What are the Difference Between SFC, CHKDSK, and DISM in Windows 10?

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What are the Difference Between SFC, CHKDSK, and DISM in Windows 10? – Guide

If you frequently experience a system crash, screen freeze or the legendary BSOD – Blue Screen Of Death – on your Windows computer, some Windows registry files are likely corrupted.

These issues can be easily fixed with the built-in Windows 10 SFC, CHKDSK, or DISM diagnostic tools.

But which tool should YOU use on your system first? Let’s first look at the difference between SFC, CHKDSK and DISM.

Each tool works differently and it’s important to know how they work. If you decide to use all three tools, it may take a while up to 24 hours for effective results. To find out which tool is best for you, you must first understand the basic definitions of SFC, CHKDSK and DISM.

SFC checks for missing important Windows operating system files and restores them from cache.

CHKDSK scans your drive for bad sectors and tries to fix file system errors.

DISM directly handles faulty Windows images and repairs them by downloading real replacement files from Windows online servers.

When should you use CHKDSK?

CHKDSK or Check Disk is the first step to start diagnosing your Windows system. It checks your computer’s file system for errors and tries to fix them locally. CHKDSK examines the integrity of disk partitions looking for logical file system errors or corrupt entries in the Master File Table (MFT) of a volume.

When the system suddenly shuts down, during a power outage or other incident, it is common to see incorrect entries in your OS file system. This could be caused by an incorrectly set timestamp or an incorrect file size entry. These entries can create bad sectors on your drive, causing your system to slow down or crash frequently. CHKDSK looks for these errors and tries to fix them.

However, in some cases, CHKDSK just informs the user of the problem and does nothing to fix it. This happens when CHKDSK considers the error to be severe or critical. Neglect and repeated replacement of existing bad sectors is the reason why your hard drive is in such a bad state that CHKDSK cannot fix it.

Here are two easy ways to run CHKDSK on your Windows computer

1. Run CHKDSK through File Explorer

2. Run CHKDSK from the command prompt

You can also run CHKDSK on your Windows computer via the Command Prompt. Alternatively, you can also use the same process mentioned below in Windows Powershell.

1. Search for CMD on your Windows computer, you can use Windows keyboard shortcut + S or simply press Windows key to open the search bar.

2. Now, right click on the command prompt and select the option Run as administrator.

run cmd as administrator

3. In the cmd terminal, type the drive letter chkdsk (space). For example, if you want to run CHKDSK on your C : drive, type

chkdsk c:

run chkdsk on cmd windows

Now press Enter on your keyboard.

This will run CHKDSK on your computer in read-only mode. If you want the CHKDSK tool to resolve issues on its own, use these CHKDSK commands.

To fix problems verified by CHKDSK automatically, type.

chkdsk / fc:

To check for errors and bad sectors, type

chkdsk / rc:

Here, c: represents the unit name, which is the alphabet assigned to your unit.

Running CHKDSK through Command Prompt takes the same time as running through Windows File Explorer.

CHKDSK shows “volume is in use by another process”

This is because, when running CHKDSK, it must be the only tool that accesses the drive in that instance. In such cases, the Command Prompt will prompt you to reschedule the check after reboot. You can also try manually closing all other programs on your computer to fix this error.

When should you use SFC?

SFC or System File Checker checks all Windows system files, including protected files, for corruption. If SFC finds any corrupt system files in Windows, it will replace those damaged files using a cached copy. These cache files are placed in a zipped folder within Windows itself and SFC will selectively replace these corrupted files with a copy taken from the cache.

The operating system saves a cached copy in a vault folder when protected files are modified on Windows as a backup. SFC makes use of these cached files, effectively replacing corrupted files with their original state. This is an effective way to repair system files.

SFC can also repair registry data errors. It uses the same concept of replacing modified files with cached copies. Microsoft first introduced SFC in Windows 98 to avoid problems faced by users when critical system files have been modified to the point of making the operating system unstable. If your computer crashes frequently or if you frequently experience the blue screen of death, running SFC may resolve the issue.

How to run SFC Scannow on Windows

1. Open Command Prompt as administrator by looking for CMD in Windows search bar, right-click and choose Run as administrator option.

2. You can allow SFC to run the fix on its own or run it in a read-only format,

3. For a full scan and automatic repair of corrupted files by SFC, enter this command

sfc / scannow

sfc scannow cmd windows

If you want to run SFC in read-only mode, use this command

sfc / verifyonly command

In read-only mode, SFC will only notify the user of file system errors and will not attempt to correct them. The user can later fix these issues on their own or run the sfc /scannow command again to allow SFC to fix these issues.

sfc scannow successful

After a successful SFC scan, you will get one of these three results.

1. Windows Resource Protection found no integrity violations

This means that your system has no corrupt or missing files. The file system is normal.

2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them

This result means that SFC was able to identify errors in your system and fix them. Therefore, no further action is required from the user in this case.

3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them

If you get this result, it means that SFC can diagnose the problems on your system, but it was not able to fix them. You can try repeating an SFC scan, which may resolve the issue. However, if the problem persists, you will have to run a DISM scan on your Windows computer.

When should you use DISM?

DISM stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management. It is the most advanced Windows scan and we recommend using it only if CHKDSK and SFC do not work for you. DISM is a command-line tool that handles Windows images and important parts of Windows recovery and configuration.

DISM can be considered a virtual disk with its own operating system loaded. It checks your operating system’s core files for any misbehaving files. DISM may require an active Internet connection for its full functionality (CHKDSK and DFC do not require an Internet connection).

The DISM tool is the ultimate solution for system failures as it targets the operating system directly, including administrator privileges. In most cases DISM will fix all critical issues and pave the way for SFC and CHKDSK to function normally. It is recommended to run a CHKDSK and SFC check after a successful DISM check.

How to to run DISM on Windows?

1. Open Elevated Command Prompt in administrator mode on your computer.

2. Enter these DISM commands to check the status of your drive. This step gives us an idea if the main components of your drive are corrupted or not.

Dism / Online / Cleanup-Image / CheckHealth

desm health check completed

3. After this step, if DISM does not detect any damage, we can proceed to check the health of your drive for an advanced DISM check by entering the command given below

Dism / Online / Cleanup-Image / ScanHealth

dism scan full windows

4. If this step returns with an error, rerun the same command. This time DISM will try to fix the problems by connecting to Windows servers and downloading the files needed to fix the problems in your operating system. This process can take around 15-20 minutes.

5. Once this is done, we need to apply these fixes to the operating system permanently. To do this, type the command below and press Enter on your keyboard.

Dism / Online / Cleanup-Image / RestoreHealth

Upon successful completion of all above steps, you will need to restart your Windows computer.

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