[louiscar]

Firstly Hi, I'm new here although I've often happened by this site in the past.

I am in a bit of a strange situaton trying to recover my system without completely restarting.

The saga: After installing some software that failed and rebooted my machine at the wrong moment I ended up with scandisk truncating a lot of crosslinked files (some I noted were in the dllcache folder)

Once out of this and restored the registry my sound card and cdroms are unable to function due to "missing or corrupt drivers" code 39 (I think).

The problem here is obvious, without a cd rom I can't use sfc /scannow or try to find the drivers on the cd.

I ended up asking a friend to post me the cd rom drivers that were listed in the driver details, mainly:
cdrom.sys, imapi.sys, redbook.sys and a dll mentioned. Replacing them didn't help.

I then ran sfc /scannow and it appears to confirm that files need replacing, specifically mentioning the dll cache.

So this is the situation. Should I reboot and do the repair ? or can anyone tell me what file might be corrupted in the dll cache that refers to the cd roms?

Other notable drivers corrupted: sound card, modem audio (no problem as I can eventually restore these. And "PNP software enumerator" no idea what to do about that but I uninstalled it and New hw detect hasn't found it since.

Hope this is not too much of a ramble.

regards
louis

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you could try a repair install...this will keep all of your information in tact...but repair all the windows files
Boot up with the XP CD in the drive and let Setup run. Go past the "C" and "R" repair options by presssing Enter just as if you're doing a clean install and you'll eventually get an option to "Repair an existing installation". That's the one you want. If it asks about formatting you've gone wrong, so start over.

You'll get to keep your existing apps & settings, but you need to re-install SP2, Windows Updates & any unsigned drivers afterwards. NOTE: Be aware that you'll lose any protection from Blaster / Sasser type worms. Don't go online without a firewall, whether the built in Windows one or 3rd party.

How to Perform A Re-Install Of XP
Repair XP

or you could run sfc from the recovery console

[dsenette]

you could try a repair install...this will keep all of your information in tact...but repair all the windows files
Boot up with the XP CD in the drive and let Setup run. Go past the "C" and "R" repair options by presssing Enter just as if you're doing a clean install and you'll eventually get an option to "Repair an existing installation". That's the one you want. If it asks about formatting you've gone wrong, so start over.

You'll get to keep your existing apps & settings, but you need to re-install SP2, Windows Updates & any unsigned drivers afterwards. NOTE: Be aware that you'll lose any protection from Blaster / Sasser type worms. Don't go online without a firewall, whether the built in Windows one or 3rd party.

How to Perform A Re-Install Of XP
Repair XP

or you could run sfc from the recovery console

[louiscar]

Ok, thanks for the quick reply.

I will try the recovery console first and then if need be the the reinstall option.

Is there a manual way I can located my last restore point and pull that out so that I could perhaps return to my usual settings and desktop if a reinstall sets me back to a virgin install?

[dsenette]

well yes....let me look for the command line stuff for system restore....

that repair install...wont change any of your settings...it will basically just remove any of your windows updates....but i'll look for the command line jazz

[dsenette]

http://support.micro...kb;en-us;304449

[louiscar]

Looking at the restore console commands available (from one of the links) I can't see that it'll accept sfc as a command.

Regarding the restore files, I was hoping to back them up in a safe place by manually moving them from their stored folder. I presume this is is in %systemroot%\system32\restore\

If I back that whole folder up then is it possible to replace it and get my restore point back if things go pear shaped?

[dsenette]

you may be able to fix the issue if you just try to do the restore...but yes that's where all the restore points are stored

[louiscar]

I have managed to run sfc /scannow without being asked for the xp cd. Luckily some time ago I slipstreamed my cd with sp2 and the files were still on my HDD. So with a bit of registry kicking I was able to point to the i386 folder. SFC ran all the way through but the cd roms are still not playing ball.

I am going to reboot but if this doesn't work I'm not sure what will. I wish device manager would be a bit more specific about what files it deems to be corrupt or missing.