Every Windows operation, program, and application depends on a large number of system files. Therefore, even if a system file needed to run a program or application is corrupted or damaged, you will experience problems and not be able to run the program as expected. Fortunately, there is an easy way to check for corrupted files. We will show you how to use SFC scannow to repair Windows system files.
To use the System File Checker (SFC) tool, you don’t need to install any third-party applications on your PC. All you need to use is the Command Prompt application on your Windows PC.
Before we show you how to use it, let us understand what the System File Checker tool is and what it does on your PC.
What is SFC Scan?
Windows System File Checker – SFC Scan is a tool you can use on Command Prompt to detect any corrupt files on your PC. Once detected, it will attempt to repair and restore the file. This is a tool that you can use if you face any problems using your Windows PC.
Move on to the next section to understand what happens when you run an SFC scan on your PC.
What does SFC scanning do?
Here are all possible results of the SFC scan on Windows:
- If the SFC scan doesn’t detect any corrupted files, you’ll see the following message: “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.”
- If the SFC scan detects corrupted files and repairs all of them, you’ll see the following message: “Windows Resource Protection found the corrupted files and successfully repaired them.”
- If the scan detects corrupt files but can only repair a few of them, you’ll see the following message: “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files, but was unable to repair some of them.”
- If the SFC scan fails, it displays the following message: “Windows Resource Guard could not perform the requested operation.”
Beyond that, let’s move on to how you can initiate an SFC scan.
How to run an SFC scan with the “SFC Scannow” command
Here’s how you can perform an SFC scan on Windows.
Step 1: Open ‘Command Prompt’ from the start menu. Right click and select ‘Run as administrator’.
Step 2: Type the following command:
SFC /scan
Once the system scan starts, you can see its progress. When the system scan is complete, you will see if it was successful or not.
Here are some other commands you can use with SFC on the command prompt.
Various Windows SFC commands you can use on Windows
You can also use some commands below instead of ‘/scannow’ with SFC command. This is what all these commands do.
1. Verification only
The SFC /verifyonly command verifies and detects corrupted files but does not attempt to fix or repair them, unlike the SFC /scannow command. Type the command below into a Command Prompt window running as administrator and press enter.
SFC /verify only
The command will verify all files and will let you know if there are any problems.
2. Scan a specific file with SFC
If you don’t want to scan all system files, you can scan a specific file using SFC. This command will check if the file is corrupted and will repair if it is.
Type the command below into Command Prompt running as administrator and press enter. terms ‘file path’ is the path of the file you want to scan.
SFC /scan file=“file path”
3. Verify a specific file
You can also verify a specific system file with the /verifyfile command. The command will verify the specified file and check if it is corrupted. However, it does not repair the file, unlike ‘SFC /scanfile’.
Type the command below into Command Prompt running as administrator and press enter. terms ‘file path’ is the path of the file you want to scan.
SFC /verify file=”file path”
How to run an SFC scan without logging into Windows
You can also run an SFC scan without booting into Windows. All you need to do is start your computer with the Windows installation media. Open Command Prompt and type the command to run the scan. Note that the term ‘drive_name’ stands for the letter in the alphabet that indicates the drive.
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=
How to get the SFC . log file
After the SFC scan is complete, it writes the results to a text file. This is how you can access the SFC log file.
Step 1: Open ‘Command Prompt’ from the start menu. Right click and select ‘Run as administrator’.
Step 2: Type the following command and press enter.
findstr /c:”[SR]” %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt
Step 3: Navigate to This PC > Windows (C:) > Windows > System32.
You will find a text file named sfcdetails in the System32 folder.
Step 4: Open the file. It will show all the details of the SFC scan.
However, if you cannot find the file in the System32 folder, here is an alternative method to find the SFC log file.
Enter the following command in Run.
%windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log
You will be redirected to a text file. Using the date and time in the leftmost column, scroll down to when you performed the SFC scan. All information has a [SR] contains the details of the SFC scan.
That’s all you need to know about how to repair Windows system files with SFC Scannow. If you have any other questions, check out the FAQ section below.
SFC Scan FAQ on Windows
1. What is CHKDSK vs SFC?
CHKDSK, Check Disk, verify disk integrity on Windows. While SFC, System File Checker, verifies the integrity of system files.
2. Should I run DISM or SFC first?
DISM, Deployment Image Service and Management Tool, is used to repair Windows system images. You can only use DISM if SFC doesn’t work because you should check your system files first.
3. Does SFC scanning free up disk space on Windows?
Are not. SFC does not free up space on Windows.
4. How to delete unwanted files on Windows?
You can refer to our guide to help you delete unwanted files on Windows.
Use Windows System File Checker (SFC) effectively
We hope this article will help you to use SFC scannow to repair system files on Windows. Manually verifying a protected system file can be complicated because you may not have access to it in the first place. Therefore, tools like SFC will certainly come in handy.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
