How do I analyze text log files?

How do I analyze text log files?

The System File Checker or sfc.exe is a utility in Microsoft Windows located in C:WindowsSystem32 folder. This utility allows users to scan for and restore corrupt Windows system files.

To run the System File Checker in Windows 7 or Vista, type cmd in the start search box. In the result, which appear, right click on cmd and select Run As Administrator.

Run SFC

First you must login as administrator.

Type sfc/scannow in the command prompt.

The sfc utility will run for a while and if any corruption are found, replace them on re-boot.

In case you are unable to start the System File Checker and you instead get the “Windows Resource Protection Could Not Start the Repair Service” error, you may want to check up if your Windows Modules Installer Service has been Disabled. To do so, type services.msc in start search and hit Enter. The status of this service should be set to Manual.

The sfc.exe program writes the details of each verification operation and of each repair operation to the CBS.log file. Each sfc.exe program entry in this file has a [SR] tag. The CBS.log file is located in the %windir%LogsCBS folder.

You can search for [SR] tags to help locate SFC.exe program entries. To perform this kind of search and to redirect the results to a text file, follow these steps:

Click Start, type cmd in the Start Search box, right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.

Type the following command, and hit Enter:

findstr /C:”[SR]” %windir%logscbscbs.log >sfcdetails.txt

The sfcdetails.txt file includes the entries that are logged every time that the SFC.exe program runs on the computer.

How to interpret the log file entries:

The sfc.exe program verifies files in groups of 100. Therefore, there will be many groups of SFC.exe program entries. Each entry has the following format: date time entry_type details.

 The following sample excerpt from a CBS.log file shows that the SFC.exe program did not identify any problems with the Windows Vista system files: