An error occurred copying file dtscsi.sys to C:\$WIN_NT$\dtscsi.sys
I ran into this problem last week trying to upgrade Windows XP Home to Pro. The error message during the copying of setup files to the C:\WIN_NT$\ folder “An error occurred copying file dtscsi.sys to C:\$WIN_NT$\dtscsi.sys” came up and when I told it to “skip” the file, upon reboot, the system couldn’t get the last part of the Windows upgrade setup to load and it hung.
Don’t worry folks - I HAVE an answer here :)
Nobody on the internet had the fix for this problem. MicroSuck had no answer for me. eMachines also had no answer for how to solve the problem and the “easiest” solution they all came up with was to re-install windows Home from scratch and upgrad from there - however many hourse THAT would take! XP Home, then XP Pro, then do all the patches and service packs and user configurations and network reconfigurations (since this was also the file server and everyone was mapped to the shares) - then reinstall the KIP Printer and drivers, re-install AutoCad, re-install, re-install, reconfigure… Screw THAT!!! Here’s how you fix it:
The system can’t be upgraded because the dtscsi.sys file is being used by something else - probably something that emulates a SCSI drive (SCSI = Small Computer System Interface). Usually it’s going to be a virtual drive system program like “DAEMON Tools” or something. Even if you uninstall the application / service at fault, you’ll still have the problem. So I’ll tell you what I did after this shortened version since I think you can reduce the steps to this to make it quicker:
1) Start the upgrade and tell it to skip the file dtscsi.sys and when it shuts down to restart just turn off the machine and remove the hard drive.
2) Set it as slave and put it into another computer and then copy the dtscsi.sys file from the C:\Windows\System32 folder and put the C:\$WIN_NT$ folder. Take out the drive, set it back to Master or Cable Select and replace it in the original computer you wanted to upgrade. [NOTE: If you think you can boot into safe mode and copy the file directly I don’t think it will work - booting into ANYTHING Windows at all from the original OS will probably not work, as trying to upgrade during Safe Mode ALSO did not work and had the sytem locking up the dtscsi.sys with the hal.dll]
4) Now let it reboot into the installation and it should work fine.
Easy, right? It worked for me. If you don’t see the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT folder then you did it wrong. When windows does the upgrade it removes this folder and all it’s contents if you quit the upgrade, and after it finishes a successful upgrade. I suspect that if you were to copy this folder and the setup boot.ini you might be able to upgrade any XP Home to Pro because the product Key has to be put in before you can even reach this stage - though I’m not sure that it would work because I’m not interested in trying it. I don’t think it would validate however.
NOW - IF THIS DOESN’T WORK FOR SOME REASON then you can try it my original way as I was in the process of discovery.
1) I made a copy of the dtscsi.sys file from another computer that had this file and I did it by unplugging the HD and slaving it to the comptuer I wanted to upgrade.
2) Then I copied the file to the root of the C:\ drive.
3) I then removed the slaved drive and rebooted the computer I wanted to upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro and went into F8 safe mode with command prompt only (you probably can do it using the GUI, but I wanted to get this over with fast).
4) From the command prompt I did a few cd.. cd.. cd.. to bring me back to the root of the C:\ drive.
5) Then, from the C:\ drive I did a CD C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT and deleted the 0 byte dtscsi.sys file that was there (the one that “couldn’t” be copied) with the command: del dtscsi.sys
6) Then I did a cd.. to bring me back out to the root of the C:\ drive
7) Then I performed a copy of the dtscsi.sys file (about 217k) from the C:\ Drive to the C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT by typing in the command: copy c:\dtscsi.sys C:\$WIN_NT$.~BT
At that point I restarted the system and let it go and it upgraded without a hitch. It’s reasonable to assume though that my solution at top will work even faster. If not, you can go the long route here to make it work.
Good luck! With so many people out there on the internet unable to solve this problem and even Microsoft having no solution - this is not the FIRST time I’ve done what nobody else seems to have been able to do. So how come I’m not rich??? BTW - I’m just as good at innovative solutions in Search Engine Optimization which I have been focusing on for the past three years. Going pro with it shortly - look for me there at http://www.brooksvillpe.com
