, and then click Restart.

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For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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