If you recently installed / reinstalled Windows 7 of computer equipment (yours or others: P) and then you realize that you are or lazy to reinstall all the programs we use forward and back transfer personal files manually C: \ (If you keep them there) or miss system you used before, you'll probably be glad to know that you can return to old operating system (previously installed) using the folder Windows.ols (programs, settings and documents to be restored in the system folders, Where he did age before reinstallation).
Careful! Before you implement the ones written in this tutorial, make sure there is a folder named Windows.old on the system partition and that there is enough free space on it. It is also recommended to make a back-up of the folder Windows.old before making any changes to it.
What do you need to reintegrate Windows.old in a newly installed system:
- Installation DVD Windows 7
- 10 free minutes
- Courage: D
What steps you should follow:
1. After you have reinstalled the operating system and have concluded that prefer the previous version installed, enter the new Installation DVD in the DVD drive and restart the computer. When the option appears on the monitor, press any key to boot from the DVD
2. The installation menu click on Repair Your Computer, Select the version of Windows OS you want to fix / restore (System Recovery Options), Click on NextThen open Command Prompt.
3. Type the following commands in Command Prompt (one at a time) and yes Enter after each (these commands will rename the system folders to restore the folders in Windows.old):
c:
ren Windows Windows.New
ren “Program Files” “Program Files.New”
ren “Users” “Users.New”
ren “Documents and Settings” “Documents and Settings.New”* If after one or more of these commands the message “The system cannot find the file specified.", simply go to the next command (ren "Users" is valid for Windows Sight yes Windows 7, ren "Documents and Settings"Is valid for Windows 2000 and Windows XP)
4. To move content folder Windows.old in the system folders, you need to type in Command Prompt the following set of commands (all in order and all in turn):
move /y c:\windows.old\windows c:\
move /y "c:\windows.old\program files" c:\move /y "c:\windows.old\documents and settings" c:\ (aceasta comanda este valabila in cazul in care Windowsul on care doresti sa-l restaurezi este ori XP ori 2000)move /y c:\windows.old\users c:\ (valabila in cazul in care Windowsul on care doresti sa-l restaurezi este tot Windows 7 sau Windows Vista)5. After you have moved the content Windows.old in system folders, you must restore and boot sector version of Windows previously installed.
a). If the version of Windows previously installed is Windows XP or Windows 2000, type the following command in Command Prompt
D:\ Boot \ bootsect / nt52 c: (where D: \ is the DVD, if your DVD drive is another letter, replace D with that letter)
and then restore files boot.ini using the following command (all in cmd):
c:
attrib boot.ini.saved -s -h –r
ren"boot.ini.saved""boot.ini"
attrib boot.ini +s +h +ra). If the version of Windows previously installed is Windows 7 or Windows Vista, Type the following command (for these OS's is unnecessary and restoring boot.ini file)
D:\ Boot \ bootsect / nt60 c: (where D: is the DVD)
6). Then close Command Prompt and restart the computer. Windowsthe one that will boot will be the previously installed version Windows 7.
Note: This method is not completely risk free. We do not guarantee that errors in the version will not occur Windows restored. If there are any errors after the restore, try a Startup Repair (using the DVD / CD installer version of Windows restored). We also do not guarantee that it will give results. If the errors persist, try to reinstall those programs where the errors appear.
