Solved System File Checker (SFC) takes a very long time to complete

I usually run a system sanity check after every Windows update.
That includes:
Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth (or Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth in PowerShell) sfc /SCANNOW

That's what I did after installing KB5011563 (Build 22000.593)

While DISM completed with no issues, sfc got stuck to 33% then to 60%, 72%, 92%, 95% to finally finish after a very long time, without finding any integrity violations.
Since the time that is usually needed for sfc is around 60-90 sec I found it very strange and tried to run it in Safe Mode.
Completed successfully with no integrity violations in less than 60 sec.

So I decided to run a chkdsk C: /F just in case... No problems found.

As a last resort I took "drastic measures":

1st Step: Restored 22000.556 from a Macrium image and then let it update to 22000.593... same results.

2nd step: Did an in-place-upgrade using the latest W11 iso.... Took 20 min. to complete and another 15 min to get from 22000.328 to 22000.593.

Run it again in both Normal and Safe Mode and got the exact same results, as shown in the images:

Normal Mode:


Safe Mode:


So I'm back to where everything started!!!

Any ideas? Does anybody else experience this behavior?

Question is what your practice of "system sanity check" is to achieve?
First of all, you are checking not! but initiating repairs without knowing if these are necessary or indeed are possibly crossing
paths with timed and current windows internal clean up operations already automated and running.
Correctly, if you want to "check" you need to invoke the right commands:

sfc /verifyonly
dism /online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

I think it all sounds a bit pointless to me go with what @Win7ine suggested it makes sense and would seem to achieve something.

ddelo said:

I usually run a system sanity check after every Windows update.
That includes:
...

Any ideas? Does anybody else experience this behavior?

Click to expand...

After an OS update I usually run an SFC /SCANNOW but that's all. I have noticed it can sometimes run really, really slow. When that happens I will CTRL-C out of it, shut down the terminal session and restart Windows. Then it runs fast...and frequently finds system file corruption to fix. I find it odd that Windows' update process will so frequently leave the system like that.

Win7ine said:

Question is what your practice of "system sanity check" is to achieve?
First of all, you are checking not! but initiating repairs without knowing if these are necessary or indeed are possibly crossing
paths with timed and current windows internal clean up operations already automated and running.
Correctly, if you want to "check" you need to invoke the right commands:

sfc /verifyonly
dism /online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, but allow me a comment.
The /SCANNOW switch contains the functionality of the /VERIFYONLY one, and adds the fix of any integrity violations. In other words if there are no violations found it doesn't do anything more then the /VERIFYONLY.

And to substantiate that claim, I did run sfc /VERIFYONLY and got the exact same results!!!!
The process got stuck at 34% then at 61%, 74%, 93%, 95% to finally finish after a very long time (~26 min), without finding any integrity violations. The exact same behavior with the /SCANNOW switch.

Problem disappeared, as suddenly as it came!!!!
Go figure....

ddelo said:

Problem disappeared, as suddenly as it came!!!!
Go figure....


View attachment 26507

Click to expand...

Like women.. totally unpredictable - the more we try to understand the more confused we get ..

Superfly said:

Like women.. totally unpredictable - the more we try to understand the more confused we get ..

Click to expand...

Hey Craig....wise words. I couldn't agree more!!!! :):):)

ddelo said:

Hey Craig....wise words. I couldn't agree more!!!! :):):)

Click to expand...

LOL.. Dimitri, I did do a post where I wanted to 're-imagine' DISM... should be under the Apps section - anyway gave up on that when I checked the API's... I'm not a C++ expert but if just creating handles proves a problem.. it's not for me .. I assume scannow has similar code deficiencies.

Superfly said:

LOL.. Dimitri, I did do a post where I wanted to 're-imagine' DISM... should be under the Apps section - anyway gave up on that when I checked the API's... I'm not a C++ expert but if just creating handles proves a problem.. it's not for me .. I assume scannow has similar code deficiencies.

Click to expand...

It definitely looks like it. The most strange thing was that in Safe Mode it always run flawlessly...

ddelo said:

It definitely looks like it. The most strange thing was that in Safe Mode it always run flawlessly...

Click to expand...

It probably does not interface with drivers properly... old apps (the cmd stuff) do not have interface ability, so assume that's the issue.

Superfly said:

It probably does not interface with drivers properly... old apps (the cmd stuff) do not have interface ability, so assume that's the issue.

Click to expand...

Yep...they don't interface with drivers properly... but they seem to adapt quite fast, as they finally do!!! :)

ddelo said:

Yep...they don't interface with drivers properly... but they seem to adapt quite fast, as they finally do!!! :)

Click to expand...

Yep Gotta give MS credit if they are updating the driver interface to make their old outdated stuff work... LOL!