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How do I tell Windows where my I386 folder has moved?

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Hi Leo
I followed the instructions above as my SR has simply dissappeared!
When i do the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath. search I find my "source path" is shown as D:\ when, having searched, it (I386 folder) is actually in C:\ I have no idea why the discrepancy as I certianly didn't move it!

My question is, in order to fix my problem do I simply change the source path back to C:\ (as per instructions above) and then reboot and run SFC/SCANNOW?
I hope so because other wise I'm lost!

A few details missing from what you've posted, so I can't be 100% certain, but sure - shouldn't hurt to try.
- Leo
06-Dec-2008
Posted by: Morgan at December 6, 2008 7:20 AM

I have tried everything here and nothing seem to work because I am still prompted to insert the CD even after rebooting and double checking my entries in registry
questions does it matter if there is 2 partitions on my drive
and is there a log file anywhere where I can see the progress to see if it is directed at the right spot in the sequence
thanks

Posted by: cedarmoose at December 7, 2008 2:48 AM

Hi Leo,
I changed the source path back to C:\ but get the same result when running sfc/scannow. ie it tells me to insert my xp disc!!
Now I'm lost, still without system restore and frightened to do anything on my PC untill I have SR restored to it's proper self! Any ideas please?

Posted by: Morgan at December 8, 2008 6:54 AM

Failing that is there somewhere I can download "system restore" from and just re-install it on my PC?

Posted by: Morgan at December 9, 2008 6:32 AM

Hi Leo,
found this article on my travels and it worked for me. Hope it will help others in the same boat.
If posting this link here is out of order I'm sure you will delete it and I apologise but as I say it worked for me and my SR is now working again.

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/reinstall.html

Posted by: Morgan at December 9, 2008 7:38 AM

Simply changing SourcePath isn't sufficient if SP2 is installed. I had to change ServicePackSourcePath as well. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SourcePath may also need to be changed, but I'm not sure (I changed them all at the same time).

Posted by: jitspoe at December 15, 2008 8:55 PM

I was trying this today and initially failed because I didn't know that it was necessary when editing the registry to put file paths in inverted commas whenever a space is present. I had copied my I386 directory to C:\Win2kP setups and the space had prevented the registry change from being effective; I then found in a blog on this subject http://raywoodcockslatest.blogspot.com/2007/07/error-copying-file-or-folder-system.html
that I should have written "C:\Win2kP setups" .

Now SFC works properly. So either don't use a file or folder name with a space or put the path in inverted commas.

I hope this helps someone.

Posted by: BAW30s at January 5, 2009 5:12 AM

I found I was gettign that error also after i got Trojan downloader virus. It rewrote my reg source path to D so I could not get on microsoft.com and kept getting that anoying message. I renamed the path to C and all is working fine again. thanks to finding this page! not for the reason he said but knowing Path should be C by default was a great help.

Posted by: Daddy Dude at January 13, 2009 8:21 PM

I just wanted to thank you for the info included in this post. I followed your instructions to the letter, and freed up some very much needed space on my system partition. Thank you!

Posted by: Mike Anderson at July 19, 2009 9:04 PM
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