Easily fix broken Windows files now with System File Checker

[@smartinro.]

DISM, the Swiss knife of every technician.

[@CyberCPU]

It's definitely useful.

[@repairman2be250]

In Windows 7 DISM is a disaster tool - error 87 one after the other.

[@deamonbane3930]

When it works

[@machdaddy6451]

Absolutely! Makes beginers look like pros.

[@wjrneo2]

But only the good techs. Also, you should keep the old release isos around for just this purpose. Aka 1909, 20h1, 22h2. You want to use the iso that matches your installed release version. A command I love to frequently run on a confirmed good running system is the component cleanup command with the reset base switch. Just remember that after it’s been run you can’t uninstall any previously installed updates. So no rollbacks. Windows has a default scheduled task that executes this command, but without the ResetBase switch. Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

[@GamingGenius777]

I've been looking all over for how to specify a source and what the heck all the .esd and .wim stuff means, and you're the only person who explained all of this. Everybody just assumes you know what the heck they mean by “find the .esd file,” like bruh, you gotta tell me what that is. Thank you, very informative video

[@Brothaman2k]

Props for taking the simple step that most articles skip, which is telling me WHAT FILE I'M ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR AND WHERE. It's amazing people leave out simple details like it should just be known by default.

[@daemon1143]

Amen

[@ngu_dave]

Most "IT articles" on the internet explaining how to solve related problems are usually *"stealth advertising"* - they try not to give much information and assume that most people will still have issues... Their goal is to "sell" the reader there "super all-in-one software solution", which is full of bloatware and in the worst case contains malware :3

[@1cy1c3bear]

@@ngu_dave I've caught onto this, and never took them very seriously. They always end one of their steps with downloading some trial of a paid software during it.

[@Spunky.Streams]

Hey man! Been having panic attacks all day, and just desperate to get out of poverty but the last two days my computer kept freezing and my streams breaking down. But FINALLY things are looking up after following your tips. Absolutely love you and the WAY you teach. Everything about you is awesome and the world needs more of you. Bless your soul 🕊️

[@northside3701]

You need to ask Trump for another Stimulus check😂

[@lastwymsi]

100% If you understand this stuff, study it and make a career out of it. People who understand more technical computer bits are very sought after and can make great pay, especially at the corporate level

[@wilhelmsarasalo3546]

One time at a client's I started with sfc /scannow. It found no problems. Yet, what had been wrong was working after that. So, that one time I had an opposite problem from what you described. Thanks for putting all that stuff to one place. You were highly informative and I subscribed.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

I get that sometimes too. Barely do anything and the issue mysteriously fixes itself. The customer asks "What did you do to fix it?" Me: 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️🤷 Or Me: I say, "It took one look at me and said "Aw Shite, it's him. Quick, start working" 😄

[@MacGuffin1]

was that in 2012? it does nothing these days

[@kuromiLayfe]

the newer version of sfc /scannow only reports if there was an error if it actually is a system critical error.. so system file corruption that do not cause bsod’s are no longer reported unless you use verbose flags

[@matheusgabry2113]

Me too. My Start Menu and all Metro style apps were not working on my W10 out of nowhere, and no amount of restarts were fixing that. I ran sfc /scannow and it found no errors, but after the procedure the Start Menu and all Metro apps were working again.

[@_K.A.R.]

@@MacGuffin1 for me I can say that I had this kind of "magic" last year with an Windows 10 21H2, BUT around 2 month later (after daily usage with ~10hours a day) same Problem was there again (System-restarts out of nowhere). After that nothing (SFC / DISM / inplace-upgrade / driver clean and update / etc.) helped and I needed to reinstall the system. Then all worked fine for arount 4-5 weeks and everything began again. Since it is a custom install Image (on around 100 working systems) it have to be an hardware issue and I replaced the system. All working finde now for around 5 months. Checking the intel NUC (RAM, SSD, add-In card, turn off multithreading and/or turbo boost and of course dust clean, paste replacement) it have to be an defective motherboard. in short that "magics" happen some times BUT they might point to a bigger problem in future.

[@iwillhackyourpc2750]

I was just about to reinstall Windows I swear , when I came across this masterpiece by God's grace. Even Microsoft were like-"You ain't gettin' anywhere without a fresh install"...Thanks once again dude for saving my Lappy😊😊😊

[@EricMilward]

Holy crap in the 15 years I've been doing this I swear you're the ONLY person I've seen actually do it right!! I get into so many arguments with people over this. So called "professionals", smh. I'm honestly surprised and relieved to see someone who ACTUALLY knows how to properly run an sfc scan. THANK YOU!!

[@woswasdenni1914]

honestly aint right either. systemfiles are not getting corrupted without reason. first diagnose the reason then think if a repairattempt make sense or not. most of the time its a hardware but if its a virus than a reinstall is in order anyway.

[@_K.A.R.]

@@woswasdenni1914 In my experience most of the time systemfiles get broken by faulty updates, calculation (CPU) and IO (RAM, BUS) errors that always can encounter even without a "real reason"

[@paulpinecone2464]

Wow if nobody can figure out how to use a tool correctly, blame the victim.

[@i_scopes_i3914]

Hold shift while clicking restart, when recovery starts click advanced, command and run sfc in there because inside windows 11 files in use cannot be replaced while in use, sfc via recovery restores ALL sys files That's the proper way to run sfc effectively -_-

[@FrigginGomer]

@@i_scopes_i3914 Exactly! I ran the DISM command from the mounted ISO file, then ran the sfc scan. It found nothing to repair. Went into recovery, command prompt, ran the sfc scan and voila it found and replaced corrupted files.

[@Jeffmd2020]

Brother I’ve been watching the damn sfc /scannow videos literally ALL DAY LONG!!!! And every single time I did the SFC it would say corrupted files were detected but not all of them could be repaired and I was at a lose till I found this video!!!! I did ALL of the DISM steps and after the last one of RestoreHealth it said it was complete so I ran the scannow command AAAAAAGAIN!! And it said ALL corrupt files were found and repaired!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH MY GUY!!

