Did you notice the PC or laptop not working or slow after the windows 11 upgrade? Apps or programs fail to open with different errors or windows start or shutdown take longer than expected. All these are symptoms of system file corruption on windows 11 PC. If system files on your computer get corrupted for any reason, you may experience certain problems such as BSOD, system crash, file explorer lags, Windows 11 PC freezes and loads slowly and more. And you need to repair corrupted system files on windows 11 to fix such problems on your computer. Here in this post, we try to find out, What causes Files to Corrupt and how to Repair or replace Windows 11 Corrupted System Files.
What causes Files to Corrupt?
There are multiple reasons cause Windows files can get corrupted such as due to power outages, viruses or malware infection, hardware problems, botched Windows updates, software crashes, etc lead to system file corruption on windows 11.
For example, if you are installing a software update or upgrade windows 11, and the installation is interrupted in between such as system crashes or internet disruption then it may lead to file corruption.
Whatever the reason, Windows 11 has a number of built-in scanners and troubleshooters that you can run to help fix corrupted files in Windows 11.
How to repair Corrupt Files on Windows 11
First of all Make sure you’ve installed the latest updates for Windows, and then restart your machine.
Running Windows Update can sometimes replace corrupted files, especially if they were caused by a previous Windows update.
- Press Windows key + X and select settings,
- Go to windows update then hit the check for updates button,
- If windows updates are pending there, allow them to download and install on your computer
- Once done reboot your computer to apply the updates.
Restart your computer refresh the operating system and clear temporary glitches as well.
Run SFC scan now to Repair System Files
Windows 11 has built in System File Checker utility that checks for problems with files on your computer. This is the most effective tool to detect any corrupted files on your system and repair or replace them with correct ones.
For best results, we recommend run the system file checker utility in safe mode.
- Press Windows key + S and type cmd, right click on command prompt select run as administrator,
- Type command sfc /scannow and press enter key to scan your system for corrupted files,
- Depending upon how many files and apps are installed on your computer, the scan and fix process will take some time.
- let the scanning process complete 100%, and make sure not to interrupt the process while the system file checker tool scanning in progress.
Use DISM Commands to Replace Corrupt Files
DISM stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management, it’s another command line tool very helpful when trying to fix corrupted files in Windows 11. Running the DISM restore health command searches for corrupt image files associated with various Windows services. It will download the latest images and files from the Microsoft server and replace the corrupt ones.
- Open command prompt as administrator
- type command DISM/Online/Cleanup-Image/RestoreHealth and press enter key
- Do not stop the process and let it finish the scanning process may take time depends on the volume of files you have on your PC.
- Once the scanning is complete 100% Restart the computer. This should necessarily fix corrupt files on Windows PC.
Run Startup Repair if windows 11 fails to boot
If due to any reason windows 11 PC fails to boot, there are chances, of corrupted system files causing the issue. In such case you need to run startup repair from the boot menu that automatically repairs the files on your computer.
Note- Hence, windows won’t start or fail to boot, you need to boot from installation media to access advanced options and perform startup repair.
Refer to this post how to create windows 11 installation media.
- First Connect the bootable media to your windows 11 PC
- Now restart your PC and select the boot option as the USB flash drive
- Skip the first screen, and on the Windows installation screen, click on the Repair your computer option at the bottom,
- This will take you to the Advanced recovery options.
- Choose the option Troubleshoot then advanced options, and when the advanced options screen opens select the Startup Repair option.
The Startup Repair process will initiate and will start detecting your PC of any issues. If any found, it will automatically apply the fix.
Run disk check tool
In addition, Try running the Chkdsk command utility to see if there’s a problem with one of your storage drives that is leading to corrupted files.
- Open command prompt as administrator,
- Type command chkdsk C: /f /r /x and press enter key,
Here chkdsk refers to the check disk command, and the C: refers to the volume (drive). The syntax /F fix any errors found on the disk, whereas/R tells chkdsk to locate bad sectors and recover any readable information from them. And the syntex /X will force a dismount of the volume if necessary.
- Now press Y and hit enter key to schedule run check disk command on the next start,
- Close everything and reboot your PC to allow run the check disk command and repair bad sectors if there are any.
If running chkdsk command fixes the issue but it crops up again soon, you might want to consider replacing the drive with a newer one.
If the above solutions don’t work to fix your corrupted files, you can always roll back to a system restore point that was registered before the corruption occurred. Also, there is a Reset this PC option to refresh or factory reset windows 11 without any data loss.
Also read:
- Windows 10 stuck on repairing disk errors? Here is how to fix it
- Windows 11 Photos App not opening or Not working? Try these solutions
- How to Speed Up Microsoft Edge browser on windows 10 (Updated)
- 5 solutions to fix NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM error in Windows 11 and 10
- Solved: Something Happened on Our End Error on Microsoft Store
