How to repair your corrupted files using SFC & DISM commands?

You might have heard about certain commands such as SFC and DISM to repair corrupted Windows system files. But, have you ever tried these tools whenever your PC run into some problems?

Well, here you’ll know how to use these tools to fix corrupted system files on your PC.

When to use SFC and DISM?

SFC command will be quite useful under following situations.

  1. Blue screen of death
  2. Applications are not responding
  3. Frequent rebooting of your PC
  4. Windows crash

If you feel SFC command isn’t properly working for you, you can use DISM command to properly execute SFC command and fix your issue.


cta button

What is SFC?

SFC or System File Checker is a very useful tool that you can use when you face troubles with important system files. Say for example DLL files. If a system file has modified, the tool will automatically replace that file with the correct version.

How to use SFC command to repair system files?

  1. Open Command Prompt(Admin)
  2. Type SFC /scan now in Command Prompt and press enter to start a full system scan
  3. If there’re no issues, you’ll see this message “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations”.
  4. If you see an error message “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them”, then you may have to reboot your system in safe mode and execute the above command in Command Prompt again.

Working with DISM Command

Deployment Image & Servicing Management tool(DSIM) is a part of Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 to fix errors that allow SFC command from working properly.

Executing DISM

Just like SFC, DISM also needs admin privileges in Command Prompt. It’ll check your Windows component store for any corruption issues and fixes whatever problems it finds.

Here’s the command you’ve to use in DISM

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restore Health

The repair process may take some time, normally five to ten minutes. Sometimes, its progress bar may halt at some point. No need to worry, it’s temporary.

Apart from corrupt windows system files, you could also encounter damaged word files. Learn about word file repair tool here.

Also Read:

  1. How to Repair Corrupt DJI video files?
  2. Repair Video Files Corrupted while Editing: A Video Editors Handbook
  3. Windows 10 Driver Backup using DISM Command
  4. How to Use Outlook Inbox Repair Tool to fix corrupted Data File
Default image
John Harris

Senior Editor, Content Analyst and a fan of exceptional customer service. John develops and publishes instructional and informational content regarding partition management, Windows hot-fixes, data management and computer troubleshooting.

As a tenured data recovery specialist, John shares exceptional insights and blog posts about data loss and data recovery across any storage device. With 8+ years’ experience in writing for Data Recovery for both Mac OS and Windows OS computers, he is an avid learner who always wants to polish and simplify the data recovery process. John passes his free time playing Chess and reading Science Fiction novels.

Articles: 516

Leave a Reply