Recovering from Vista crashes, no more re-installs, just reboot Windows
By Justin Montgomery
Compliments are far and few between these days for Vista, besides the kudos it receives for its user interface. When something does come along, it’s well worth sharing. Compliments are due for the fact that Vista is by far the most robust and hardest to break than any previous Microsoft operating system.
Alex Wolfe from InformationWeek has compiled a list of little-known software backup and repair techniques so you won’t have to reinstall Vista from scratch if it gets trashed or hits a fatal startup error. In his words; "the good news is that Vista, for all its annoyances–including slow search and intrusive security warnings–is much more secure and harder to fail than any previous Windows OS.
While that’s true, crashes are always in the back of our minds, and will never be completely eliminated. Because Vista is packed with many more features and takes much longer to install than earlier operating systems, when it does fail, you’ve got a time-consuming crisis on your hands. That’s why it’s important to have a solid back-up plan when problems do arise.
There are several little-known fixes and features pre-installed in Vista that should help in the event of a disaster, non of which compare to the ultimate insurance which is Vista’s "Complete PC Backup". This allows you to save an image, or a complete bit-for-bit copy of everything on your hard drive. In the event your set-up becomes terminally screwed up, this is a way to restore some semblance of where you should be.
Two widely unknown features of Vista exist beneath the surface that can help get you out of a pinch if used properly. The "Boot Repair" restoration process allows you to get your system back up to snuff without going through a complete reinstall. It’s controlled via a command-line tool called Bootrec, and it’s more powerful than ever in terms of repairing basic startup issues. Vista’s "Reliability Monitor" keeps a tally of all your Windows crashes, application failures, and hardware problems, to help you better understand the problems that are occurring and thus gives you a leg up on fixing them.
Unfortunately, crashes haven’t been totally banished, but the good news is that the infamous "blue screen of death" has largely been eliminated. Lock-ups during the installation process are now heralded with a blank black screen. While problems are always going to happen, as with any OS, Vista does hold rank as the most stable Windows offering ever. By having a plan of action, and being prepared for a worst case scenario, you can eliminate major disasters that you may have encountered with previous Windows versions.
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