System Files

Check integrity of your System Files/Replacing System Files

Finding Windows Files on your Installation CD

Extracting Windows Files from the Installation CD to your Hard Drive

If your system is not responding to key commands or programs, you should check your system files to ensure they have not been corrupted by other programs or viruses.

If your system is giving you errors about missing or corrupted files, you can find/extract the relevant file from your installation CD.

Check Integrity of your System Files.

Win 98:

Start => Run sfc

Start System File Checker by clicking Start, pointing to Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking System Information. In System Information, click Tools, and then click System File Checker.

Finding Windows Files on your Installation CD

Finding a Single File:

You can use the Extract tool to determine which cabinet file contains a particular Windows file. When you use this syntax, the Extract tool searches the cabinet files but does not extract the file once it is found:

Start => Run extract /a /d <cabinet> <filename>

For example, to find the Windows 98 scandisk.exe file, starting with the base4.cab file, using the CD in the D drive, use the following command:

Start => Run extract /a /d d:\win98\base4.cab scandisk.exe

Finding Multiple Files:

To find multiple files, use the same syntax as above, but use a wildcard designation for the <filename> parameter. For example, to find all the Windows 98 files with a .txt extension using the CD in the D drive, use the following command:

Start => Run extract /a /d d:\win98\base4.cab *.txt

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Extracting Windows Files from the Installation CD to your Hard Drive

Extracting a Single File:

Using Windows Extract Utility (Win 98) :

Click Start, pointing to Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking System Information.

In System Information, click Tools, and then click System File Checker.

Select Extract one file from installation disk and insert the file name and then select Start.

Ensure that the Restore from and Save file in directories are correct and then press OK (The Restore from directory in Windows 98 is D:\win98\ and for Windows Millennium it is D:\win9x )

Manual Extraction:

If you do not know which cabinet file contains the Windows file you want to extract, use the following command to search all the cabinet files in sequential order and then extract the file once it is found:

Start => Run extract /a <cabinet> <filename> /l <destination>

For example, to extract the scandisk.exe file from the CD in drive D into the Windows\Temp folder on drive C, use the following command:

Start => Run extract /a d:\win98\base4.cab scandisk.exe /l c:\windows\temp

The /a switch causes the Extract tool to search all the cabinet files starting with the first cabinet file mentioned on the command line (in this example, base4.cab). You may have to explore the CD of other OS to determine which is the first cabinet file.

Extracting Multiple Files:

To extract multiple files, use the same syntax as above, but use a wildcard designation for the <filename> parameter. For example, to extract all the Windows 98 files with a .txt extension from the CD in drive D to the Windows\Temp folder on drive C, use the following command:

Start => Run extract /a d:\win98\base4.cab *.txt /l c:\windows\temp

Note that if you are extracting from a floppy, you must modify the <cabinet> parameter in this command accordingly.

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