Solved The black hole that is DISM/RestoreHealth

Has anyone recently looked at their DISM RestoreHealth logs? I did a Win 11 baseline update yesterday on one of my client's machines and just on a whim I ran SFC/scannow after the update and was presented with the fact there were corrupted files. Research indicates SFC makes whatever corrections it does from a local repository so I ran it and it said it could not fix the corrupted files. I then ran both DISM/ScanHealth and DISM/CheckHealth and was informed that the image was "repairable". Now comes the fun part. I ran DISM/RestoreHealth and as expected it sat at 62.3% for the better part of an hour while windows attempted to download and replace corrupted packages. At the end of the hour (or so) I was informed the image could not be repaired because one or more package sources could not be found. Apparently DISM tries to find the sources in a "catalog" somewhere and if it can't find it, it reverts to Windows Update where, it still could not find the replacement packages. (this puzzles me). Examination of the log showed numerous source corruptions and/or the inability to identify the replacement source packages.

So, today I did a "reset/restore" which reloaded windows (with the loss of apps etc. which I had to restore) and re-ran SFC/scannow ScanHealth, and CheckHealth, all of which indicated the baseline was good with no corruptions. After restoring apps and user-settings etc, I again checked the baseline which showed everything was OK. Then I noticed there was a Windows update in the queue (presumably the one that I done done earlier, I didn't notice the number). When that was done, again I re-ran ScanHealth/CheckHealth and yup, I was told the system was "repairable". I re-ran RestoreHealth...again and same thing happened. Sticks at 62.3% while it downloads and tries to replace corrupted packages. This time it only took about 30 minutes, and this time it reported everything was fixed. I ran the system file checker which reported no corruptions. Just to make sure, I checked the DISM log and there was a plethora of errors reported on corrupted source packages from both the catalog source and the WU source.

I'm certainly no expert on the methodology Microsoft uses to "restore" corrupted user files or packages, but in the past the both the CBS (SFC) logs and the DISM logs were comfortably boring, which I guess is a good thing, but not these. When I see references to corrupted "source" packages that gives me some cause for concern.

At this point, I really have no idea what the level of corruption may exist on my client's computer given the verbiage in the log. I'm a little leery of the health of the baseline given this recent behavior.

I've attached the latest log (which overwrote the others) so if someone want to wade through it and do some investigation into what might be happening I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Jabiru

Why didn't you just do a repair install/upgrade? Just find the version (or newer) version of windows image ISO and do a repair install? You don't lose anything that way.

You can also go to Setup, System, Recovery and do a Reset PC. Choose to keep your personal files and applications and let 'er rip. I did that for an upgrade from Windows Home to Windows Pro recently, worked like a charm.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Why didn't you just do a repair install/upgrade?

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While a repair install is the best thing since sliced bread for fixing most problems and may have well fixed this poster's, if corruption exists and depending on where that corruption is located, chances are the repair upgrade will fail. This is one of the reasons we see so many 24h2 upgrades fail....because a machine has corruption going into the upgrade.

To the OP. I very rarely reset and keep user files since many times a user account is corrupted. I backup user data(from within Windows if possible or from a Linux distro if I can't get into Windows. If his user files are synced to onedrive I don't even have to do that) I then use the correct iso and clean install instead of spinning my wheels and wasting my time trying this and that and the other..

glasskuter said:

To the OP. I very rarely reset and keep user files since many times a user account is corrupted. I backup user data(from within Windows if possible or from a Linux distro if I can't get into Windows. If his user files are synced to onedrive I don't even have to do that) I then use the correct iso and clean install instead of spinning my wheels and wasting my time trying this and that and the other..

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Another option is a custom install as it no longer uses old user accounts.

It installs a fresh operating system and registry.

Important files are restored to new users.

You can obviously do a fresh install, but there's no sense adding hours of work if you have already invested in installing a bunch of stuff on the existing thread. If a repair install fixes it, great. If not, there's always the fresh install that you can do anyway.

I was hoping someone would look at the logs to see why online source files could not be found or were already corrupted even before the download.

Jabiru said:

I was hoping someone would look at the logs to see why online source files could not be found or were already corrupted even before the download.

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Well, I typically focus on how to most quickly and effortlessly recover from the issue. Trying to outguess some of the complexities of Windows structure and obscure errors just seems like a snipe hunt many times.

You know what I'd do, but opinions vary on the correct course of action now.

I have done many install/repairs since updating from Windows 10 to 11 and I never had one fail. I will take a look at the Files though.

Jabiru said:

I was hoping someone would look at the logs to see why online source files could not be found or were already corrupted even before the download.

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If you do an inplace install repair, it is best to not update anything until the procedure is finished, as shown below

Select (dot) Not right now for "Get updates, drivers and optional features". (see screenshot below)

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Josey Wales said:

If you do an inplace install repair, it is best to not update anything until the procedure is finished, as shown below

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

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Yep, I don't understand the fixation about trying to chase down the exact cause given the complexity of the Windows universe. Windows is comprised of millions of lines of code, I've got better things to do with my time.

I also spend time resolving errors. It takes a long time to find the problem. And the solving percentage can be zero. It is easier and quicker to do an in-Place-Install. Use the ISO Win11 26100.1742 build. Start setup while logged into Windows. It will leave your data alone. It only replaces Windows Components. Choose no for searching for updates. That is not necessary. When completed turn off Windows update to search for an update quick. The use SFC and DISM commands to make sure your installation has no issues. Turn on Windows update again and search for updates. Install them and after that your at the latest build. Saves time.