The Driver Sweeper Saga

I just wanted to give a word of warning to my fellow Asus ROG owners. Driver Sweeper is a very bad thing. It is also completely unnecessary, in my opinion. It completely messes up the driver store in the winsxs folder which prevents Windows 7 SP1 from installing. Furthermore, the folders are read only for any user group that you can log in with so it is not possible to put the files back even if you know what should be in those folders.

I had to take ownership of those folders in order to put the files back. I went pretty far down the Windows file security rabbit hole to get those folders to the point where I could put the stuff back manually. The later version of Driver Sweeper had a method for restoring these items if you had a good backup. There is even a difficult to find forum post containing a "stock" folder setup that can be restored. However, if your machine has these folders set up the way they are supposed to be, you can't copy anything in there and neither can any program you would run in theory.

Anyway, this is not a rant. It is a warning. You shouldn't ever need to wipe files in Windows "Side by Side" repository and you shouldn't run programs that will do that. It causes lots of problems and doesn't have anything to do with your ability to install a release candidate or normal release video driver. Just uninstall the existing driver, reboot, and install the newer one you want. I wasted three hours of my life off and on today repairing this. I've learned my lesson about using utilities without considering the implications of what it is actually doing to my laptop.

This has been discussed in other threads, but I wanted to reiterate the danger of using utilities like this. It's not likely to cause the end of the world, but it will suck eight or ten hours out of your life reloading your laptop. I finally got enough stuff in the right folders to make the service pack go without having to reload, but I was close to giving up and doing an "in place upgrade" or the linux equivalent of rm -r on the root of C.

 

They fixed that last I checked....ages ago.

 

He did. The "fix" doesn't work on my computer. Windows 7 Ultimate x64. I don't know why. There needs to be a number of files in folders in winsxs. The only user that has enough write permissions in those subfolders is "TrustedInstaller". I can't log in as TrustedInstaller. Therefore I had to take ownership of the five folders inside winsxs that needed files inserted. THEN the "fix" in DriverSweeper could put the files back. It still didn't work because my winsxs file store had an additional folder that DriverSweeper didn't have files for. I copied the files from another folder that happened to have a set with the names it was looking for. Finally, this fooled the SP1 install enough that it went ahead with it's work.

I don't remember what I ran DriverSweeper for to begin with. It didn't fix the problem I was having. I don't think it fixes any problems at all. I know it's pretty liberal with what it is willing to rip out of your operating system. The fact that it later "fixes" what it screwed up is not much of a consolation.

I simply recommend that people not use this utility. I am unaware of anything it actually fixes and I can point specifically to things it definitely breaks.

 

I meant that it fixed the fact that it removes the files SP1 needs, the latest version is completely safe to use as it doesn't do that anymore.

 

Oh.

Well, I'm not running it anymore. The adage is "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!"

 

Yes even though the new version corrected that, I am still not able to install SP1 after trying the suggested fix and have to do without it. Too much stuff to do a clean install

Edit: Jody I would like to know as well what files are missing as I want to install SP1.

 

Guys and Gals, I was very hesitant to use drive sweeper and cc cleaner to upgrade from stock drivers to 11.2. Then I found this in an AW thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...st-11-2-mobility-released-get-yours-here.html

See this section in the first post:

How to Setup (thanks to steviejones133)

I was skeptical at first, so I did an image backup Before I tried this.
It worked fine. Shortly after upgrade I was able to install SP1 Win 7.
Jody , just out of curiosity is your primary login a computer administrator?

 

There are four directories on my machine that are involved and they are all in c:\Windows\winsxs.

amd64_atiilhag.inf.resources_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_en-us_a84b3670179ab5eb
amd64_atiilhag.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_019357585ef99a63
amd64_atiilhag.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.17514_none_03c46b205be81dfd
amd64_atiriol6.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_a909ad21d26d5bd0

For each folder:
1. Right click the folder and select Properties
2. Select the Security tab and then click the Advanced button
3. Select the Owner tab and then click the Edit button
4. Select the user name you login with and select OK.
5. Agree to all the warnings until you are out of the dialogs.

Now you can go into the security settings again and make sure that your login has full control. This is necessary for you to be able to write files into these folders.

