Part 7 - Run the Discs!

Finally, it's time to boot the Vista Recovery Disc and start fixing your machine. :-)

If you have a wireless keyboard, make sure it has fresh batteries/charge, or switch to a wired keyboard if you are having issues.

1. Turn on the computer if it isn't already
2. The Vista Recovery Disc should spin up and boot.
3. Press any key except the Spacebar at the prompt as it says.
4. Some files will load. (some very old machines may take up to 25 minutes to load!)
5. You'll be brought to a colorful screen with a cursor. [If you get any strange errors at this point, please shut down your machine by holding down the power button for at least 5 seconds and try booting it up with the disc again.]
   • If you have tried booting the Vista Recovery Disc many times and are still having issues, please see here for troubleshooting the Vista Recovery Disc.
6. Wait (at most 5-10 minutes on very old systems) until a window appears.
7. After the window appears, click Next.
8. Click Repair your computer on the bottom left.
9. Click Next on the small window that appears. (Don't worry about it not detecting XP.)
10. Click Command Prompt on the window that appears.
    • If you are still having issues, please see here for troubleshooting the Vista Recovery Disc.
11. Take the Vista Recovery Disc CD/DVD out and put the Save Me v1.55.0 CD/DVD in your CD/DVD drive.
12. Try typing D:\saveme, E:\saveme, F:\saveme, G:\saveme or H:\saveme to start up the recovery process.
    • If you are having issues running the SaveMe program, please see here for troubleshooting the SaveMe program.
13. Follow the directions in the Command Prompt window.