The discussion topic of this thread is: What would/should we expect our File Integrity Checker to do with a file with attr h. Do we want our File Integrity Checker to return an HASH-checksum for it or are we satisfied with a result "file doesn't exist"? I will give you examples on my Windows 98 SE system. Look at the file C:\WINDOWS\desktop.ini What tells NISFileCheck me about C:\WINDOWS\desktop.ini It has no problem with it: Application: c:\windows\desktop.ini Status: Unchanged Version old: N/A Size old: 266 Date old: 1999-08-11 14:27:30 RMD160 Hash old: FCE14CA2CAD28DA980A09712ADEEC0684B167DD7 Look at the file C:\WINDOWS\System\wsock32.dll in case you have installed SockLock from PSC (link: http://www.nsclean.com/socklock.html ). NISFileCheck has no problem with it: Application: c:\windows\system\wsock32.dll Status: Unchanged Version old: 4.10.1998 Size old: 40960 Date old: 1999-08-11 14:13:18 RMD160 Hash old: BEC911836E9672BEF5620544E28CA8B9471B48E3 Now we will have a look at the CRC32-test in TDS-3. What does it tells me? 07:53:09 [CRC32] Started - verifying 124 files ... 07:53:10 [CRC32] File doesn't exist: C:\WINDOWS\desktop.ini 07:53:11 [CRC32] File doesn't exist: C:\WINDOWS\System\wsock32.dll 07:53:15 [CRC32] Test finished. What have wsock32.dll and desktop.ini in common? They both have the attr r and h. Now we will try C:\Program Files\desktop.ini : Its attr is: h What says NISFileCheck: Application: c:\program files\desktop.ini Status: Unchanged Version old: N/A Size old: 266 Date old: 1999-08-11 14:27:30 RMD160 Hash old: FCE14CA2CAD28DA980A09712ADEEC0684B167DD7 What says the CRC32-test in TDS-3: 08:20:09 [CRC32] File doesn't exist: C:\Program Files\desktop.ini Now I take a complete different HASH-utility: Karen's Hasher that calculates a MD5 Hash: Link: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/pthasher.asp What tells Karen's Hasher me about those files: C:\WINDOWS\desktop.ini : MD5 is EC6C63693372A4135193789DD2CB7CB1 C:\WINDOWS\System\wsock32.dll : MD5 is F9F23B6D7AE19BD7DAD676B26ACA2558 c:\program files\desktop.ini MD5 is EC6C63693372A4135193789DD2CB7CB1
