Trying to System Restore, but get blank screen....HELP!!!

Look in XP Help for "system file checker" or "sfc" and for "Windows file protection ".

 

Hi Abraxas,

Thanks for your response. XP help only provides info on "Window File Protection ", and it is all about sfp. Nothing about "sfc "

I see I made a letter transistional error on my previous post (FSC for SFC), but that is not lost on my observation SFC has been discontinued, or replaced, or obsolesced, or being phased out from its former functionality and helpfulness in Win 98 by the Windows file protection feature in XP.

SFC invoked at the cmd prompt will do what XP's OS does automatically and continuously with the System File Protection feature. However, sfc/scan at the cmd prompt does provide a couple of settings that may or may not be available elsewhere.

It appears to me the utility of sfc for diagnostics or correction is about as useful as the teets on a boar. There may be information to the contrary but I haven't seen anything.

BTW, Univac's 1100 at one time sold for about $1,500,000 when money had more worth; very expensive by today's standards. Many years ago I installed, maintained and serviced installations of the small scale 1004s 1005s and other units; then 9200s in the southern California area. Later I did final testing on V77 mini computer systems in Orange County, CA. That is when Unisys was Sperry Univac Veeery long time ago!

 

Ken, Here's some enlightenment from a M$KB article that might help you.

As I stated earlier, I never use it since I don't trust it and have alternatives that are much safer and better.

btw, It's my understanding that it wasn't included with ME, so that explains why you can't find it in your ME guide text.

 

KenKeith ---
I just looked again in XP Help and got a page on sfc with links to more info.

I'm a little more trusting than Zephyr when it comes to sfc. I just ran it the other night and it caused me no problems. It never has caused any problems in the 10 or so times I have used it. But, then, I had no problems I expected it to fix---just experimenting. I think also that some improvements have been made to sfc in SP1. It certainly asks for the SP1 CD less often and checks the dllcache for backups first (maybe it did that before, but it didn't seem to---it asked immediately for the CD).

But it is nevertheless a shotgun approach to a problem. I would only recommend it to others if they were nearly out of other options.

 

Zephyr, Abraxas,

All right! Thanks very much for the clarification. Apparently going from Win 98, ME, and then to XP... I made incorrect assumptions that doesn't apply to XP. I appreciate the information, and it appears I am behind the curve on this one.

 

Guys, I think we're all behind the curve as to SFC in XP since M$ doesn't document it very well nor do they offer it up on the basic menu. It seems to be somewhat of a Beta as applies to XP and that's why I don't fully trust it.

e.g., Since I don't have an install disk (OEM HP box), I am reluctant to run the SFC /clearcache since it supposedly would dump the Windows\system32\DLLcache folder. I'm wondering how that folder would get repopulated without an install disk. I notice also that there are several newer files in that DLLcache that were likely added by patches and SP's; would I lose all those? That seems like a dangerous command to list without explaining it more than they do.

e.g.#2, When I run it with the SFC /scannow command , it apparently runs for several minutes but when it finishes, I get no report, zip, nada. I wonder what it did if anything. What if it dorked something up, how would I know what to change back?

It's just not my style to put my system in the hands of something I can't fully trust. Since M$ has said it does not support SFC in XP(per their link I posted), I know what that means to me.

I've experimented with it like abraxas has but I always end up using GoBack to restore my system to before using SFC, just to be safe. I don't think I have ever accomplished anything meaningful with SFC but then how would I know since it's so secretive.

 

A nice text report about what happened would be nice.

In light of what you have said, I think I will reserve sfc for systems that are near to a reformat. It certainly won't be a daily tool.

You have made some very good points.

 

SFC is a major part of the SFP feature, and when invoked to scan protected files the procedure doesn't do anything that the SFP feature does on a continued basis. It appears to me to be a useless redundancy unless there is a component of the SFP feature that malfunctions other than SFC??

The only visibilty to the SFP process is in the events log. No where have I read the process replaces corrupted or missing files as the former stand-alone sfc did in Win 98 (with user intervention). I suspect that is when S/R is appropriate.