How to Repair Your Corrupted Files Using SFC & DISM Commands?

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Windows 10 has two commands that can help you check and repair the file system on your computer, read this article to understand how SFC and DISM commands help you in Windows system file repair.

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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 runs into some problems?

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

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.

Windows System File Repair using SFC

  • Open Command Prompt(Admin)
  • Type SFC /scan now in Command Prompt and press Enter to start a full system scan

Note: There must be space between SFC and /.

sfc-command
  • If there are no issues, you’ll see this message “Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations”.
  • 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.

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

Windows System File Repair using DISM

Deployment Image & Servicing Management tool(DSIM) is a part of Windows 8, 10, and 11 to fix errors that prevent SFC commands from working properly.

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

  • Open Command Prompt(Admin)
  • Type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth in Command Prompt and press Enter to start a full system scan.

Note: There must be spacing between DISM, Online, Cleanup-Image, and /.

dism command to repair system files
  • The repair process may take some time, normally ten to fifteen minutes. Sometimes, its progress bar may halt at some point. No need to worry, it’s temporary.
  • After the process is completed restart the computer and run the SFC command again to replace the remaining corrupted files (if any).

When to Use SFC and DISM?

SFC command will be quite useful under the following situations.

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

NOTE: Apart from corrupt Windows system files, you could also encounter damaged Word files. Learn about Word file repair tool here.

Conclusion

This article has listed detailed instructions on how to use SFC and DISM commands to fix Windows System File Repair, These commands will help you perform a system restore, and reset your computer to solve the issues.

About the Author: John Harris

With a decade of experience in data recovery, John Harris, Senior Editor at Remo Software, is your go-to specialist. His focus includes partition management, Windows solutions, and data troubleshooting, delivering insightful content that serves both users and search engines. John's expertise shines through in illuminating blog posts, untangling data loss intricacies across diverse storage platforms.…