What to do when the System Cannot Find File Specified Error occurs?

Windows users face various errors and among them ‘The system cannot find the file specified’ is a very common one.

This error is something that is mainly faced by Windows 10 users. Here, in this article, I am going to provide you with the way by which you can get rid of this particular error.

What are the Factors for the Occurrence of this Error?

Before we go to the processes, you should know the factors that are responsible for causing this error. The factors are listed here below.

1. When the driver file is going missing.
2. Some issues in the connection.
3. When the registry keys are abnormal in nature.
4. In the source volume, you might find disk errors.
5. Improper or wrong settings of the file permissions.
6. When the system reserved partition is in the offline state.
7. When the files of the specific software is corrupted or go missing.
8. In some cases, the snapshot of the source partition gets removed or deleted during the process of the backup.

Solutions for Eliminating ‘The system cannot find the file specified’ Error

Now, let us get into the solutions. In case the error ‘The System Cannot find the File Specified’ comes into being then these are the solutions you can opt for.

The first method is to go for troubleshooting techniques manually. The second option is to take your computer system to a professional technician.

Try these Methods to Remove this Error

The First Method

The very first method involves running the anti-virus that is installed on your computer system.

This is because the occurrence of this error can be because of an attack from a virus or any other malicious software.

In order to solve the issue, the first thing to do is to scan your device with the anti-virus on your device.

Then, you need to clean your system to remove the malicious software as well as the junk files that might be present in your device.

The Second Method

The second method in the troubleshooting portion is to update the operating system of your computer system.

This is another great process that will be definitely removing the error form your device.

Here are the steps to do the update of the operating system of the device.

1. The first thing you need to do is to press the Windows key and ‘I’ together.
2. Then you have to go to the ‘Update & Security’ option.
3. The third step is to click on the button called ‘Check for updates’.
4. Next, you have to do the installation of each and every update.
5. After you are done with the installation of the updates, you have to restart your computer system.

Using a Software Application

The Third Method

Here is a thing that you should keep in mind when you are going for the removal of the ‘The system cannot find the file specified’ error.

After updating your Windows OS software you have to look if the files are still missing or not.

If the files are still missing, then you can go for external application software that will help you fix the error in your device.

There is plenty of software applications that are very much available on the Internet, some even for free.

Stellar Data Recovery- Standard is a tool that has been helping users in fixing this muddle for a long time.

This is a data recovery tool that will help you to get back the data that are lost or deleted. It is helpful in many cases of data loss.

This software application is supported in each and every version of the Windows operating system.

The process of data recovery using Stellar Data Recovery- Standard is comprised of three basic steps. The three steps are to Select, scan and finally, to Recover the data.

Manual Methods

The Fourth Method

This method includes the uninstallation and the installation of Windows again.

This process has proved to be very effective in solving the error we are dealing with here.

These are the steps to carry on this process.

1. The first thing is to click on the Control Panel option.
2. Then, take the mouse pointer and click on the Device Manager.
3. Next, you have to select that particular device that you require to uninstall.
4. Click the right mouse button on it and click on the Uninstall option that you will get from the context menu.
5. Now, a confirmation dialog box will appear on the screen. Here, you have to checkmark the ‘Delete the driver software for this device’ and finally click on the Ok button.
6. The last and the final step here is to do the reinstallation of the driver.

The Fifth Method

This is the method where you have to verify RTHDCPL in the registry key.

If you become sure about the fact that RTHDCPL is present therein KLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\, then you will be able to fix the error by following some very easy steps.

Here are the steps that you have to follow.

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Now, you have to go to ‘Run’.
3. Now, what you have to do is locate the registry key.
4. Then, you have to verify RTHDCPL in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
5. In case you fail to verify, you have to check for the property of Run. here you have to set the Admin-user permission as Completely control.
6. Finally, you have to click on the Ok button to continue.

The Sixth Method

This method is verifying the system log files. This is because this method also makes you get rid of the error from your Windows computer system.

To use it, follow the given steps below.

1. First, you need to go to the C:/Windows/INF directory.
2. The second step is to open the INF folder.
3. Then, you have to search for the file called setupapi.dev.log.
4. Now, double-click on the file for opening it.
5. Press the Control and the F keys altogether.
6. In the search box, you have to type ‘cannot find the file’.
7. Hit the enter key from the keyboard.
8. In the Windows/INF folder you have to copy and paste the file that has gone missing.
9. The last and the final step is to reinstall the driver and reboot your computer system.

The Seventh Method

This method includes the procedure to fix or repair the files that are gone missing.

If you are going for restoring the missing file, then undoubtedly it is one of the most excellent methods to get back the missing files.

Here are the steps you need to follow.

1. Take your mouse pointer to the start button and hit the right mouse button on it.
2. You have to opt for the Command Prompt (Admin).
3. In the window, you need to put in sfc/scannow.
4. Hit the enter key from the keyboard in order to execute a complete scan of the computer system.
5. After the scanning process gets completed, if you see that everything did go well and good, you will be able to see this message “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.” on the screen.

Conclusion

The error “The system cannot find the file specified” is a menacing one. It can actually harm your device and let you put into a great panic.

But, if you try for the data recovery tool of Stellar or the manual methods that I have mentioned above, you will be easily able to get yourself and your system out of this issue.

You will have to follow a few easy steps and then, you will be able to get back the files that were missing initially.