sfc /scannow problems

Granv · 2006/01/23

I am running Windows XP Home Edition and after looking in the 'Event Viewer' i noticed that there were files missing or damaged so i tried to run sfc /scannow so as to replace or repair the files. But i am constantly asked for the Windows Installation disk which i don't have. The reason being is that when i purchased my computer everything was pre-installed by the manufacturer before it was delivered to me. Can anyone tell me where i can get a work around for this problem please. Many thanks Granv

PeteC · 2006/01/23

There is a workaround here which may work if you have an i386 folder on your drive of around 450 Mb. If it exists point sfc to it as described.

Steve R Jones · 2006/01/23

Are the damaged or missing files causing a problem other than an entry in even viewer?

You could try borrowing a cd from a friend.

Whiskeyman · 2006/01/23

I don't have an installation CD for Windows XP - what if I need one?

There are circumstances where you may have a legal installation of Windows XP without an installation CD. This can cause some panic when you're later instructed to make sure you have the CD before installing some other software or hardware. If you're legal, chances are you're ok, though.

The scenario that seems most common is a manufacturer that pre-installs Windows XP for you, and then does not give you a CD to go with it. I think this is a bad practice, but I understand that it may save the manufacturer, and ultimately you, a little bit of money.

Hopefully what that manufacturer has done is copy the Windows XP CD-ROM image to your hard disk. Hard disks are so big these days that doing so takes up very little room, and has some advantages I'll talk about in a second.

To find out if the CD-ROM image is on your machine, search for a folder named I386. There may be several, but the one we care about will contain close to 7,000 files, two of which will be winnt.exe and winnt32.exe. The I386 directory is typically one of the top-level directories on the distribution CD-ROM, but most importantly, it is the directory that contains the distributed copy of Windows XP. Winnt.exe and winnt32.exe are the DOS and protected mode setup programs, respectively. (You'd only need those if you were planning to re-install Windows XP from scratch - I use them here as an easy way to indentify that we have the right directory.)

So now that you know you have the CD-Rom image, what if some later installation asks for the CD-ROM?

Not to worry, it's actually pretty simple. Typically the "Insert CD" message has only an OK and Cancel button. Press OK, allowing it to fail. The next dialog will typically ask you to provide the location of the CD-ROM; just type in the full path of the I386 directory you discovered above.

That's it. But it gets better ...

Windows remembers. Now that you've told Windows where your installation CD image is, it'll remember that. The next time you're in a situation that might require your installation CD, Windows will look there first; if it finds what it needs, it won't bother to ask you for it.
Click to expand...

You may need to tweak some registry settings. See below. Adjust as necessary.

Scannow sfc

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sfc /scannow problems

Granv Inactive Thread Starter

PeteC SuperGeek Staff

Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

Whiskeyman Inactive Alumni

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sfc /scannow problems

Granv Inactive Thread Starter

PeteC SuperGeek Staff

Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

Whiskeyman Inactive Alumni

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