Windows 7 forum: got a repair install windows 7 but it didn't work

is there are no restore points and it hasn't allowed me to set any for a long time now

That's one symptom another is when installing a new game it takes 5 minutes to open the window to begin the install(the game will play but it takes 15 minutes to get ready to play(or to uninstall takes forever too))

BTW I'm not talking about big games just those small ones you can get online and play for an hour or so

The problems first began when after moving and not having internet(still don't in fact...writing this from work) I tried to watch some DVDs and they sometimes would work and other times it acted like the 2 drives didn't have a DVD in either of them...I asked here about that problem before but it was thought that my two DVD drives failed at once with same symptoms

Either I have a lot of unrelated troubles or my win 7 has gotten corrupted and fixing that will fix my other problems

My last resort is of course a clean re-install but I'm trying to avoid that until I've tried everything else first

What makes it harder to diagnose is with no internet currently at home I have to find possible solutions on the computer at work and download them to my thumb drive then try them on my computer

I really don't think a lack of room is why the repair installation didn't work...I know that's what it said but over 300gs isn't enough space?

I do have an unused external drive with 1t of space on it I can try putting that repair installation on but like I said if 300g isn't enough then I doubt 1 terabyte will be enough either in this case

I've encountered techs that can't accept that drives can go bad in pairs. All it takes is a surge or just a bad day.

I've seen this issue with bad drives as the OS goes south and slow as the drives are not responding as expected. I know to unplug the drives for a test run.

Again, you will encounter techs that can't work the issues. They don't stay in the business long.
Bob

You can explain how having two malfunctioning DVD drives can affect my computer in so many ways

Where did all my restore points go? Why can't I set new ones? Why when I restart does it take more than 5 minutes to get to the beginning of a reboot and once there go blazingly fast like it always used to do for the entire process? Why can't I do a repair install without somehow "running out of room" for the install despite having more than 300gigs of space?

Are you really telling me that two DVD drives can both become defective at the same time...in the same way and do all that?

Or have I somehow corrupted my OS and fixing that will fix everything else?

I'm not trying to be snarky...you don't have all the information I have...there are countless other symptoms I've noticed that I make it so hard for me to accept your diagnosis of faulty drives

Unless I'm there to witness it I can't guess. We do know that System Restore is unreliable. That's why you read so much about backup, restore, repair and more.

There are far more ways to corrupt this OS than there are ways to repair it. I am not there so a clue may be spotted in person that we can't see here.

-> I'm unsure if any discussion about optical drives will convince you. I find most techs follow a predictable curve where they can't believe the drives go bad so soon, then later become disenchanted with drive life span and most end up reaching for a new drive first rather than futzing with it. You seem to be somewhere in the middle of the tech curve and still learning. You'll get there.
Bob

the cheapest you can buy...I know drives don't always last as long as you'd hope

But I find it difficult to think they'd both go out at the same time especially since one was rarely used and with all my other troubles I can't think of any way them malfunctioning could cause everything else I've been seeing

This weekend I'm gonna attach the new external drive and re-try the repair installation again and if this doesn't work I'll finally give up and back up everything and do a total re-install of Windows

Then if my DVD drives still don't work I'll bite the bullet and buy a new DVD drive and see what happens then

I'll let you know how it goes either way