How to repair vista on xp m1530

I have a duo boot laptop
the thing got a virus and I think I got that taken care of
I can use it using the xp boot up
but the vista windows is a mess
I have tons of HD video of the kids on it as well as pics
all my data is ok - I have removed every program that I ever put on it except factory ones from dell
I could just bring to my friend but I want to try to fix it myself this time
Can some one become my buddy here?

 

Pop in your Vista installation CD and do a repair install? Does that not work?

 

Hi,

Yeah, the first thing I'd try is popping in the Vista or the XP install disc and trying the "Repair" Feature. This should get your bootloader working and get you into one of the Operating Systems.

Once you get that working, I'd recommend downloading and installing EasyBCD. That was the program I had used when I used to dual-boot Vista and XP as well. You can use it to restore the Boot Manager to allow you to select which Operating System you wish to boot into.

One thing though, Unless you really prefer having both OS, I'd probably just stick to one. Since the more recent drivers/updates are Vista-capable, I'd just stick with your Vista OS. I just copied over everything important from my XP partition to the Vista partition and using the Vista Disk Manager, erased the XP partition and just "added" it to the Vista partition. (But that was just my personal opinion)

 

after you do that you should upgrade to windows 7 and all/most of your problems will fade away

 

Hello, i'm currently running vista on my m1530. Been thinking switching to windows 7. Does windows7 runs ok on m1530, can we use the vista driver for windows 7.

Thanks.