[@jimmyhickey9297]

You have no idea how many times this has saved me on everything from Server 2008R2 to Server 2019 as well as windows 8.1 installs to windows 11 build 20H2 ! Great to see this information shared with the community!

[@davemail]

New to Windows; recently discovered sfc and dism commands. Was looking for best practices advice. DAY-UM! The man knows his stuff and connects the dots for mere mortals like me. Going to watch every single video he has. Thank you, Rich.

[@MrStupiuno]

I'm delighted to see someone finally creating high-quality content on advanced Windows topics!

[@Enjoymentboy]

Just wanted to give you a HUGE thanks for this video. I have an older (2009) HP laptop that has tools and utilities I can't get any longer so I cannot afford to format and reinstall. It became essentially unusable as even at idle it would be running 99% CPU and 8Gb RAM at 60°C+ temps even though it was literlaly doing nothing. SFC never helped at all. No amount of looking into this gave me the answers, although I suspect I wasn't searching using correct terminology to narrow it down. I was just about to give up and accept defeat when I found this. Ran through it all last night and I am happy to report I am currently typing this out on that very laptop with 5 tabs open AND a video being recoded in the background. Literally a world of difference and a whole new machine. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@BornToPun7541]

Had no idea you could use an ISO file in conjunction with DISM. Good to know!

[@am.m.6008]

Props to you for being so informative and perfectly representing everything with a clear shot of your screen and not moving too fast. Plus the explanation of background/extra info is so much more helpful. The worst is when you try to ask a question/pose an issue on windows forums and there is the same verbatim copied and pasted answer a million times which hardly ever works, or some a**hole who refuses to help b/c you "don't give enough information" as if every user know every spec of their OS and how it functions. Cheers!

[@Shadowongfuel]

when i come to your channel my interest for computers spikes drastically and the thing is this is where im calm i know what to do and you help a long the way of fixing a computer

[@CyberCPU]

Glad my videos have helped you.

[@abracadabra401]

WOW!! DISM worked!! this was by far one of the greatest repair videos I have applied to my computer to date. My computer is running so much better. Thank you for all the GREAT information and it saved me $$$ with a not so smart technician.

[@GimmilFactory]

I've been using these tools for years when ensuring stability and security after removing any malicious software or code on a system. This is great educational information for the community. Cheers for this!

[@roadcyclist00]

This is excellent. Clear, relevant and to the point. Thank you.

[@CyberCPU]

Glad it helped. Thank you.

[@rttp-righttothepoint6656]

@@CyberCPU hey man. I'm SOL. Pc hung up, turned off. Nbd just restarted it. Booted fine. Loaded windows fine. Go to my computer. All of my external drives are SOL. Say corrupted and whatever. I highly doubt they are. I just can't get the computer to see them. I downloaded a BUNCH of partition repair programs, and none of them did what I needed. I know there is a fix like gparted or whatever,or boot to linux or something and use their tools. Please don't recommend I just use something to backup my data off of it. I know I can do that. But I'm 99% sure I can revive the drive back to normal, I did it once, I just forgot how. And lastly, anyway to stop that god forbid it happens again. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE Need HELP ASAP BOYS AND GIRLS.

[@_BYR47]

Ehh he can talk a lot less these long ass videos are overkill, none the less it’s good knowledge.

[@eaglegp2541]

@@CyberCPU I am 15 miles from Midway Ca, where the lotto was won of about $1.5B and was in line when the winner was getting their ticket, but bought mine 2 mile away at Dons in Frazier Pk, and if i had one, I would have made you a partner with a large investment

[@buzzdrew7]

I wish I had learned this sooner. I didnt know you needed to run sfc /scannow after running dism. This is going to save me a lot of headache and hopefully result in less computer re-images 😊.

[@brodriguez11000]

Needs clippy.

[@danielsterling4918]

​@@brodriguez11000 Pepperidge Farm remembers Clippy 📎👀

[@10MARC]

Great information. As a guy who has been fixing computers since the DOS days, I can attest that the built in "Repair tools" work about 5% of the time. (CHKDSK has always been fairly reliable, though) I gave up totally on SFC since I realized it almost never fixed anything, and wasted 30 minutes of time i could use reloading Windows over itself. These tips may actually make SFC useful!

[@TheEvolvingAudioNut]

Excellent video. I've been using windows since the beginning when it was essentially only a crude graphic overlay on top of DOS. Having gone through Win 95 and 98 etc. I was at a point where I created a clone of a fresh install and would revert to that every year or so as the computer became less responsive over time. So yeah, I became a sledgehammer guy. 😁 Old habits are hard to break. I built my current main rig a couple years ago and was considering breaking out the hammer. I'll put that on hold while I await your videos that further explore this topic. After running the "RestoreHealth" on my cache files, SFC found several files/directories "is owned twice or has its security set twice". It also found one DLL file with a hash mismatch and replace the bad file with the new version from cache. An idea for this series (though I'm guessing you already have it on the list) is to talk about the various utility programs out there that profess to be the "be all / end all", "must have" program to keep your computer at tipity top condition.

[@CyberCPU]

Glad it helped.

[@raylopez99]

Wasn't the old advice to do a clean reinstall every so often to "speed up your system'? I've never done that btw, but that was the thinking a few years ago.

[@CyberCPU]

@@raylopez99 that was what people did back in Windows XP days. Since Windows 7, it's been very possible to keep Windows systems running efficiently for years. At this point in my career it's become a point of pride to always do what you can to save the OS without reinstalling. I probably reinstall maybe 5% of the systems I work on. Some are simply to messed up to fix. But most are fixable.

[@stage6fan475]

@@raylopez99 Yes, that was the old advice. I started at Win 3.1 and for a long time clean install every so often was recommended whenever things got slow or weird.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

90% certain your hard drive is going south. Software can't fix a hardware problem. Data corruption is one sign of hard drive related issues.

