HELP! How to remove Windows Server immediately?

DeafBadger said:
If you followed this, I'm thinking you still have your Win7 machine, and Serever 08 was installed as a virtual.

If you turn off your computer and turn it on again, what OS boots up? Win7 or Server?
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Server
 
Reba said:
I was doing well in my online classes when major disaster hit.

One of my classes required installing a so-called virtual environment on my PC in order to do future labs. The problem is, it wasn't so "virtual." Apparantly, this Windows Server 2008 wiped out my Windows 7 and took over everything. Now, I have no files or applications or software or access to my online labs. I can't turn in any of my course work, so by 11:59 tonight I will get zeroes for my labs.

I tried switching to my MacBookPro but the MOAC labs don't accept Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. All work must be done on Internet Explorer.

I tried using my netbook Windows 7 but the labs kept crashing and finally locked up.

I need to get my Windows 7 PC back to where it was last week. What do I do?

I've been emailing and voicemailing my instructors, and posting on the class discussion board for days but no one has responded. :(
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when you turn on your PC... it's showing as Windows Server 2008, correct?

or you turn on PC and it's booting up as Windows 7 but later switches to Windows Server?
 
I think the mbr got over written. You need to downlown hiren's 15.2 and run mbrcheck and see what your mbr says. if it says server - then you inadvertantly installed server DIRECTLY to your hd. system restore will not work here. it only works if you have that file directly from a hidden folder called System Volume Information on the root of the C drive. you will need to use the -h command to unhide the file to see it. If you can find it - and the date is recent enough, then you might have a 50/50 chance. I know this post is late - but doing it now will let you know what really happened and you have real world practice scenerio for someone else.
 
Jiro said:
when you turn on your PC... it's showing as Windows Server 2008, correct?
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Correct.

or you turn on PC and it's booting up as Windows 7 but later switches to Windows Server?
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Straight to Server, no W7.

My instructor finally got in touch with me this morning. He said I can bring my cpu to campus for the techs to work on. Help is good; dragging my cpu tower to campus is not.

Before I do anything else, I'm going to make sure I have backups of everything important from my Windows.old folder.
 
Reba said:
Correct.


Straight to Server, no W7.

My instructor finally got in touch with me this morning. He said I can bring my cpu to campus for the techs to work on. Help is good; dragging my cpu tower to campus is not.

Before I do anything else, I'm going to make sure I have backups of everything important from my Windows.old folder.
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ah.... I would say your Windows 7 is bye bye. overwritten. but I hope you'll have a good news that it's hidden, not overwritten...

although I'm not quite sure how did that happen...
 
Jiro said:
ah.... I would say your Windows 7 is bye bye. overwritten. but I hope you'll have a good news that it's hidden, not overwritten...

although I'm not quite sure how did that happen...
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My personal files are saved.

I should be able to re-install W7 at no cost, right? I still have the key.
 
Reba said:
My personal files are saved.

I should be able to re-install W7 at no cost, right? I still have the key.
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you should be able to reinstall no problem as long you have the original install CD/DVD or reinstall partition of hard drive. This is true as long no hardware has been changed so the HAL (hardware abstract layer) with reactivation are not different. Technically you can reinstall your OS on the same pc as many times you want, but if you reactivates way too many times, you will have to "plead your case to microsoft tech" to let you activate again. I'm not trying to scare you as you have nothing to worry about - but keep in mind down the road.

FYI - I wouldnt worry about lugging your tower to tech. Just get your airport luggage cart or get one and use that. Either put tower in a cardboard box or wrap the case with towel to prevent scratches unless you don't care. Actually I taped a scrap cardboard to my luggage cart but its kinda smei-permanent with tape. (I used to do this for a living fixing and delivering pcs to corporate customers - the luggage cart is a godsend).
 
