How to Use SFC Command Software in Windows 10 to Fix System Files?
Don’t worry…. It’s quite common, especially during system or OS upgrades. Although, by default Windows 10 never settles down with less than the best protection towards system drivers, applications, and everything, yet Windows updates seem to be one of the causes of uncertain instability in the system.
Now, what does the SFC command does?
Well, SFC shortly abbreviated for System File Checker is a small, but powerful utility which scans your system to locate the corrupted or missing files then repairs them accordingly with a known compatible version.
In today’s article, we will demonstrate the ways to use SFC to fix system errors automatically or to fix issues manually if the utility is unable to do the task automatically. We will also inform you to fix problems offline using Advanced Startup.
#1: How to Scan and Repair System Files
The scanning using the SFC command will locate corrupted system files within the system. The scanning will be done with the command prompt while the system is running in the background normally.
To do this, read the following steps:
Step 1. Press the “Windows + X” keys to bring the Power Menu list. Choose the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option to run cmd with admin rights.
Step 2. As soon as the black operating Window of cmd opens up, type sfc /scannow command and hit “Enter”.
Step 3. After you have executed this command, it will display any one of the following messages as output:
- Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation: This message shows that offline scanning is needed for there is a problem during normal scanning.
- Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations: This message suggests that your system is completely okay. There is no missing or damaged system file.
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log: This message will turn up, when SFC is successfully able to detect and fix the problem. You can now check the log details.
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log %WinDir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log: This message indicates that SFC was able to detect the errors but was unable to fix them. So you have to fix the problems manually.
TIP: Sometimes, you have to run the SFC command three times in a row to make it execute the scanning result.
#2: How to Check the Detailed Information of SFC Scan
In case you wish to know all the detailed information of SFC (System File Checker) which is generally stored in the CBS.Log file, first, you need to create a readable notepad text copy on your desktop.
To do this follow the step guideline below:
Step 1. Press together the “Windows + X” keys and the power menu list would come up. Here select “Command Prompt” with admin rights.
Step 2. Now enter the following command and hit “Enter”:
findstr /c:”[SR]” %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >”%userprofile%\Desktop\sfclogs.txt”
Step 3. Now you need to open the sfclogs.txt file from your desktop. It will contain the entire detail for files that have been scanned so far, and the ones which could not be repaired.
NOTE: Keep in mind, SFC scan details are only available, when you do an online scanning within Windows, and not with an offline scanning with cmd.
#3: How to Do Scanning Offline with SFC Command and Repair Files in Windows 10
Few files that are required to be paired are system protected files. They are usually loaded in memory when Windows 10 is running in the backdrop. On such an occasion, you need to run the SFC scanning offline.
It’s very simple and is easily done from Windows Settings.
To know the details, read the steps below:
Step 1. Firstly, press “Windows + I” keys together and the shortcut will open the “Settings” app directly.
Step 2. Here click on the “Update and Security” option and then click on the “Recovery” option from the left-hand side panel.
Step 3. On the right-side panel, under the “Advanced Startup”, click on the “Restart Now” option.
Step 4. Next click “Troubleshoot”.
Step 5. Choose “Advanced Options”.
Step 6. Click on the “Command Prompt” to boot your system with cmd only.
Step 7. While rebooting, you will be prompted to enter your credentials, like Username and Password to proceed.
Step 8. Keep this in mind, whenever you run the SFC command out of Windows, you specifically need to mention where the Windows installation files are stored. When the cmd black dialogue box opens up, type the following command to know the Windows and system reserved partition and hit “Enter”.
wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, description
Step 9. Now, enter the following main command for SFC scan and hit “Enter”:
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=D:\Windows
NOTE: Remember the /offbootdir command is used to specify the System reserved partition in drive C, and /offwindir is used to specify the location of the Windows files which is in drive D.
Step 10. As soon as the scanning is completed, close the cmd and click on “Continue” to exit and move back to Windows 10.
Conclusion:
SFC scanning is not only restricted to Windows 10 alone. It is available for the previous Windows versions as well. So if you have any earlier versions of Windows OS, like 8, or 7, you can use this command-line tool on those versions also. although the SFC scanning is prevalent in all Windows OS versions, the features may vary. If you open the Command Prompt with admin rights and type the command sfc /?, it will give you all the feature details you need to know absolutely before performing any SFC scanning.
To know more about Windows 10, its error and ways to fix them, keep visiting our website daily for the latest updates.