[@tedjohnson64]

Very interesting way to get sfc to actually work! Really liked your presentation style as well, very rigorous and well thought out. Also appreciated the large green overlays with the cmd line details.

[@d0h]

Solid walkthrough for DISM repairs, but for anyone that needs youtube videos to teach them it's honestly easier with the modern windows to use the media creation tool and do an in-place upgrade of windows (Select Upgrade Now -> Keep my programs and files) instead of saving the ISO. In my experience it repairs everything that DISM/SFC will ever fix, plus uses an offline Defender to scan and remove any malicious changes to the OS.

[@grantross2609]

the thing is this can be pretty damned tedious & frustrating ! too many data files get lost and as for setting up from scratch........

[@opcartmell]

Tried it your way a month ago and I'm still restoring files and programs. I selected keep my programs and files and lost almost everything.

[@joffy9373]

tried this method 10 minutes ago..........the windows installer crashed during blue screen installation :/ CRASHED I tell you.

[@thatfunkadeus]

I don't know if this worked yet but I've made more progress in 8 minutes with this video than i did in 6 hours googling and reading forums so huge respect for giving me a little more hope and a lot less stress.

[@nicklisac4667]

I did what you said exactly like you said and it worked just like you said and it was easy just like you said it would be and I'm impressed. Now I just have to learn how to construct a sentence properly. 👍👍👍🤣🤣 Thankyou

[@yorickdesmet4836]

This video couldn't be posted at a better time. Thanks!

[@danielsidaway719]

Another excellent tutorial. As someone who's experience goes back to GW Basic and MS-DOS, we understand that Windows is simply a Graphical User Interface; to make using a computer easier for everyone, novice to pro, but when the GUI gets wonky, it sometimes takes DOS commands to sort it out. I've had many an anxious client who thought they would lose everything; some did usually due to electrical anomalies or to a physically crashed hard drive.....AND NO BACKUP. Microsoft did do some things right.

[@Redline1998766]

As for all computer related changing operations: No backup no pity.

[@eric-.]

oh, man, you got SO close to the whole enchilada. the one thing you left off, and the most important thing - do a full chkdsk before dism repair! First - mega props for getting the word about DISM repair out there. As an IT pro, I've only ever come across a few other techs that even know about it. Now, While you are NOT wrong about out-of-date system file cache, the FAR more common issue is corrupted file system. Here is the full process: open admin cmd/powershell/terminal, then type " chkdsk c: /f /r " (no quotes) ,answer Y when it asks if you want to run at next reboot. Then reboot. chkdsk will scan and repair file system errors before Windows loads. *CHKDSK MUST NOT BE INTERRUPTED* or you could face total system loss. After chkdsk finishes, then Windows will load as normal, THEN do all the _excellent_ steps outlined in this video.

[@mikeock2087]

It says volume can't be opened for direct access (I'm paraphrasing and translating from German) do you have a solution? Thank you for your time!

[@bazenga82]

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. In this day and age where people are so deceitful and shameless and rip people off, it is so nice to be able to troubleshoot and fix things on your own. I love learning new things and how and why they work. Thank you going the extra mile to not only share the RIGHT way to do it but explaining WHY. You've got my sub and I'm already watching more of your videos. Much love and appreciation sir.

[@Michael-uo4jj]

man SFC /scannow is a life saver i just used it before going to your video my Main PC was hard freezing in games with a rtx 4070 and straight up would crash ARK out of nowhere after a bios update low an behold sfc found a bunch of corrupted files saving me from doing a full reinstall

[@srvuk]

Very useful. I too discovered a few years ago that SFC scannow never found anything and had to delve deeper to use it effectively.

[@venoltar]

Funny, the moment I saw your thumbnail say sfc never works, I was thinking oh no, someone else who doesn't use dism. Thanks for sharing the knowledge :)

[@ResistCircuitResist]

I work in an enterprise environment and agree, sfc rarely fixes issues, but for a different reason. Its rarely system file specific. However great video, nice to know that the file cache can be upgraded with dism.

[@KraminAsou]

Your advice and approach on 'Broken UEFI' is 100% practical. I've been sitting on a friends dell optiplex 5260 for a couple weeks looking for answers until your video. You've won over a loyal fan. Thanks alot Sir.

[@NotEvents]

tysm for making this video! Before seeing this video, I did not have a clear picture of how dism and sfc were related, but now I do! Now I worry about how many Windows installations I failed to repair / save through my previous ignorance. 😓

[@CyberCPU]

Glad it helped.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

40 lashes for you Sir minus one. Now go and be fruitful. 😉

[@Hyunkelw]

Sir, you just earned yourself a new subscriber. I've recently updated my system from a 7th generation Intel chip to a AMD ryzen DDR5 system, and Windows is giving me boot errors NONSTOP. I've tried everything, nothing works so far, but I've got the feeling I might find what I need here. Kudos

[@arcrides6841]

did it end up working for you?

[@Hyunkelw]

@@arcrides6841 unfortunately, no. but I did a dumb mistake while checking if my RAM slots where defective (which they were). So, the fix suggested here did not work per se, but that's a whole different matter.

[@TheCynysterMind]

Well done! I have been using both command for a while. I would like to see your take on how to rebuild/repair a corrupt user profile. And how to fix a broken Microsoft Store. (especially how disabling UAC can mess up the store) I am continually amazed at the number of ways people (especially my extended family members) can screw up their profile.

[@northsouth575]

Store app requires UAC by design.

[@PCBEaR65]

Rich, I am subbed. You may have helped me fix my wife's old laptop - which is looping in the Window recovery. I've been doing application support so long, my PC Tech skillz have withered a bit with all the tech evolutions. These videos are getting me back in my original game. I am filling my new 64GB KT USB and expect it to help with most family support I have to do.

