How To Fix The Server Service Error In Windows XP

As a PC user you should know that you need to format your Windows PC once in a while as it will get terribly slow in time. So therefore I needed to format Jannie’s PC and put Windows XP on it again.

The installation of Windows XP went easy as usual. Once I was done with installing the drivers etc I wanted to share the HDD in our network so I could access it from my computer, however that seemed like a mission impossible. It keep saying: “Error: Server service not started“.
So I tried to start the Server service via services.msc but the service didn’t start and all I got was a message saying: “Could not start the Server service on local Computer. Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.”

So after asking my friend Google I found a solution to my problem;
It seems that some files where missing, in my case I missed only 1 file called srv.sys which supposed to be located in system32/driver folder. In order to fix this problem I just needed to extract a new copy of the file from the original Windows XP disk to the folder. To do this I followed the steps below;

• Insert the original Windows XP disk into your cd/dvd drive
• Press Windows key + R
• type CMD and hit Enter
• In the command prompt, type the following and hit Enter
expand [CD/DVD drive]:\i386\srv.sy_ %systemroot%\system32\drivers\srv.sys
• It could also be that another file is missing as well; Srvsvc.dll. In order to get this file back follow the steps above but type (or copy paste) the following followed by Enter
  expand [CD/DVD drive]:\i386\srvsvc.dl_ %systemroot%\system32\srvsvc.dll

When you use the following expand command lines make sure to replace [CD/DVD drive] with the actual cd/dvd drive letter. %systemroot% represents the path and folder in which the Windows system files are located. In my case it looked like this:
expand D:\i386\srv.sy_ C:\Windows\system32\drivers\srv.sys

After extracting the srv.sys file and a reboot I was able to start the Server service in Windows XP again and could share the HDD as usual again!

[via: winhelponline.com]

About Behrad:

I'm 29 years "old", married to Jannie and about to be a daddy! We live happily in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
In 2006 I started BioTecK.net just to show/share my portfolio. After a while I started to blog about my experiences and stuff I do in my life, my interests; computers & computer related stuff, tips & tricks and basically everything which I want to share.
Read more about me, follow me on Twitter @BioTecK or contact me .