Mon, 06 Mar 2006

Microsoft SFC

Today I had the privilege of trying to use one of Microsoft's own tools, SFC (Windows 2000 Windows File Checker Version 5.00) to try and discover why my Windows machine has started blue-screening about twice a day. I am pleased to announce that this SFC is one of the most retarded pieces of software I've ever had the disdain to mock!
Firstly, it asked for my "Service Pack 4 CD." Which one? I installed Windows 2000 a long time before Service pack 4 existed. I do not have a Service Pack 4 CD. I upgraded to Service Pack 4 using Microsoft's very own Windows Update utility. Surely they've thought of this possible eventuality?
Pleased to see that someone had put some thought into the usability of this tool, I was pleased to see that a "More Information" button was provided. I clicked it. My dreams and illusions of competence were immediately and painfully shattered. Helpful to the last, Microsoft usefully pointed out the following to me:

"Possible reasons for this problem:

You have inserted the wrong CD. (i.e., a different Windows 2000 product CD than the version installed)

The CD-ROM drive in your system is not functioning.

Thanks for that.
Fortunately, the system can still do some checking based on the files it has on disk, so I just clicked cancel in the hope that it would check these files and stop asking me for disks I could not seem to provide (despite trying many, including the disk I'm 99% sure I installed the system from!) This pops up another 'helpful' warning:

"If you cancel, Windows might require you to insert a CD later. Are you sure you want to skip this file?"

True to some Microsoft internal paradigm of great incompetence when it comes to system programs (i.e. We slapped it together, it works on our test system so we're shipping it. If anyone finds a problem with it, tell them to reinstall Windows and/or reboot more.) it has now asked me about a hundred times to insert the same two CDs I either don't have - or have but the software won't believe it - and I have the privilege of clicking [Cancel] and [Yes] to the same stupid unhelpful warning message every time.
...And the san appears about one third of the way through.
Now, given this is a genuine licensed copy of Windows 2000, kept up to date with Windows Update, how hard would it be to provide some facility for getting all the MD5 sums of the system files, and letting me run some kind of md5sum -c against the system directory?
As systems age, they accumulate 'entropy' and the ability to check for this is invaluable in a modern OS distribution. I think SFC is a noble aim at providing this capability, but due to its complete lack of design, it falls over and becomes more of a frustration that any kind of useful tool. It is 'bad software.'
Me - I've given up on it. I'll just reinstall and shift my work back to Linux and OS X - both of which work. Someone give me a shout if/when they've fixed sfc or provided a competent alternative.

Addendum: Some very quick research reveals that the machine was installed and first hit Windows Update on 23 Jan 2003, at which point it downloaded and installed Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. Service Pack 4 was installed on 22 June 2003 - so no, I do not have a Service Pack 4 CD.
posted at: 12:25 | path: /rants | permanent link to this entry