[@David_Ladd]

Great video as always. There is probably an extra step I would add to this process. chkdsk C: /F /scan Then I would do the DISM line Then finally the SFC line A lot of the issues I have found is also with corruption in the file system which probably should be repaired first before trying to repair the corrupted files as they might get corrupted again.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

I'd change the order a bit, ALWAYS check hardware first ! No amount of software will fix bad hardware and you shouldn't let software do a damn thing until you've analyzed the situation. Check the drive condition, sector response test, Smart data, etc.. Replace it if broke or breaking. Only then.... R/click the drive for a diskscan (no /F) [the computer can seriously destroy good files if it encounters an unknown situation.) I want to know the state of the file system before I decide what needs to be done. When drive is replaced, run SFC /scannow. If it fixes corrupt data, then good, you're done. If it can't fix, reboot and try SFC again. If still messed up, then run DISM. Other intervening steps are missing cause I'm single finger typing this out on a 8" tablet.

[@CyberCPU]

That's a great point. However, I would use chkdsk /s c: But your way I'm sure works too.

[@David_Ladd]

@@CyberCPU very true. Though normally chkdsk wants you to reboot anyway when dealing with drive C: so at least a good point to grab a coffee or a soda pop while you wait :D Besides, each tech has their way of doing things. Normally what works best for them as long as the customer is best served.

[@David_Ladd]

@@SpaceCadet4Jesus , True, but here is also a good thing to keep in mind. One of the things I use to do back when I was full time service tech was as soon as system came in was check to see if the boot drive was at least accessible. If so then use Symantec Ghost or equivalent HDD backup software and image the drive so at least the original state can be preserved. If the drive had important data on it and they were willing pay for professional data recovery would send the drive off. If the customer couldn't afford data recovery and they were willing to risk it then would use SpinRight to attempt to repair the drive. Sadly a lot of people aren't willing to spend a lot of labor time trying to fix problems and would rather take shortest route to getting the system back up and running. So normally meant if the drive was still good they would opt for the choice of wipe the drive and do a full clean install of the OS they were using.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

@@David_Ladd Like you, I still image all/most of the drives I work on but I ask the customer if I can save it. After the repair, I reimage and save it in an encrypted NAS. It has saved the day way too many times for future problems. I have somewhere between 75TB and 100TB of storage space, of course not all allocated to clients. As for Spinright, somewhere in old pile of diskettes I think I have Steve's original disk. That takes me back to when Steve, myself and others not remembered used to chat over FidoNet. Ever heard of Mace Utilities? It was way better than Spinright or Norton tools. Talked with Paul Mace on the phone trying to get working with him to promote his product more. Those were the days when the information you needed was inside the thick Computer Shopper catalogs. Old times. 😄

[@mickjc57]

Thank you, result " CSI 00000423 [SR] Verify and Repair Transaction completed. All files and registry keys listed in this transaction have been successfully repaired ". Your the goto man, Cheers from Scotland.

[@lorddemancio]

The real nightmare begins when DISM doesnt work.....

[@jamesluttrell2198]

Great just what I wanna hear

[@EyePapiii]

Bro it blue screens when I do that restore health what do I do

[@gyoerdy7832]

Reinstall

[@benziongoldsmith7388]

I got error 87 and it tells me the command (restorehealth and other commands) option is not recognized in this context.

[@PirateSimulator]

Make sure the command is typed with no grammar problems if the error still is there sfc /scannow is alright too or just reinstall windows there will be windows.old folder where you can copy paste some text files or som but apps has to be reinstalled also games too​@@Optimustron962

[@PeterCphotos]

yes would like to see a complete list of all repair commands. Good tutorial.

[@shawng4886]

Bro!! You fixed my PC!! Holy shit, thanks! It would boot up and system apps worked fine but EVERY time I’d launch a game my PC basically froze and I had to shut it off…. The very first scan thing worked and fixed corrupted files and I restarted my PC and BOOM! RDR2 fired right up! Thank you!!! Is this something you’d recommend doing after every big Windows update just to make sure things are in order?! Seems like it’d be a good idea! By the way, you’re the very first person I’ve ever “super” chatted or whatever it’s called! Major thanks!!

[@CyberCPU]

Thanks. Appreciate it.

[@ClefairyGodmother]

Great video! I'm a Tech and I loved this. I'm 6 months in and always learning but at the Helpdesk level I've been giving myself a nudge to run the DISM commands properly when I use sfc. I get much better results that way.

[@kiillabytez]

Here's another command prompt shortcut: When you have a path in explorer highlighted, just do a to copy the path to your clipboard. Now, while at the command prompt, r-click the command prompt window and it will paste the highlighted address into the prompt. This really saves a lot of time from having to type a long address, and also eliminates typos as well. Hope this helps?

[@WyattOShea]

Awesome video man. I did most of the fixes just in case there was something wrong. Came back with no errors but still great tool to have in the future when I inevitably mess something up and need to fix it without reinstalling windows from scratch haha.

[@alextorresdelcarpio1579]

Thanks for sharing the video. When I ran the sfc /scannow command several errors appeared to be repaired, when I ran the DISM online repair command it could not be repaired, I ran DISM from the windows 11 ISO it gave me the Error: 0x800f081f, I tried from a USB with the same version of windows burned and it didn't work; the same Error: 0x800f081f. I turned off AVAST VPN that I had turned on, ran the DISM command again from the ISO and it completely fixed the errors I had. 👍🏿🤛🏿

[@stage6fan475]

Very useful. Congrats on passing 100K subscribers.

[@JustAboveYou]

Thank you so much . I did it all up to restorehealth and my steam games are playing once more . I thought I had to factory reset my pc or something . I tried it all and this is the only video that worked for me . Thank you

[@MDFGamingVideo]

It's a balancing act, based largely on knowledge capture of known -vs- new issues/fixes. Turn-around time determines the best approach. * IF * you * KNOW * you can use SFC / DISM / other tools to fix or restore a known issue, and you know that is the ONLY issue, go for it. However, there is another side of the scale to consider... In the enterprise when it takes you 1 hour to backup, re-image, and restore a user's desktop, it may be FAR more time effective to do that. You could spend HOURS troubleshooting and repairing multiple issues, across multiple service calls, all while impacting end user productivity. This is why documentation and knowledge sharing/building is critical to service and support success.

