Service Pack Removal Restores Compressed Files

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0 Service Pack 2

SYMPTOMS

Several Windows NT system files are compressed on an NTFS volume after removing Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2, and many of the files cannot be uncompressed.

CAUSE

On an NTFS partition, the uninstall directory created by Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2 is compressed, to save disk space. If you use Update.exe to remove the service pack, the original Windows NT files are restored with the compressed bit still set, regardless of the original state of these files before removing the service pack.

Several of these files are in use by the system, and cannot be uncompressed while the operating system is running.

RESOLUTION

If you want the system files modified by Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2 to be uncompressed, you can manually decompress many of them by removing the Compressed attribute in the Windows NT Explorer properties dialog box.

To uncompress the files that are currently in use by the system, you must either perform the uncompression from a parallel installation of Windows NT, or uncompress the %SystemRoot%\$NtServicePackUninstall$ hidden directory before removing Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 4.0 Service Pack 2. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: prodnt changed SP2 sp unable can't uninstall uninstalled deinstall deinstalled de- un- install installed uninstallation deinstallation expand expanded decompress

Keywords : kbsetup kbbug4.00.sp2 ntfilesys
Version : WINNT:4.0 SP2
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug