Is there a way to do a Windows 7 repair install when you are unable to start/boot Windows 7?

Posted by irrational John on Super User See other posts from Super User or by irrational John
Published on 2010-06-01T04:10:28Z Indexed on 2010/06/01 4:13 UTC
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windows-7

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boot

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install

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repair

My understanding is that the only way to perform a "repair install" in Windows 7 is to run the install setup.exe within the Windows 7 installation you want to repair.

This seems a little brain dead to me since usually the reason I wanted to perform the repair install was because the existing installation was so broken that I could no longer boot and use it. It seems Microsoft is saying my only option in that case is to do a clean install and then reinstall all my apps.

So I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to perform a Windows 7 repair install ... one that preserves your existing OS settings and application installs ... on a Windows 7 partition that cannot be booted.

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