[@CyberCPU]

Well, that's just it. It comes down to experience. Historically it's the big box store techs that don't have a lot of experience that tend to wipe systems more often. The argument can be made that this happens more in a corporate environment because the systems don't have as much personal data on them. However, when you're working with consumers saving the OS is a lot more important. Yes, it takes less time to just wipe the operating system and reload it. However you also have to factor in the three on-site trips getting Grandma's scanner to work the way it used to because she can't get used to it and putting the links to her bank and Amazon back on the desktop because you can't figure out how to use the search bar in a browser. 🤣😂 I charge a flat rate in my shop so the customer pays the same whether it takes me an hour or 5 hours. Because I've been doing this for over 20 years I have the experience to be able to still make money with a flat rate. For every computer that takes me 5 hours to fix I have 10 others that I fixed in a half hour and it's all the same flat fee.

[@sonictech1000]

I deal mostly with small businesses and most of these users have a ton of customizations and special tools that can take forever to get working on a fresh install. Some examples: An rdp connection to their time clock/HR provider, a VPN connection to their video security provider, A connection to their POS system, QuickBooks, Industry specific software etc. On top of that,the problem often came from something the user recently installed (or updated) and the first thing they will do when I leave is to reinstall that thing. Better to get to the bottom of the problem if possible.

[@althomasjr3]

I did everything he said do… AND IT WORKED!!! I had to restart the computer (didn’t do that at first), but was able to open documents that I couldn’t open for the pass few months. Thanks!!

[@ChrisSmith-rm6xl]

Suggestion for your series: once you get Windows set up just the way you want it, make an image with clonezilla. You should cover the difference between a disk image and a partition image, and what to do if the new drive/partition you are restoring to is smaller that the one you saved from

[@jmchichstudio9145]

+, but I would recommend using something like acronis. Clonezilla had never worked for me (at least for Windows installations, Linux imaging worked like a charm)

[@homeFall1]

@@jmchichstudio9145 we use Clonezilla extensively at work to backup and deploy large batches of mostly Windows PCs. It works like a charm for us.

[@aaronjones4529]

@@homeFall1 ... which suggests it might be all the more reason for them to do an instructional video on how to use CloneZilla ... for Jmchich STUDIO 😅 (I'm not really having a dig - I've always wanted to know how to do this, and have made a few attempts in the past but they've never worked properly for me 🙅‍♂)

[@jmchichstudio9145]

@@homeFall1 uh, okay, I might give clonezilla another shot. Maybe I was using it wrong, who knows :)

[@sopcannon]

windows does have a back up image built in

[@urubserver]

Among GAZILLIONS of videos, this was the ONLY ONE that really showed how to solve this goddmned issue! While all "experts" on computer forums/Facebook always are ready to say, as freaking robots: Perform a clean install (which I did) and wipe everything out!", as if would be fast and easy to restore a multitude of files and settings, you showed us a clear and practic solution! You rock, Sir!!!!!

[@alantorrance6153]

Thank you for an excellent set of instructions. I have been typing flat out, pausing the video frequently while I type and check what I typed. Saved to my "Download " folder under an appropriate filename for easy future access. I shall probably make use of this soon as a safety check of my system. If there is a problem with file corruption, this should be so much better and days quicker than reinstalling Windows and then all the software that goes with it (a LOT).

[@CyberCPU]

During the preparation for this video I ran sfc on every Windows computer I have and it pretty much fixed most of the little stupid little problems they had. Very powerful tool.

[@jeffbehringer1262]

Great video man. Saved my bacon. I had the 62.3% stuck issue on restorehealth. I was able to get the iso and run it (from the E drive for me) and get it 100%. Ran sfc /scannow and it finished with no issues. Thanks.

[@ShadeAssault]

Well. This makes so much sense. I always hate the forums that do just what you said. They never mention DISM, or if they do, they don't mention SFC. I've known about both tools forever but didn't know exactly what they did and that they compliment each other. Thanks for throwing some more knowledge into my brain toolbox.

[@CyberCPU]

Glad it helped.

[@Sentarry]

I kept getting a memoryleak in windows 11 somehow and I suspected the windows os files had gotten corrupted. Sure enough, SFC /scannow command fixed it! Thanks!

[@domitalain1]

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOUR CHANNEL BY THE WAY AND IT HAS HELPED ME ENOURMOUSLY WITH MY COMPUTER ISSUES.

[@CyberCPU]

Glad they help.

[@TheEvolvingAudioNut]

An idea that dovetails nicely with the topic of fixing a broken windows install is troubleshooting hardware issues. That particular rabbit hole runs deep. An example from my recent experience... Over the past week or so my gaming rig started doing some weird things such as programs suddenly crashing or doing things other than the command I had just given it. Other times it would wink out and do a hard reboot. Running Memtest86 found bad memory. I had all four slots filled with 8GB DIMMS. I checked each one individually and Memtest86 found issues with every one. I was thinking that it would be unlikely in the extreme to have four DIMM fail at once. I was thinking perhaps the mem controller on the MB took a dump. As I had some laying around, I took some spare mem and installed it. No failures were found. Yesterday I bought a pack of mem (2x16GB rather than 4x8GB). My thought is perhaps having tightly packed DIMMS on a hard running gaming rig is not the best thing. So far so good.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

All 4 slots of memory being full has no bearing on the computer operation except if the memory is blocked from air flow, which the memory will accept until it ages. If I had all 4 memory boards showing errors, remove all but one, jot down the faulty addresses of each for comparison, test each memory in a different slot and finally test in another computer if available. Seems like you did a good job and solved your issue. Stranger things have happened.

[@ScoutReaper-zn1rz]

Actually, if you were using all 4 slots and had XMP enabled you might have had a problem because of that. There are cases where the memory controller can't run all 4 slots at the XMP rating as the XMP is technically an overclock and can cause odd behavior/crashes. You did the right thing by resorting to only using 2 slots for RAM.

[@RealPrat33k]

Thanks man this saved my wifi card... was getting bsod many times a day.. i thought it might be a system file... it was.. now my wifi is working completely fine and fixed the bsod too

[@javierchik]

Excellent and very well explained, very helpful, I am already making a notepad to put all the commands in a folder on the network so that I have them at hand. Some ideas for other videos you could make would also be about repairing the Windows boot when it cannot be repaired on its own, explaining bootrec, fixboot, fixmbr, etc., and also how to clone Windows to a new desktop with different hardware where Windows cannot always do it by itself and it sends you the message "no boot device found, please install boot device and try again". I haven't seen any normal videos that explain how to clone to a new desktop with different hardware and an NVMe disk."

[@ApolloTheDerg]

I turned the restore health and sfc into a bat file, it’s been super handy, all I do is run it as administrator and it’s part of my quarterly computer maintenance for a small company, kept the same install of windows on these systems for years with minimal headaches this way, often catches small issues early and quickly sorts them out.

[@enduringwave87]

This Bearded DOOD is so chill and friendly; I like him a lot. Thank you Sir, from Pakistan :)

[@goofyrulez7914]

Thank you so much! (not just for this video but for all the help you have given me.)

[@CyberCPU]

Your welcome.

[@AmbroseB1900]

I went through all the bluescreen options but ended up reloading windows 11 but 2 days later I'm getting bluescreen again! Will try dism and see how it goes. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

[@evenblackercrow4476]

All good stuff. Thanks for the video. Nuke-n-pave is the last thing I try before opening a second story window. In my experience using dism, the "limitaccess" phrase was particularly useful when the windows update mechanism itself was broken, too, and would cause a dism error while attempting to use the esd source for the repair.

[@Tempritscher]

Finally a Video that is simple and short. this fixed my current issue with the computer rep+

[@JCLIMITLESS]

I'm not a tech but I run tons of programs and software and need to fix things within Windows from time to time. I personally would rather just wipe a broken OS rather than chase down specific files or issues because most times its just faster for me.

[@22stunt45]

good point

[@nikolatesla169]

That's right I'll do the same if it's my computer, but when it's a client's computer and they have a lot of software that I'm going to reinstall and download if I don't have the installers, maybe they lose the activation Keys... They don't want to lose some specific configurations etc etc then I would rather do this fix...

[@wneufeld416]

I've been living with a none responsive explorer every time I went into "my PC". This video allowed me to fix the issue and it is now working again! Subscribed. (I was able to fix it at the 7:56 minute mark, but then watched the rest of the video for your metrics and great info) :)

[@clinten3131]

This seems to have fixed the "Memory could not be written" error I kept getting. Thank you for this guide and for explaining everything so it's easy to understand.

[@markc871]

Thanks for this, just used the dism from iso source technique on a misbehaving win 11 machine, SFC found and repaired a corrupt file. Will be interesting to see if the misbehaviour goes away.. Really enjoy your channel, very pragmatic, helpful and entertaining. Keep up the good work.

[@Bonping04]

worked and now my storage shows the correct amount of space I have. This solution solved my problem with application files showing the wrong amount of storage the app has taken up where it said one of them needed 1.2tb of space ( which is way too much only needed 5gb). Honestly, if you have the same issue like i did then this a easy solution.

[@surfx4804]

Great info, very clear and much more than just sfc. Subbed!

[@MiElas]

This guy makes my excited to run some commands, love the energy

[@LickTheShaft]

"Nuke and pave" is quite common depending on the corporate environment, unfortunately. In my org, the (few thousand) PCs we still have that are fat client that can't be on VDI, if a problem is going to take longer than say, 45 minutes to an hour to fix, and it doesn't have any sort of one-off rare specialty software that someone, somewhere managed to lose a license key to, just PXE boot it and fresh install the corporate image and move on. Me personally, I LOVE puzzles and troubleshooting, but I work on the server side of things, not end-user PCs, so that works out well for me.

[@CyberCPU]

Yes, it's common in corporate environments, and big box stores.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

@Terra Prime I understand the corporate mentality of "Nuke and Pave" as most corporate PCs are not filled with various software from who knows where. Having a few corporate images and a few new unused PCs is the way to go, especially when all client data is server side. I wish my life was that easy.

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

​@@bc-ad-infinity It's hard to get a corporate job when your skill set is not focused on narrow certification even when you can run rings around the certified. Troubleshooting is one skill that develops over time and cannot be covered in a book as well as it's learned in the field. I knew a guy that had a bachelors in computer science and he literally didn't know anything about real computers. He asked me if I thought he could learn computers. I assured him that if he could work to get a degree (he already had that) and if he "liked" computers, then "Yes, it's entirely possible you'll do well."

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

@@bc-ad-infinity Funny (but not so funny) experience you had. 😁 I've heard of this before and I can imagine there are more like our "professor" in the halls of higher(?) Education. I like your comeback..🙂

[@fog10101]

this thumbnail caught my eye. I never got sfc /scannow to work when I was a tech. Glad to know how it's suppose to work now that I've moved on to a different field.

[@SilentPlain]

I'd first do a S.M.A.R.T.'s parameters check to rule out any HDD/SSD failure, then go on with the commands. In some cases, hardware failures can be a potential problem that can be easily spotted with any proper software designed for it (there are a lot of free options out there), thus saving time figuring out what might be wrong and how to fix it (it takes no more than a few seconds to run a diagnose). Sometimes, BSODs are simply caused by corrupted system files that are stored in bad sectors... Just my "2 cents".

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

Hey...what are you doing here?? 🤨 You're too smart giving away your best practice advice. 😄 (I wrote a similar comment in this video). So many repair shops run to software fixes when it's smarter to always check hardware (and faster too). Have you heard the saying?: "If it's a penney for your thoughts and you throw your two cents in, .....then someone .....somewhere ....is making a penney"

[@dougsensei]

This was so helpful. I was told by a online forum to run this and had no idea why it wasnt working. thanks for clearing things up!

