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You do “Learn something new every day!” After fifteen+ years in IT, I assumed I knew just about every Windows™ utility. I had never heard of the System File Checker (SFC) utility until yesterday. This command line utility can fix corrupted file systems on XP, Vista and Windows 7.

This all started a few weeks ago when my husband started having issues with his Windows 7 HP laptop. The system was slow to start or “wake up” and the hard drive would spin endlessly. He finally had some free time to fix it yesterday. After much searching help, he came across this article http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/75219-unableto-run-chkdsk-f.html, which explains how to use the command sfc/scannow. After running this utility his hard disk is now working properly.

System File Checker will check protected system files and if a file has been overwritten, the utility will replace the corrupted file with a non-corrupted file.

To use this command go to the Run Box from the Start button and enter sfc/scannow. This will start scanning the protected system files and replace any corrupted files. You must have administrative privilege to run this command.

To learn more about this utility and the additional parameters, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310747 or contact your IT support person.