Windows 7 Forums


Reply
Thread Tools

Corruption

 
 
RBCC RBCC is offline
New Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 9
Thanked: 0
 
      02-01-2012
How does Windows "know" if a file is corrupt? John
 
Reply With Quote
 
 
 
 
TrainableMan TrainableMan is offline
^ The World's First ^
TrainableMan's Avatar
Join Date: May 2010
Location: PA, USA
Posts: 4,654
Thanked: 887
 
      02-01-2012
When files are stored there is a checksum (an extra sequence of numbers) stored with it. When it is read back if the count of zeros and ones does not properly get offset by the checksum then it knows somewhere in that file some bits have been lost/switched.
 
Reply With Quote
 
RBCC RBCC is offline
New Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 9
Thanked: 0
 
      02-01-2012
Is there a copy of each file somewhere where WIndows 7 compares it to? So that it "knows" that a file is corrupt? Where does it store those files? John
 
Reply With Quote
 
TrainableMan TrainableMan is offline
^ The World's First ^
TrainableMan's Avatar
Join Date: May 2010
Location: PA, USA
Posts: 4,654
Thanked: 887
 
      02-01-2012
To be honest, I don't know exactly; never needed to know, as long as it does what it should.

Why are you asking? Are you getting an error? You can run sfc /scannow to try and repair them or you can put in the W7 DVD and run a system repair.
 
Reply With Quote
 
Elmer BeFuddled Elmer BeFuddled is offline
Resident eejit
Elmer BeFuddled's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Durham UK
Posts: 1,050
Thanked: 203
Send a message via Skype™ to Elmer BeFuddled
 
      02-01-2012
Quote:
Originally Posted by RBCC View Post
Is there a copy of each file somewhere where WIndows 7 compares it to? So that it "knows" that a file is corrupt? Where does it store those files? John
They'll usually be stored in the C:\Windows\winsxs folder, as far as I'm aware.
 
Reply With Quote
 
davehc davehc is offline
Super Moderator
davehc's Avatar
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Denmark
Posts: 1,865
Thanked: 407
 
      02-01-2012
They are some more here:
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository
But they are limited to known OS files.
Tm's explanation is, however, correct, should you get the message that the chksum is in error on any files.

Last edited by davehc; 02-01-2012 at 10:31 AM..
 
Reply With Quote
 
 
 
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
MSE corruption bassfisher6522 Software 7 12-02-2010 04:23 PM
Cronic BSOD Blackiceblc Crashes, BSODs and Debugging 13 08-15-2010 11:46 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:17 AM.
W7Forums is an independent website and is not affiliated with Microsoft Corporation.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33