[@kado897]

The one step before a clean install that is missed out in these videos is the repair install which allows you to keep your data and programs.

[@CyberCPU]

I will likely do a video on that as well.

[@ZERARCHIVE2023]

@@CyberCPU Public utility it is

[@Nipprod]

I always knew how to use two commands, but I had no idea why I needed to use both. Thank you.

[@theultramage]

This is a great tip, that ordinary folks can use to hopefully repair their windows in case of filesystem corruption. The sfc /scannow operation by itself _will_ work if any of the system files have been replaced via normal means. That's because since Vista, everything in Windows and Program Files is hardlinked into WinSxS versioned subfolders, and tracked in catalogs. However, if the unwanted change happens by a direct overwrite of contents or disk corruption, this will not work. Windows will detect that the file checksums don't match the catalog, but will have no clean source to repair from. Here, Microsoft could have done a great thing and implemented a way to automatically obtain this clean source via Windows Update - but for me it never does, even if the source is a windows update patch and the patch is still in the Microsoft Catalog. So instead, you have to provide it yourself. The way outlined in the video, by using the Media Creation Tool will probably work, except... to do the repair, you have to provide the exact versions of the files you're currently using, and the tool does not let you choose the version - iirc it just always downloads the latest released version of the OS. So you might have to hunt the web for forum posts with direct links to specific ISOs. And even that might not be enough, since some files might be from intermediate patches, or from monthly patches newer than the current release ISO. In that case, you need to do power user-level surgery: - Examine Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log for mentions of files inside WinSxS which report mismatched checksums. - Examine the accompanying lines which mention which KB update package the damaged files belong to. - Download the KB package matching your OS from the Microsoft Catalog. - Unpack it using the builtin 'expand' commandline utility. (Verify version numbers if you need to.) - Overwrite the damaged files in WinSxS with clean ones. (Binary diff them to see the extent of the damage.) - Run sfc /scannow to redeploy the fixed files. As a possible alternative, I'm checking microsoft fwlink LinkId=243077 and it says /Source supports various things, not just wim - a backup image, a SxS folder (on usb or network share). It might even be possible to just point it to the unpacked KB files. If not, you could repair from a mounted backup, or from a C:\ share of another PC or VM that has the same windows version and updates as yours.

[@acsam1]

That is the answer I was waiting for! For successful repair with DISM+SFC you must have clean files of the exact version and that version is not always the latest one. And from my experience DISM never downloads it. And in 99% of situations DISM is used in Recovery mode without network access, because Windows does't boot.

[@pc-ninja]

Great video I have always done this process for fixing window 99% of the time fixes windows: 1) sfc /scannow 2) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth 3) sfc /scannow doing step 3 make sure you have fixed it. If not go back to step 2) I like the create iso option never knew that one i guess now the fix percent gone up to 99.5% :)

[@bitcomputers]

Great show thanks for your great tips. Will this work in Safe mode?

[@CyberCPU]

Yes.

[@bitcomputers]

@@CyberCPU Thank you so much your the first content creator that replied to any of my messages

[@rondail5675]

Good discussion! Re-installing also requires having all microsoft key-codes, Product-Keys.

[@ashryver3605]

Except what to do when DISM RestoreHealth gets stuck at 62.3%? Also whenever I did this after spending time overclocking, 100% of the time so far CheckHealth has always said fine, but then an sfc after will fix corruption (ram oc). DISM randomly stopped working even after sfc said it had no corruption. Then i closed out, and dism just no longer showed progress bars.

[@MrWick-gv1xe]

Lucky SFC worked for me now I'm not saying that he is lying but you still following along with him if doesn't work for you he's a major help

[@pessoaanonima6345]

SFC never failed to me, it always says it found and fixed the issue. However, I don't know if I ever successfully fixed a system just by using it (or dism to be honest), I usually have to do something else to fix it myself.

[@KS-gn9ro]

Amazing I just ran SFC for the first time ever, I've had my system for years and don't remember the last time I did a reinstall. I was all set to do a reinstall when I came across this video. Thought I would try it and SFC completed successfully and repaired the corrupted files. I lucked out this time.

[@Vichion]

running DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:F:\sources\install.esd throws the error: Error: 0x800f081f The source files could not be found. and I can't seem to understand why...

[@albafranco3515]

could you fix this? i also tried option /image instead of online from wimndows cmd in system recovery booting from iso...no luck

[@Vichion]

@@albafranco3515 I dont remember what I did but I remember this text is what helped me ````` The error 0x800f081f in DISM usually indicates that the specified source file couldn't be found or accessed. Here are several steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue: ### 1. Verify the Path Ensure that the path to the `install.esd` file is correct. Double-check the drive letter and the path to the file. For instance, if the file is on a different drive, make sure to adjust the drive letter accordingly. ### 2. Mount the ESD File You can try mounting the `install.esd` file and then pointing DISM to the mounted location: 1. **Mount the ESD File:** - Open Command Prompt as Administrator. - Run the following command to mount the ESD file to a folder (e.g., `C:\Mount`): ```shell dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:F:\sources\install.esd /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\Mount ``` 2. **Run DISM with the Mounted Folder:** - Run the DISM command again, pointing to the mounted folder: ```shell dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\Mount\windows /LimitAccess ``` ### 3. Use the Correct Index If the ESD file contains multiple images, you might need to specify the correct index. To find out the available indexes, you can list them using: ```shell dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:F:\sources\install.esd ``` Use the correct index from the output in the `Mount-Image` command above. ### 4. Ensure Read Permissions Make sure that your user account has sufficient permissions to read the `install.esd` file. Try accessing the file directly in File Explorer to ensure there are no permission issues. ### 5. Alternative Source If the issue persists, you can try using a different source file, such as `install.wim` from a different installation media, and see if that resolves the issue. ### 6. Windows Update Sometimes, ensuring your system is fully updated can help resolve such issues. Run Windows Update to check for and install any available updates. ### 7. Network Source If you're using a network location for the source file, ensure the network path is correct and accessible. Map the network drive and use that path. ### 8. Logs Check the `C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log` file for more detailed error information, which might give you more clues on what might be wrong. By following these steps, you should be able to identify and resolve the issue with DISM failing to find the source files. `````

[@examplerkey]

Downloading DISM alone is confusing enough because it's like 25 separate exe files for your version of windows. SFC on its own never worked, I concur. For corrupted file attributes on a partition shown as RAW, chkdsk /f + permission reset works. Thank you so much for your work and sharing.

