How to Repair corrupt system files with SFC and DISM Command

Corrupted system files are files that have been damaged, altered or deleted in a way that prevents the operating system from functioning properly.

The System File Checker (SFC) utility is an excellent tool built into windows 11 that can scan your system files for corruption or any other changes. If detect any changes or files modified the SFC utility automatically replaces them with the correct version. Sometimes you may notice Windows 11 runs slow or acts strangely startup or shutdown takes longer than expected, applications are failing to open, Windows 11 displays Black screen at startup or the system crashes with a different blue screen error. All these are symptoms of system file corruption that may occur because of interrupted power failure, virus malware infection, bed sectors on disk drives, malicious software installation, and more. Here this article guide how to repair corrupt system files on windows 11.

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Why is my file suddenly corrupted?

A corrupted file or system file simply means it’s damaged and not performing as it should. It mainly occurs because the wrong information is written into a file, or the correct information is in the wrong location as a result the file fails to work as its designed.

There are numerous reasons why Windows 11 files or system files can become corrupted Sudden power outages, viruses or malware infections, bad sectors in hard disk, malicious program installation or update bug are some common. But you can fix corrupted system files on windows 11 using the System File Checker or the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) tools that are already pre-installed on your computer.

How to repair corrupted files windows 11

Corrupted files can occur on any file type, including Word, Excel, PDF, image files, or Windows system files. And a simple reboot of your computer is often enough to fix the problems on windows 11. But if the issues are more complicated you can repair the system files using SFC and DISM commands.

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System file checker utility

SFC stands for System File Checker a command line tool that scans and verifies the integrity of specific Windows system files. If finds a problem with any of these protected files the SFC utility automatically repairs or replaces corrupted files with a cached copy that is located in a compressed folder at %WinDir%\System32\dllcache.

SFC is useful for a variety of issues, such as crashes, blue screens and bugs.

Running the system file checker scan is straightforward, open the command prompt and run sfc /scannow command. For better results, we recommend run the SFC scan in safe mode.

  • Press Windows key + S, and type cmd, right-click on the command prompt select run as administrator,
  • Here on the command prompt window, type sfc /scannow and press enter key to execute the command.

SFC scannow

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  • Well if you only want to view the issues and don’t want your system to automatically repair them, type sfc /verifyonly.
  • To display the list and description of all SFC commands that you can run, type sfc /?
  • In addition, You can also check out Microsoft’s support page for a list and description of all SFC parameters.

The sfc scan may take approximately 10 to 20 minutes, so make sure not to turn off the computer or close the command prompt.

Once the scanning process is complete 100% you may get the following result.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations this means your system doesn’t have any corrupt files, and nothing needs to be done.

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them it means SFC scan was found and was able to fix corrupt files on your computer, and nothing needs to be done.

If the SFC scan results Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them it means Your computer found and was not able to fix the corrupt files.

And you need to perform additional actions such as run DISM restore health command to repair the system image and repair disk errors using chkdsk command.

Run DISM restore health command

DISM stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management scans and patches faulty files in the component store of the Windows system image, allowing SFC to function correctly. DISM command is useful and recommend to run if your System File Checker is not working. It can also be used to fix Windows component store corruption or if a Windows image becomes unserviceable.

  • Again open the command prompt as administrator
  • Type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and press enter key to execute the command.
  • The DISM scanning takes around five to ten minutes or sometimes more, depending on your system and the number of corrupted files.

Once the scanning process completes again run the sfc /scannow command and check if there is no more corrupted system files present there without repair.

Repair the disk drive using CHKDSK command

Problems with the disk drive or bad sectors in the hard disk also may be the reason behind system file corruption. Running the CHKDSK command with the extra parameter /x /r scans the hard drive and attempts to recover bad sectors and prevent future file corruption.

While SFC verifies the integrity of specific Windows system files the CHKDSK command scans sectors of your hard drive and tries to repair them.

  • Open the command prompt as administrator,
  • Type chkdsk C: /f /r /x and press enter key to execute the command, type y and press enter key to schedule scan disk errors on next restart.

Run chkdsk command

CHKDSK will scan for drive errors and let you know if it found any you should repair, C: is the drive where to scan for errors, /F switch Fixes errors on the disk while /r Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. And the /X switch Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.

  • You can get the list of parameters using the command chkdsk /?

chkdsk parameters

Install windows updates

In addition, installing the latest windows updates ensure that you have the latest bug fixes and that might fix the corrupted system files alongside the latest security improvements and bug fixes.

  • Press the Windows + I keys together to open the Settings app.
  • Select Windows Update from the left sidebar in the Settings window.
  • Click on Check for updates button, If a new Windows update is available allow them to download and install on your computer.
  • Once done you need to reboot your computer to apply the changes.

However sometimes due to corrupted system files windows may fail to install or apply updates on your computer. In such case, this guide is probably helpful for you. How to fix windows 11 update download and install problems.

Did the above solutions help fix or repair corrupt system files on windows 11? Let us know in the comments below.

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