Do you need the disc for sfc/scannow?

[chimpy]

I have used the sfc/scannow a few times in the recent past but I noticed on this forum that people mention that you should run it with the disc (Install?) in the driver, Is this right? The time I have ran it im sure that it has not found anything to fix but if it does does it need the disc to repair from?

Is it the same for CHKDSC too?

Thanks

[Firefox]

this all depends on the setting in the registry for source install.....

For example on some computers, there is an I386 folder located on the C: (local disk) drive, and the source install points to that folder.

When that is the case, then you would not need the CD/DVD disk to be inserted.

If you do not have it set up that way, then if you ran it and it needed to replace some files, then i would need the disk.

[exile360]

Firefox is quite correct, some PC's store a local copy of the files on the install CD. CHKDSK does not require your install disc because it is simply looking at drive integrity, not checking your individual system files against known values like SFC does. If you do not have your install CD or one that is up to date (ie the same service pack level as your system is now running) then you can take a look here for some options as well as this guide, which shows you how to slipstream an XP cd to make it service pack 3.

Extensive info on SFC, how to use it, and how to overcome known issues that can occur can be found in BleepingComputer's "How To Use Sfc.exe To Repair System Files" located here.

[chimpy]

Wow I read all that and its really complicated!

My Vista so far when I have scanned has never asked for the CD so I presume after reading those that it means it has not found anything it needs to repair so far..

Looking in "Computer" I do not find C:\I386 but using voidtools "Everything" and just typing in "I386" it bring up 51 accounts of that one in java under the folder "i386" and the other 50 in the folder marked "I386" but the path to those are in the system32/driverstore/filerepository and winsxs\x86 so I am not sure that that is what I am looking for?

[exile360]

You don't have the folder then, but with Vista things get much trickier as slipstreaming a Vista DVD is far more complicated than doing so with an XP cd because of Microsoft's new formatting for installation discs. If SFC never asked for a disc then it wasn't needed and your system files are intact.

[chimpy]

Great I thought the same, yeah the slip streaming thing looks way beyond what I could do, would just letting windows updates run work? or would that leave out things such as SP2?

[exile360]

Yes, use Windows Update and SP2 will indeed be offered. That doesn't really relate to SFC though.

[chimpy]

It doesn't? I thought that if scannow repaired files that it deletes files as well? files as in any updates to the OS that have been made since the first install, Isn't that what slip streaming is meant to prevent or have I got my wires crossed?

[exile360]

It replaces files, but with Vista and 7 it's very very different. The OS caches all versions of files in a folder called Winsxs and in other locations (dll cache etc). I don't believe that Vista will rely on anything besides your installation disc for SFC though, and perhaps the service pack installation folder. MS doesn't support slipstreaming at all for Vista DVD's so they must not expect you to always be able to access a current disc that matches your installation when running SFC so I assume that it would use the installation folder of the service pack files in the Windows directory for accessing newer versions of files when they are to be replaced. That would leave you out in the cold, likely requiring a repair install if those copies are corrupted/damaged as well though, or perhaps simply needing to reinstall the last service pack.

[chimpy]

That sounds really complicated to the point that a reformat would seem a simpler solution and just skip the SFC repair Lets hope I never have to do this and thanks for all the info Exile

[exile360]

I'm not sure how MS does the version checks on files, but it's quite possible that if SFC did not repair it, that it would simply offer the latest service pack again to get the latest versions of the files in place after repair.

[chimpy]

Thanks Exile you are invaluable

[exile360]

No problem, like I said, I could be completely wrong, and I will have to look into it further at some point (likely when I've got hours to spend scouring MS Technet and MS forums for the info). It would be much easier if MS had made slipstreaming much easier than they did for Vista and 7. They had said originally that it would be simple, in fact simpler than it was for XP, but that fell through when they released Vista unfortunately and the only way to get up to date media (ie, SP1 or SP2 already slipstreamed into it) aside from going through a very complicated procedure, is to actually purchase a more recent copy of Vista/7 that has the service pack already.

With XP it's much easier, as can be seen by the tutorials I've linked to previously, you just create a folder for the files from you disc, copy them over, extract the service pack installer with a command, then put all those files on a bootable CD that you burn. Vista and 7 are different because of a very proprietary format for disc images used by the 2 new operating systems.