[@opulentnotes]

Thanks for sharing these cool commands! I've actually been using DISM commands to help fix corrupted files on a customer's PC majority of the time, and usually stop at /restorehealth. I had no idea you could run sfc /scannow afterwards -- I always thought it just was not doing a darn thing so I omitted it out of the process. Definitely will try this process next time 🙂 There was one instance where DISM was loading in CMD and it would get stuck at 64% and not move for several mins to a couple hours (even tried rerunning the command), why is that?

[@glebglub]

my guess is the anti-virus going mental scanning every single file that is being manipulated on a spinning-platter HDD, alongside slow internet speeds as dism is updating files through windows update (which would thence increase how much work the antivirus is doing as it's effectively scanning the same file 3 or more times and communicating with the cloud server about it, depending on your settings). could also be the storage device is way too full so it can't move files around as efficiently (typically ~15% free space is recommened iirc). maybe only 1 stick of RAM operating at minimal frequency, overheating on the CPU as the cooler shifted in transport, especially if it's a heckin' chonker like my NH-D15 (though for these I'd recommend unmounting the cooler as it can damage your motherboard/cpu in transit, at least without that expandable foam stuff SI's use for pre-builts to keep it in place). but I'm no expert, so there may be some other things going on too I'm not aware of, these are just my thoughts without knowing more of the system(s) you were working on

[@opulentnotes]

@@glebglub Thanks dude, this is pretty helpful info as I did not know the anti-virus plays a role in this. I work for a big corporate company, and our company PCs are basically all laptops that have 10th gen and higher CPUs and NVMe M.2 SSDs. Your guess is as good as mine, our machines have McAfee and its tied to group policies to make sure the device is in compliance. The internet connection could be a possibility -- as since covid we use remote connection to troubleshoot machines and requires us to connect to a VPN which tunnels to our company server. We do this in order to elevate admin privs on the user's machine (we need to do this to even access CMD as Admin)

[@TomMannHome]

Wonderful tutorial!!! Great clarity! I’m definitely subscribed now! … One question / suggestion tho: Could you please comment on the best way to accomplish the same thing (ie, repairing the OS without reinstalling it and possibly losing all the installed apps & user data) on a computer that won’t boot at all?

[@robert9495]

I'd like to thank you very much for that video you did where you intentionally deleted the boot record only to fix it again in order to show us how to repair it. The bcdboot command helped me in fixing the automatic repair error where my computer froze and could no longer boot into windows 10. I deleted the boot records and then recreated them or something like that with the bcdboot command then the computer came alive with the option to boot into safe mode and them from then on it was a cinch i booted the computer normally entered verifier command again and selected delete all existing settings and now it worls like a charm. Again.My nightmare all started with that blasted verifier command where i selected to check all files on the system partition after which it required a restart. After the restart "preparing automatic repair" kicked in and that blastes freeze screen. Thanks again, really appreciated the help you provided. I never heard of the bcdboot command until i watched your video. Bcdboot command helped me solved the issue i was having.

[@Knards]

Silly me, I always used SFC first then DISM. Now I know better

[@CyberCPU]

Order is definitely important. 😉

[@agostinhomatos321]

Tks for the very helpful videos on how to recover/repair Windows 10 & 11. On this specific video, one might have to use the ISO with the windows installation files in order to repair a damaged installed windows. However considering that some users may not have their windows system updated and still run an older version of windows 10 or 11, I would suggest the use of the software RUFUS to get an older installation ISO of windows, just click on the "Select" button (almost top right of the program window) and chose "Download" to get the appropriate version of windows.

[@aravitz857]

How do you get dism and sfc to work when you can't get past windows recovery mode, can this be done "offline"

[@CyberCPU]

Yes, I have a video coming out Monday on how to do it offline.

[@aravitz857]

@@CyberCPU I'm really excited I could NEVER get dism to work offline except for injecting raid drivers

[@DeltreeZero]

i cant find this video can you link me? @@CyberCPU

[@billturner5908]

THANK YOU! I was at a loss and considering re-installing the OS, which I REALLY, REALLY did not want to do. Thank you sol much for this valuable information. Now subscribed.

[@ZagiBob]

It’s comical that he talks about repairing “a broken Windows system” but never discusses how to fix it if the system isn’t bootable.

[@Jon717]

I just take the ISO of the version of Windows I'm on and perform an in-place upgrade to fix corrupted system files; it works every time. It's a lot faster and easier than trying to repair system files with SFC and DISM.

[@nicholasbalandiat9563]

Amazing KZbin! I actually learned something! Well ran the sfc /scannow and it actually worked! I must be lucky today! I did get this error: Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag. Then I ran it again and I got this: C:\Windows\System32>sfc /scannow Beginning system scan. This process will take some time. Beginning verification phase of system scan. Verification 100% complete. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. NICE, I like learning stuff, Thank you for the lesson!

[@SpaceCadet4Jesus]

I've run the sfc command since Windows 98. I don't remember the history of how effective it was, but on Windows 10 and a Windows 11 it's been very effective and the quick easy tool to fix weird problems. When it cannot work is why you run the DISM command. I've noticed in the past 8 to 10 years that I've needed to run it much more often than I did in the past. I haven't taken the time to narrow down why, although just thinking about it, I need to use it much more on workstations than I do on servers, so it may be related to hardware error correction faults. Who knows?

[@bm4680]

Good to know that DISM command should be executed before SFC /ScanNow. Thanks for sharing!