Unstable system scannow returns problems not fixed. What next?

I found a very old thread and followed suggestion to post new. So here goes.
Over the last few days I have experienced a pronounced slowdown on my Lenovo Win 7 SP1 machine. Tried a lot of thing ending with running “sfc scannow” from cmd prompt with this return: “Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log”

I cannot open this file even following a suggestion I found on another site which was to enter the following at the prompt:
“findstr/c: “[SR]”%windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log>”%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt”

I find a file with the name sfcdetails.txt but it is empty. AND I am lost. I am completely and totally incompetent to proceed. Can someone please advise what all this means and what I should do now?


BACKGROUND:
Don’t know how much background, if any, would be helpful, so briefly the problems developed beginning with windows (particularly while in Firefox) closing unexpectedly; then when trying to wake up PC would see a dos screen with message to the effect “to reboot and select proper boot device. . .” Then yesterday morning when I would shut down I would select F10 so I could select the proper boot device, and PC would start then go to the same “reboot and select message (“R&S”). At this point I would have to turn the PC off and back on in order to initiate a boot. Then after a few more attempts PC would come up running CHKDSK. The first time this happened CHKDSK ended with message to effect that wasn’t enough space to repair $I30 at a particular address. After a few more attempts when turn on, go to F10 and would return a blinking cursor (_). At this point I thought of a reason for this behavior and disconnected an newly attached external drive. At this point I was able to boot up properly and I thought all was well. That is not the case.

Brink said:

Hello ehwj,

See if doing the items in the blue note box at the bottom of OPTION TWO may be able to allow SFC to repair the files afterwards. :)

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Thanks, Brink.
Ran sfc /scannow 3 times. Each time the return was found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. Haven't figured out how to open the log file so don't know what files are corrupt, but it doesn't make a lot of difference at this point since I this computer came with Win 7 installed. I do have some old backups if it comes to that.
I started this reply when it had taken more than 15 minutes to install the System Update Readiness Tool. Just as I typed this the install completed. I'll go ahead and post just as a progress report.

Brink,
Installing System Update Readiness Tool did not help. Ran 3 times but still get return that could not repair the errors. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don't have a CD with Win 7 - at least I don't have the greatest confidence in. I have a recovery disk that I can try.
Before I try that I'm wondering if there is any way to run from Safe Boot?

Second concern is how do I open the log file and how do I attach it to my reply. Sorry I know I should know how to do these things, but my PC gets slower and slower. I need to figure out a way to get it all backed up to a verifiable backup before this goes to sleep forever.

Thanks again for your help.
ehwj

Brink said:

If you like, you could do a factory recovery on your Lenovo computer to restore it back to default. Be sure to back up anything that you do not want to lose first.

Lenovo Technical Support: how to Lenovo Laptops - Restore factory settings

If you like, you could also do a clean install instead.

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Brink,
Can't thank you enough for your help. My Lenovo is a desktop. I think I'll go with the clean install instead. I have tried to maintain good backups over the years but everytime I have to reinstall the OS or buy a new machine I have a horrible time restoring all of my programs and files. So I am really dreading this undertaking.
Before I begin, can you help me one more time and point me to a detailed tutorial on best way to back up. The instructions only say "3. Backup your files externally by copying your named user accouny or active User folders to an external drive . . ." On the C: drive I have folders with all my installed programs and data files for many of the installed programs. I have a lot of shortcut icons on my desktop. This is an accumulation of stuff beginning in 1993. I don't know very much about Win 7 and I'm not sure what files will be replaced and what files I can restore after the clean reinstall.
I have some tools installed, including Paragon's Hard Disk Manager 12 Suite, Diskeeper 12, WinPE Recovery Media Builder.
Please give whatever suggestions you have about backing up. Reading over the tutorial I think the rest of it is straightforward. (The backup may be as well, but I am paranoid about the potential restore issues.)

Brink said:

If you like, you could do a factory recovery on your Lenovo computer to restore it back to default. Be sure to back up anything that you do not want to lose first.

Lenovo Technical Support: how to Lenovo Laptops - Restore factory settings

If you like, you could also do a clean install instead.

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Honestly a reinstall or factory reset are the last things I want to do. But as this machine gets slower and slower I must do something. I wish there were more alternatives. Before I do this I must get a good backup. In the past I have thought I had a backup only to find out I really didn't. You have helped a lot already, Brink, but can you point me toward a good tutorial on how and what to backup. I have all sorts of commercial programs I have purchased over the years but some are out of date and those I have used in the past turned out not to have backed up properly so I could restore. For the most part I keep my data on the second HDD, but not all.

Now I'm getting popup Microsoft windows saying disk defects has been detected and I need to back up. I am trying to do so. However, when I try to copy Users folder to external drive I get error message that I have to run as administrator. Ordinarily I would right click on the item in Start and click on Run as Administrator, but that doesn't work. What do I need to do.
ehw