Lost Winsrv.dll file

[Soapy Sam]

A friend emailed with this tale of woe.
She has a laptop (IBM thinkpad), running XP Home.
She had used it (I think via a USB stick) to download some MP3 files to her nephew's PC.
Next time she started it she got a Blue Screen of Death with the message that Winsrv.dll was missing.

Now how the heck does a system file go missing?

It will not boot. I'm abroad and have no access to it. I suggested getting a DOS bootdisc and copying the file from the command line to C:\Windows\System32 (I sent her a copy of Winsrv.dll I downloaded. )

She is going to try this tomorrow.

But has anyone experienced this? How does a file go missing like this? Can anyone cast light on the matter?

 

[LJRuss]

winsvr.dll

I have had kernals go and dlls go. Of course, I was watching 900 servers at the time. First time I heard this with XP though.

Not sure about revelance of MP3 usage, which way did it go..her to them or them to her.

If XP was loaded using high Windows file structures, NTFS, dos can't read correctly sometimes. OK, maybe never. So trying to copy a file from one computer to another is downright hard. Plus this dll is based on some architecture inherent in the original computer load. If the computers are not exactly the same, ain't gonna work. Best to use the emergency disc and do a fix. Just follow the directions. If can't be done....reinstall. Sorry.

 

[LJRuss]

Forgot something

Sometimes the hard drive goes bad in a sector or two and that is where this file may have resided. Just plain bad luck there if this was the case. How often did she defrag?

By the way....Celtics??????

 

[scribble]

Re: Forgot something

How often did she defrag?

FYI: Defragging has nothig to do with bad sectors, won't fix them, and if anything, defragging with bad sectors present will only corrupt MORE data, not make things better.

 

[Soapy Sam]

LJRuss, Scribble,- The transfer was from the (subsequently) crashed machine to another. That just happened to be the last use. I also doubt that it is relevant.

I do tend to suspect a hard drive problem. Like many laptops with power management, it probably hasn't been defragged regularly.
I agree with Scribble that defragging is a two edged sword- it can speed up access, but can cause data damage too.

Anyway she has been away over the holidays, so I don't know what's happedned. Thanks for responses.

 

[LJRuss]

Scribble....that's why I asked. If she had just defragged that helps to point to possible sector problems, sometimes.

Let us know what happens when she gets back.

 

[cesium]

If you have an actual winxp install disk (not the disk image that some manufactures give you), you can select the option to do a "Repair/Reinstall" which replaces all system files but leaves all your documents and programs untouched