Solved Could I have some help understanding this Command Prompt "/scannow" result please?

I just performed a "/scannow" operation in Command Prompt and could use some help understanding the message it returned. I understand most of it, including the "online repairs" section marked in green in the first attached screenshot.

What I don't understand is the "offline repairs" section of the message, marked in pink in that same screenshot: it says to use the "/OFFLOGFILE" Flag to find details about the "offline repairs", so I entered "sfc /scannow /OFFLOGFILE=C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log" into Command Prompt, but that just produced the message seen in the second attached screenshot.

I believe the command is:
findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt

Run the command through CMD as admin.

@_william


Short version...

IF... sfc /scannow shows any errors, fixed or not, run this command next...

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth


Took around 8 minutes to run both...

@antpants
I already did that. And that information, as far as I can see, only pertains to the "online repairs" part of the process. My question regarding the "offline repairs" part remains unanswered I think.

_william said:

My question regarding the "offline repairs" part remains unanswered I think.

Click to expand...

I believe that log path is only created when you pass /offwindir or /offbootdir to SFC, the /offlogfile switch specifies where you would like to write the log file to. The main log file(s) you should be examining if you have errors is %systemroot%\Logs\CBS.

The documentation is here: sfc

Specifies a location to store the log file other than the default.

Click to expand...

I don’t want to sound like I am criticising your wanting to know, William, and having your PC running at peak performance; But error correction via a restorehealth is not uncommon. It very likely would not of been anything you did, Windows just gets a little jumbled and confused and needs to correct itself sometimes.
If you can run scannow & restorhealth again and see no issues, I would call that a great result.
I do however understand your curiosity.

@Ghot
Thanks for that.

_william said:

I just performed a "/scannow" operation

Click to expand...

An "SFC" operation.

Offline repairs are repairs to your installed Windows when you are outside Windows e.g. when you have booted from an InstallUSB.

_william said:

but that just produced the message seen in the second attached screenshot

Click to expand...

In response to an error in the syntax you used, SFC returned its built-in Help file.
Included in that Help file is the syntax for offline SFC.

There's more info in your other thread including a link to the SFC tutorial.


Denis

@x BlueRobot That's great. I understand now. Thanks once again for your help.

@Ghot "You can never have too much backup". I politely disagree... one can have so many backups that there is no time left to actually put any meaningful content into those backups, as all of one's time is spent maintaining those backups...

@denis Thanks. @x BlueRobot helped me understand.

_william said:

@Ghot "You can never have too much backup". I politely disagree... one can have so many backups that there is no time left to actually put any meaningful content into those backups, as all of one's time is spent maintaining those backups...

Click to expand...

Nae, good fellow. If you look at the pics in my MR guide... I barely use a tenth of it's functions.
There's hardly any maintaining to do. I always backup from within Windows and restore from the bootable media.
My backups or restores, take less than 2 mins.


This is about all I do with MR. (occasionally, I'll use the Fix boot tool as well).

@Ghot Well that looks like a very good system, thanks for telling me about it.

_william said:

@Ghot Well that looks like a very good system, thanks for telling me about it.

Click to expand...

It took me a while to figure it out. But I keep less than 40GB on my C:\ drive.
A backup takes me 1:38 mins., and a restore, just a tad under 2 mins.

With backups and restores that fast, I just use MR like a boo-boo machine.
If I make a mistake, no problem... restore from a backup.
Test an iffy program, that I have no clue whether it left bad juju on my comp, no problem, restore from a backup.

Ofc, the trick is to keep the used space on the C:\ drive... small.
Games or large programs, I install on my storage drive.


Here is a typed out explanation I gave someone on Ten Forums...




NOTE: I don't keep ALL the backups I make.

I keep the current Win 10 and Win 11 backup on my G:\ partition.
I keep about 3 months worth on my K:\ partition (just in case).