Proper way of running SFC

[news.microsoft.com]

I have this Sony Vaio which is syrupy slow. It is a Pentium 111 with over
500 MB Ram and I have to wait at least 20 seconds before it will execute any
command.

When I shut down a program, it often paints its desktop v e r y slowly
indeed from the top to the bottom. I don't believe any of this is anything
to do with not having installed SP2 yet. (Task Manager shows no undue
process memory use or memory leaks and it can do this with almost nothing
running)

I have a SP1 XP Pro installation and THINK I have tried everything to check
whatever might be wrong: Memtest32, Norton Disc Doctor, Norton WinDoctor,
Defrags both under Norton and MS as well as SFC /SCANNOW which has in the
past cured exactly these sorts of problems on other computers. It still
seems to me that there is some corrupted .dll somewhere.

I DID check in the registry that the SFC was looking in the proper place for
its replacement files on the install disc but when I ran SFC, I noticed that
the program would stop every few seconds and ask me where to look for its
backup files to restore: When I told it, it then carried on with the SFC
normally. I have this sneaking suspicion that EITHER this is normal OR that
even with lots of CD ROM reading and whirring, SFC didn't actually replace
any of the bad files (I seem to remember that whenever I ran SFC and it
cured all problems, it didn't stop to ask this, it just took the uncorrupted
files from the CD ROM, - Microsoft says SFC takes them from delicate but it
is really taking them from the CD ROM isn't it?)

Anyone know what I am doing wrong, why SFC doesn't just run properly without
prompting, or what else I can try without backing up all my data and
destroying all my software and configurations?

 

[da_test]

I have this Sony Vaio which is syrupy slow. It is a Pentium 111 with over
500 MB Ram and I have to wait at least 20 seconds before it will execute any
command.

When I shut down a program, it often paints its desktop v e r y slowly
indeed from the top to the bottom. I don't believe any of this is anything
to do with not having installed SP2 yet. (Task Manager shows no undue
process memory use or memory leaks and it can do this with almost nothing
running)

I have a SP1 XP Pro installation and THINK I have tried everything to check
whatever might be wrong: Memtest32, Norton Disc Doctor, Norton WinDoctor,
Defrags both under Norton and MS as well as SFC /SCANNOW which has in the
past cured exactly these sorts of problems on other computers. It still
seems to me that there is some corrupted .dll somewhere.

I DID check in the registry that the SFC was looking in the proper place for
its replacement files on the install disc but when I ran SFC, I noticed that
the program would stop every few seconds and ask me where to look for its
backup files to restore: When I told it, it then carried on with the SFC
normally. I have this sneaking suspicion that EITHER this is normal OR that
even with lots of CD ROM reading and whirring, SFC didn't actually replace
any of the bad files (I seem to remember that whenever I ran SFC and it
cured all problems, it didn't stop to ask this, it just took the uncorrupted
files from the CD ROM, - Microsoft says SFC takes them from delicate but it
is really taking them from the CD ROM isn't it?)

Anyone know what I am doing wrong, why SFC doesn't just run properly without
prompting, or what else I can try without backing up all my data and
destroying all my software and configurations?

Hello,
I'm aware of the following 2 keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup
"sourcepath" in each should point ot your cdrom drive, for example e:\

Not sure under what circumstances either one is used.
Place the cd in the drive before you execute SFC. Make sure any
autoplay stuff is finished first.
Dave

 

[news.microsoft.com]

I had done that but was unaware of there being TWO keys and had always (
SUCCESSFULLY) only used one registry check when running SFC in Windows 2000.
(must have been the WINDOWS NT one)

I now find that in the WINDOWS one the sourcepath was empty!