You should be fine. Just backup whatever files you need that are still remaining. Depending on if your Windows 7 is OEM with your desktop or a retail copy, you install by that method.
OEM (key stickers on the desktop case) usually come with backup or recovery CD's. Some of them partition another part of your hard drive with it.
Retail keys often come with boxes or cd cases. You use the provided CD, or you can download the ISO from Microsoft that Highlander mentioned.

Then just do a clean wipe (format and/or do a new partition) as you install Win7 so you don't have any remaining files you don't want or need taking up space from Windows Server.

If you just install it over without cleaning, it might keep your Windows Server install into a Windows.Old folder.
 
Reba, it sounds like you put in the installation DVD in the DVD drive and somehow you clicked on the screen *on* Windows 7 itself to install Server 2008 instead of using the virtual machine's DVD-booting.

The partition on the HD that you installed Server 2008 has overwritten Windows 7, from the sound of it.

Just to be clear, the original Server 2008 (the 1st release) has a NT kernel version of 6.0. Server 2008 R2 is NT 6.1 (same as Win 7's). If you do intend to dual-boot or multi-boot different OSes on separate partitions on the hard drive, keep in mind that if you have the newer OS on the first HD partition, if you already made a 2nd partition, installing the older OS on the 2nd partition will overwrite the master boot record.

Remember: Older OSes first, then newer 2nd.

If that's the case, you need to boot into Win 7's DVD then go to the recovery console to fix the master boot record.

If you installed Server 2008 over Win 7 on the first HD partition, then you are pretty much SOL.
 
naisho said:
You should be fine. Just backup whatever files you need that are still remaining. Depending on if your Windows 7 is OEM with your desktop or a retail copy, you install by that method.
OEM (key stickers on the desktop case) usually come with backup or recovery CD's. Some of them partition another part of your hard drive with it.
Retail keys often come with boxes or cd cases. You use the provided CD, or you can download the ISO from Microsoft that Highlander mentioned.

Then just do a clean wipe (format and/or do a new partition) as you install Win7 so you don't have any remaining files you don't want or need taking up space from Windows Server.

If you just install it over without cleaning, it might keep your Windows Server install into a Windows.Old folder.
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It was OEM.

My windows.old folder shows 69GB. What do you think of using Carbonite for backup before I redo?
 
Oh man! I'm sorry Reba.... for this to happen. I'm curious, when you got your VMware installed, then you put the Windows Server 2008 DVD in (doesn't matter if it's Enterprise, Standard or Standard R2 or whatever) then you got a message popped up on your Windows 7 stated that you want to install Server 2008 right?
Sometime it will asked that you need to reboot to install it. This is common mistake that people have and causing to overwrite Windows 7. Oh well, we always learning....

I can't remember what it's look like under Windows.old folder that there should be a "USERS" folder in it. If yes, then you can backup to your DVD, just a "Users" folder that is all. I don't know how big is your user folder in it because you know DVD can hold up to 4.5 gig space and may have to break it down to serveral DVDs, like put all "My Documents" on one DVD and "My Pictures" in another DVD and such.

Once you have it backed up then you can re-install Windows 7, using whatever you have, CD or from Recovery disk on your hard drive (F12) or....(mmm...thinking what else can be done)...

Update: I forgot to hit "Submit Reply" LOL
 
Reba said:
What do you think of using Carbonite for backup before I redo?
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I haven't tried cloud backups personally, I just do it manually, cheaper :lol:. It seems handy with Carbonite that you can transfer from web to your computer after uploading them.

There is also disk cloning software like Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, etc. Some of these are handy because on a perfect scenario, it restores your win system to exactly the way you cloned it (internet bookmarks, programs, so on). EaseUS is a free and popular one: EaseUS Todo Backup Free - CNET Download.com

Beware since your windows.old is 69GB, you'll probably need a large external drive or something to hold something that big (assuming you want to keep the whole thing).
 
cloud backup is generally expensive and slow especially if your backup exceeds 2-5gb

for regular folks - lot of free cloud backup sites (2gb) like dropbox and mozy are more than enough to backup documents. but photos are generally too big and impractical to do online backup.
 
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