You can now run Driver Sweeper and restore the backup per Phyxion forum instructions. It will work this time. When you look in those folders after that, you should see files in there. Prior to doing this, they will all be empty.

Now, the folder with 17514 in its name probably will still be empty. The Phyxion Windows 7 x64 backup folder you downloaded from there doesn't have any files for this directory. If you copy what's in the 16385_none_019357585ef99a63 folder and paste it into the 17514 folder, the SP1 install will actually work.

This post in another forum has some detailed information too, if you would like to read it:

Missing ati and/or nv mainfests/subdirectories - Guru3D.com Forums

Hi Josea. Yes my login is in the administrator group... I had to check to make sure. The problem was that all of the folders in winsxs are owned by TrustedInstaller and that is the only user that has Full Control permissions in there. All others including administrators only have Read, Read and Execute, and List Folders. I couldn't copy files in there until I took ownership. I saw forum posts on Guru3d that clued me in that this would be necessary in my case.

 

i have never used driver sweeper and i wont ever use it

 

I was one of those that got burned by Driver Sweeper and couldn't install SP1 when it was released via Windows Update.

However, all I did was follow the restoration instructions on the homepage for Driver Sweeper, restored the packages via Driver Sweeper, and et voila, they now call me Dandy Mandy. Took less then 5 minutes, but then again I've always been a lucky fellow.

Self-fixing PSODs, sub 50C temps on 405/1000 without a repaste, flawlessly amazing touchpad with 2 finger scrolling while in many positions on a bed with advanced options enabled. Generally what is regarded as a 100% satisfactory rating with the G73JH. Somewhat a rarity based on the evidence here.

The fix 'should' work for most, but its not a 100% guaranteed fix so bottomline, keep a reasonable distance from Driver Sweeper unless in absolutely in dire circumstances. There's nothing you can't remove manually anyway, with the provided un-installation via the Catalyst setup, combined with the .bat cleaner and CCleaner and you are good job.

 

Amen! 10char

 

I have seen guides that tell me to use Driver sweeper and i refuse. But i'm still able to do what i needed and never had to use it.

 

Well, you'll note that I do mention which version of Driver Sweeper (2.90) to use when I do list it..

 

And we love you for it here on the forums!

I think 2.8 did a bad thing but 2.9 and up no longer does the bad thing.

 

Thanks, Jody, for inspiring me to attack the SP1 install again. I had thrown my hands up in disgust several weeks ago and had decided to live without the recalcitrant service pack. I went through all the steps that you did in addition to installing KB947821 twice. The Hotfix failed to install the first time, but installed OK the second time. The last think I did after finally successfully installing SP1 is to remove Drive Sweeper and any stuff that it left behind. There will be no more sweeping of drives on my computer.

 

Crap I forgot that I ran that KB too. It may have helped with the fix. Also I should mention that if your run sfc.exe, it will create a log file telling you exactly what files are missing on your system and where they were expected to be. I ran a lot of KB patches and fiddled with a lot of things before I finally got SP1 installed.

I've been using the laptop so long now that a re-install would take two or three days and I'm just not willing to go there right now.

Oh well. We finally got it installed and now we don't have to worry about doing another clean install. Let's have a beer and call this a victory for the good guys!

 

Well I have tried everything, driversweeper fix, sfc and system update readiness tool(both sfc and checksur logs were ok) but it still is not working. Now it is giving a file not found error 80070002 after the failed attempt. I tried both with windows update and the complete sp1 executable. What could be the problem?

Edit: Sorry, i ran sfc scan again it seems sfc repair fixed my explorer.exe. I recently installed a new theme and it changed the explorer.exe. Now am running update readiness tool and try to install SP1. Hopefully it will work this time or else resort to inplace upgrade.

 

^^^ Could you please let us know more about this theme. It sure sounds like malware to me. Have you scanned your machine recently for malware and viruses? Thanks, J

 

No I am pretty sure its not malware. I wanted to change the start orb and to do that it needs to change system files. Running sfc /scannow reverted it back to normal. Here is the link to the theme:
Glass Onion for W7 by ~SolMiler on deviantART

BTW i still was not able to install SP1 and keep getting the same error file_not_found(80070002) after the pc restarts. Anyone know how to read the cbs.log file and see what is missing?