Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Windows XP System File Checker SFC /scannow

SFC comes with Windows.  It's a DOS program, you have to click on the start menu, click on :Run, and then type sfc /scannow into the run box.  SFC is supposed to check the core windows files and report/replace any that are missing/out-of-date/corrupt.  Just how SFC decides that a file is good or in need of replacement is unclear, since Windows Update keeps replacing  files with updated versions.  Just how SFC keeps up with this is unclear/unknown to me, but I think it works, somehow. 
   When SFC finds a file that it wants to replace, it will ask you to put your Windows install CD into the CD drive.  However, many of us  don't have a Windows install CD.  We bought new computers that didn't come with Windows CD's. 
  But there is a fix.  Computers without Windows CD's  have a hard disk partition, (D: usually) that has all the stuff the Windows install CD has on it.  I just burned it into a CD, left the CD in the drive, and then SFC ran to completion.  I had to do a little trimming.  The D: hard drive had too much stuff to fit onto a 600 MByte CD.  I only put the "I386" stuff on the CD, and I even had to trim that a little bit to make it fit. 

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