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


ddelo

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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:
Integrity.png

Safe Mode:
Integrity SM.png

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

Any ideas? Does anybody else experience this behavior?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
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    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
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
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 PRO / Windows Server 2016 Essentials
I think it all sounds a bit pointless to me go with what @Win7ine suggested it makes sense and would seem to achieve something.
 

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System One System Two

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    Windows 11 Pro
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    Alienware M18 R1
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    13th Gen Core i9 13900HX
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    32GB DDR5 @4800MHz 2x16GB
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    C: KIOXIA (Toshiba) 2TB KXG80ZNV2T04 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
    D: KIOXIA (Toshiba) 2TB KXG80ZNV2T04 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
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  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
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    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware Area 51m R2
    CPU
    10th Gen i-9 10900 K
    Memory
    32Gb Dual Channel DDR4 @ 8843MHz
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    Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
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    Nvidia
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    1920 x 1080
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    Hard Drive C: Samsung 2TB SSD PM981a NVMe
    Hard Drive D:Samsung 2TB SSD 970 EVO Plus
    Mouse
    Alienware 610M
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Norton
I usually run a system sanity check after every Windows update.
That includes:
...

Any ideas? Does anybody else experience this behavior?
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.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DIY
    CPU
    Ryzen 7 5800X
    Motherboard
    Asus TUF B550M Gaming-Plus
    Memory
    GSkill 3200, 2x8GB
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    MSI RX 6800 XT Gaming Z
    Sound Card
    on-board Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 144hz
    Screen Resolution
    1440p
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 980 Pro, Samsung 870 Evo, generic PCIe NVME, WD 1TB 2.5" laptop spinner
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    one that clacks softly
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    logitech
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    bunches of bps
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    Firefox
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    Windows' own
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
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.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
    Hard Drives
    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
Problem disappeared, as suddenly as it came!!!!
Go figure....


SFC_2022.04.09.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
    Hard Drives
    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
Like women.. totally unpredictable - the more we try to understand the more confused we get ..

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

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
    Hard Drives
    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
Hey Craig....wise words. I couldn't agree more!!!! :):):)
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.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows
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.

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

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
    Hard Drives
    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
It definitely looks like it. The most strange thing was that in Safe Mode it always run flawlessly...
It probably does not interface with drivers properly... old apps (the cmd stuff) do not have interface ability, so assume that's the issue.
 

My Computer

System One

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

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

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    DELL Precision 3560
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake)
    Motherboard
    DELL 004N73 / UEFI Ver. 1.18.1
    Memory
    SK Hynix 16GB DDR4 3200MHz SDRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    intel® iRIS® Xe Graphics / NVIDIA T500 2GB GDDR6 SDRAM
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 IPS
    Hard Drives
    Internal: KIOXIA BG4 Series 512 GB PCIe® NVMe™ M.2 SSD
    External: 2 x WD Passport 2TB USB 3.0, 1 x Toshiba 500GB USB 3.0
    Keyboard
    Standard laptop backlit keyboard with numeric keypad
    Mouse
    hp wheel mouse
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    MS Windows Defender
    Other Info
    DELL USB slim Optical Drive DW316
    Macrium Reflect v8 (backup and.... lifesaver)
Yep...they don't interface with drivers properly... but they seem to adapt quite fast, as they finally do!!! :);-)
Yep Gotta give MS credit if they are updating the driver interface to make their old outdated stuff work... LOL!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows

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