sfc /scannow

While trying to tshoot a missing Help and Support (fixed now), I ran sfc /scannow. Inserted XP PRO disk and hit "retry" many times until the end.

As far as I can see, the only thing sfc /scannow did was copy 3070 files (464 megs) to my system32/dll cache folder.

Questions:

Is this normal behavior?

Did this action replace sp1 files with originals from the disk?

Seems to me the sfc run in 98se was much more informative and helpful or is it that XP does everything automatically and we are expected to accept it on faith?

What could be the possible reason for giving me 3070 more files that I didn't have before?

 

The lack of feedback from the XP sfc does seem a little strange.

As to exactly what it does, check Here and a couple of associated links.

Difficult to find specifics on the hotfixes or service packs updating the list that sfc uses for version checking but surely if it just replaced all your updates, there would be tons of folks screaming about it so my guess is that normal file updates of system files are left alone. Maybe.

 

Thanks Newt,

A close reading of the link and the associated pages gives a pretty good explanation of the WPA and SFC operations. It is not unlike the practice of copying the win-cabs of Win98SE to disk so that the installation CD isn't needed.

I don't mind so much that SFC copied 3070 files to my dllcache folder (I have plenty of room), but I do wonder that the thing didn't,t come back and say something about being finished or describe the actions taken. The link did start by saying that WPA and SFC were beta programs.

I wonder if anyone else has had the same experience with SFC /scannow?