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Hi
Background: I bought Windows 7 Home Edition disc but then upgraded online to Pro so I don't have a disc for Pro Edition. When I got an error message about hal.dll not working, and could neither restore to an earlier point nor get the OS to fix itself, someone in another Forum told me to download an ISO from DigitalRiver, make a Pro Edition boot disc, and fix the problem that way.
The boot disc was unable to get the OS to fix the .dll, and so, running out of time, I decided to use the Custom Installation option. I was expecting the installation to create a Windows.old folder but it didn't.
When I went back to that Forum to report that the boot disc had written over everything without apparently making any backups of any of my files, someone then provided a line of code I could have written in the Command Prompt which might have merely fixed the hal.dll.
Question: Did this installation really erase everything or is there a way to reverse the installation, restore the system to the earlier state? Knowing there's no Windows.old created, I'd next time install on a different hard drive so that I can rescue my files first.
Is there anything I can do to rescue those files or is it too late?
Cheers
OF
Background: I bought Windows 7 Home Edition disc but then upgraded online to Pro so I don't have a disc for Pro Edition. When I got an error message about hal.dll not working, and could neither restore to an earlier point nor get the OS to fix itself, someone in another Forum told me to download an ISO from DigitalRiver, make a Pro Edition boot disc, and fix the problem that way.
The boot disc was unable to get the OS to fix the .dll, and so, running out of time, I decided to use the Custom Installation option. I was expecting the installation to create a Windows.old folder but it didn't.
When I went back to that Forum to report that the boot disc had written over everything without apparently making any backups of any of my files, someone then provided a line of code I could have written in the Command Prompt which might have merely fixed the hal.dll.
Question: Did this installation really erase everything or is there a way to reverse the installation, restore the system to the earlier state? Knowing there's no Windows.old created, I'd next time install on a different hard drive so that I can rescue my files first.
Is there anything I can do to rescue those files or is it too late?
Cheers
OF