This article shows you how to manually restore a previously installed Windows Replace Windows 8.
Step 1: Determine if the Windows.old folder exists and if there is enough free space on the hard disk
1 Double-click “Computer”, right-click the Local Disk (C:) & rdquo; folder, select Properties, and view the available space for “Local Disk (C:)”.
2. In the "Hard Disk" area, double-click “Local Disk (C:)& rdquo; and then determine if the Windows.old folder exists.
Note: If the Windows.old folder does not exist, you cannot follow the steps in this article to restore a previously installed Windows on that computer.
3. Right-click on the "Windows.old" folder and view the size of the folder.
4. Determine if the Windows.old folder is smaller than the free space of the local disk (C:) & rdquo;.
Note: If the size of the Windows.old folder is twice the size of the "local disk (C:)" option, you may not be able to restore your previous Windows installation.
Step 2: Start the Windows recovery environment.
1. Insert the Windows 8/Windows 7 CD-ROM into your DVD drive and restart your computer.
2. Press any key when prompted, and restart from the CD.
3. In the "Install Windows" window, select the language, time, currency, keyboard input method or other input method, and then click “Next”.
4. In the "Install Windows" window, click “Fix the computer”.
5. In the "System Recovery Options" window, click the version of the Windows 8 operating system you want to repair, and then click "Next".
6. In the "System Recovery Options" window, click “Command Prompt”.
Step 3: Move the Windows 8 folder to the new Win8 folder
Note that when you type one or more of the commands described in the following steps at the command prompt and press ENTER, you receive the following message :The system can not find the file specified.
Please check if the input is the same as the one provided in this article. You can go to the next command in the same way, please retype it.
Type the following commands and press Enter after each command:
C:
Md Win8
Move Windows Win8Windows
Move "Program Files" "Win8Program Files"
Move Users Win8Users
Attrib –h –s –r ProgramData
Move ProgramData Win8ProgramData
Rd "Documents and Settings"
Step 4: Move the Windows.old folder to the system disk
Note When you type one or more of the commands described in the following steps at the command prompt and press ENTER, you receive the following message: The system cannot find the file specified.
Please check if the input is the same as the one provided in this article. You can go to the next command in the same way, please retype it.
Type the following commands and press Enter after each command:
move /yc:Windows.oldWindows c:
move /y "c:Windows.oldProgram Files" c:
move /Yc:Windows.oldProgramData c:
move /yc:Windows.oldUsers c:
move /y "c:Windows.oldDocuments and Settings" c:
Step 5: Restore the startup of a previously installed Windows Sector
Depending on the operating system you need to recover, at the command prompt, select the following command to type.
Note: In the following command, D: stands for DVD drive. If the DVD drive on your computer is represented by a different drive letter (for example, E:), use the
drive letter in the command.
If you have previously installed Windows 7 or Windows Vista
, type the following command and then hit Enter:
D:bootbootsect /nt60 c:
If you have previously installed Windows Server 2003, Windows XP or Windows 2000
Please type the following command and press Enter:
D:bootbootsect /nt52 c:
Step 6: Restore the previously installed Windows XP or Windows 2000 Boot.ini file
Note: Only Windows XP or Windows 2000 needs to perform this step
Type the following command and click Enter after each command:
Attrib –h –s –r boot.ini.saved
Copy boot.ini. Saved boot.ini
Step 7: Close the Command Prompt window and click “Restart"
1. Type the following at the command prompt, then click Enter:
exit
2. Click “Restart” to restart your computer.
Note: After verifying that Windows is working properly, if the C:Win8 folder is not needed for data recovery, you can remove it.