How to run sfc /scannow from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)

When attempting to run the System File Checker (sfc.exe) within the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), you may receive the following error:

Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service.

The error is shown in the screenshot below (Figure 1 (English-only)):


Figure 1: Windows Resource Protection Error

When running sfc /scannow in WinRE, two switches need to be added to the command in order to run it in offline mode:

• /offbootdir=<disk> indicates the boot drive letter.
• /offwindir=<folder> indicates the folder where Windows is installed.

The following is an example of the command with these switches added:

• sfc /scannow /offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=D:\Windows