The copy of the file in the I386 folder is compressed. If you check the contents of that folder, nearly all the files are compressed and have their extension ending in the _ character (replacing the normal final character). The notable exceptions are a few *.inf files. To expand the file you need to refer to it by its name (which in your case ends in .dl_).
Just a concluding note for those who might be interested:
The "expand" command didn't work; Recovery console was "unable to create file." Substituting "copy" for "expand" *did* work. It turns out that in Recovery Console (the 2005 version anyway), the copy command automatically decompresses compressed files on the WinXP setup CD. Cool!
So, I was able to replace the bad ole32.dll file, which enabled me to boot into Windows, but unfortunately, it was a sad and crippled Windows, with no printer access, no Internet, not even a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. So there were other issues besides the bad ole32.dll file.
System Restore was not available, so I ran the Windows setup CD and chose the "repair" (rather than clean install) option. I don't know what that does--probably restored a lot of the original system files. It left all my data intact and programs installed. So far so good; I haven't had any problems in the last few days.
Denny Denham
2 Intern
•
18.8K Posts
0
November 9th, 2005 16:00
The command to enter in Recovery Console is:
expand d:\i386\ole32.dl_ c:\windows\system32\ole32.dll
Note that there is a space between dl_ and c:\ and I assume that d:\ is your CD-ROM drive.
isthatso
5 Posts
0
November 9th, 2005 17:00
Thanks, I'll try it! Thanks for spotting the typos--but why is one "l" dropped in the first reference to ole32.dll?
Denny Denham
2 Intern
•
18.8K Posts
0
November 9th, 2005 19:00
The copy of the file in the I386 folder is compressed. If you check the contents of that folder, nearly all the files are compressed and have their extension ending in the _ character (replacing the normal final character). The notable exceptions are a few *.inf files. To expand the file you need to refer to it by its name (which in your case ends in .dl_).
isthatso
5 Posts
0
November 13th, 2005 14:00
The "expand" command didn't work; Recovery console was "unable to create file." Substituting "copy" for "expand" *did* work. It turns out that in Recovery Console (the 2005 version anyway), the copy command automatically decompresses compressed files on the WinXP setup CD. Cool!
So, I was able to replace the bad ole32.dll file, which enabled me to boot into Windows, but unfortunately, it was a sad and crippled Windows, with no printer access, no Internet, not even a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. So there were other issues besides the bad ole32.dll file.
System Restore was not available, so I ran the Windows setup CD and chose the "repair" (rather than clean install) option. I don't know what that does--probably restored a lot of the original system files. It left all my data intact and programs installed. So far so good; I haven't had any problems in the last few days.
-isthatso