Solved Two corrupt files in /system32; cant' replace

[Steve2Q]

Hello; I am new to sevenforums.com and this is my 1st post (hope it is in the right place). Here is the problem: I had a SMART drive error, so I performed a backup and image before the drive failed. I replaced the drive, put the image onto the new drive, and everything appears OK with 1 exception: when I try to open a command prompt, I get an error message. I ran FC \scannow, which told me I had two corrupt files: cmd.exe and elsTrans.dll. When I looked at /system32, both files have a size of 0 bytes. I then looked at the image and the files had size values, so I copied them to the desktop. When I click on the desktop cmd.exe file the command prompt opens, so I then tried to copy them into /system32, and cannot do it. I did try reading and following similar posts in the forums,but so far, no luck. Any help would ne greatly appreciated. Thanks, Steve

 

[gregrocker]

Run SFC -SCANNOW Command a few more times. It should repair the files.

 

[Steve2Q]

Greg: tried running SFC /SCANNOW 4 times, but each time it says that the files cannot be repaired. Is there a way I can copy the good files on my desktop to the /system32 directory??

Steve

 

[gregrocker]

If SFC cannot repair files then the next step is a Repair Install.

It is likely not just a matter of replacing corrupt files with good copies because SFC could do that.

 

[TJG]

I,m probably to late here, but I usually boot with a repair or installer disk to get to a command prompt and run notepad.
Set notepad to view all files and it usually works.

TJG

 

[Steve2Q]

Thanks TJG, I will give that a try after I download the ISO (I am NJ for the summer, and my disks are in Florida).

Gregrocker, thank you too for your suggestions. I think the repair install is the way to go, but I still wonder why I can't just copy the two good files into the /sysem32 folder. I know this is a good way to screw things up if not done correctly in the system files, but I still would like to know how to change permissions if I want to do something like that in the future. Is there a good reference on how to change permissions?

Thanks, Steve

 

[gregrocker]

You can try copying the files in from DVD/Repair CD command line. I don't believe there are any permissioning issues then since the OS is inert, unlike using the Command line from Windows.

 

[Steve2Q]

Greg: thanks for the suggestion. I made a repair disk, but that did not solve the problem. I did a bit more research, and found a step-by-step tutorial in how to change permissions in system32 and replace the files; took 5 minutes. If anyone is interested, the site is: windows7themes.net

Thanks again, Steve

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks, Steve, for reporting back on what worked.

Do you have a link to the actual tutorial which helped you so we can look it over and bookmark it?

 

[Steve2Q]

Greg: here is the link to the page I used to change the /system32 permissions. I used technique #2, substituting the names of the files I wanted to replace for explorer.exe as used in the example.


How to replace Explorer.exe in Windows 7?


Hope you find it useful.

Steve