Solved sfc /scannow won't run | stuck on win7 logo screen

StevenY500 · May 30, 2015

Hi everyone,

When I run sfc /scannow I get to see "this process will take some time." and a blinking cursor whereupon absolutely nothing happens; this screen stays on forever.

My Lenovo Y500 won't boot into win7 anymore all of a sudden and after puzzling around for several hours now I'm close to despair. The laptop freezes at the windows logo screen, so pretty much at the beginning of booting. Laptop won't boot into safe mode, BIOS reset didn't work out, only working option is "repair your computer" from where I'm able to run command prompt. However sfc /scannow seems to freeze / go on forever. I have a Lenovo Y500 with 1TB HDD & 256 GB SSD (system) installed. When I run CHKDSK on the SSD it also freezes in stage 2 at 16%; no error warning, the screen just stays on forever. When I boot from a rescue disk however I'm able to access all the files on the SSD without any errors.

I've added a picture of the sfc /scannow process where I'm stuck.

Looking forward to some advice,

Kind regards
Steven

ICIT2LOL · May 31, 2015

Hello and welcome Steven mate did you make a repair disk when you first installed the machine or have you still got the installation media? If so take a look at this.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html &
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html < if possible or even this might be the way to go - hope you have data backed up
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

StevenY500 · May 31, 2015

Thanks for your reply.

I didn't make a repair disk on the first install, but I do have the installation disk. When I run Startup Repair it yields no errors; it claims everything is fine (ran it several times). I made sure I marked system reserve as active. Rebooted my pc, still freezes at logo screen.

Next I tried:

Code:

Bootrec /Fixboot
Bootrec /Fixmbr
Bootsect /nt60 all /MBR

These commands executed succesfully; rebooting again freezes at logo screen.

Next I tried:
bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup

Code:

c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

Again, rebooting stopped at the logo screen.

Windows still won't boot normal, nor in safe mode. Both chkdsk and sfc /scannow processes freeze.

Meanwhile I've booted Parted Magic via CD and ran a health check on both SSD and HDD; both came out healthy.

Next I'm going to delete my system reserve partition and run System Repair again; fingers crossed. If that doesn't work I'm gonna try a repair install.

Kind regards,
Steven

NoelDP · May 31, 2015

Loks to me like you should be using the E: drive for the Offline SFC to work (although it could be the D: drive)
The C: drive here is the System Reserved partition, of 100MB only - and you do not want to mess with that!

StevenY500 · May 31, 2015

Hi,

Maybe it's hard to read in the picture, but I entered the following:

Code:

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=e:\windows

Is this correct?

NoelDP · May 31, 2015

No - both instances need to be either D: or E:

StevenY500 · May 31, 2015

Oh thanks. Tried it with /offbootdir=e:\ /offwindir=e:\windows this time. Still no progress, its running now quite some time.

Furthermore a repair install doesn't work since you have to run the installer from within windows, which i cannot access.

NoelDP · May 31, 2015

Did the SFC scan actually start, though? It can take 20minutes or so to complete.

If not, try the D: drive instead.

StevenY500 · May 31, 2015

It seems like it didnt even start. D: isnt my system drive, nevertheless I also tried it. I included a picture of my screen. This text stays on forever and my pc doesnt get passed it. Command Prompt doesnt respond anymore from this point on, i cant even enter "exit".

Regards,
Steven

NoelDP · Jun 1, 2015

This sounds like some heavy-duty corruption

Try running CHDSK from there - you'll need to run CHKDSK D: /R and CHKDSK E: /R

ICIT2LOL · Jun 1, 2015

A tad confused here so the D: & E: drives are partitions?? or separate drives?

StevenY500 · Jun 1, 2015

SSD Drive | 250 GB | 2 partitions : C & E ("reserve" + system)
HDD Drive | 1 TB | 2 partitions : D & F (both data storage)

Chkdsk D runs fine, chkdsk E freezes after minutes.

Meanwhile I've decided to go for a clean install on my SSD drive. However windows setup freezes after I choose SSD as destination disk. All this points in the direction of a corrupted SSD.

Opened up the laptop, removed the SSD, installed Win7 on a HDD partition. This finally worked out; Windows was just able to boot.

I've just ordered a new mSATA SSD drive online. It will be deliverd tomorrow. Hopefully a SSD replacement seals the deal. Otherwise it might be some mainboard mSATA controller failure (is this possible?).

Thanks for all the help, I'll keep you updated on the SSD replacement.

Kind regards,
Steven

ICIT2LOL · Jun 1, 2015

Got you now and probably the best solution Steven

StevenY500 · Jun 20, 2015

Hi guys,

Been some while since I reported an update. I was quite busy doing other things lately and since my laptop ran from the HDD as temporary option I didn't get to the new SSD install for some time.

Meanwhile I have installed a new mSATA 850 evo which works fine. During the system crash 2 weeks ago I cloned the crashed SSD with clonezilla to an external HDD - miraculously no errors. I transfered the clone to my new SSD and booted my laptop: succes! Laptop runs like nothing ever happened; all software installed as it was two weeks ago before the crash. Connected the old SSD via mSATA-usb interface: windows prompts something about data corruption. Looks like the old SSD is really toast.

TLDR: Replaced SSD and everything is back to normal.

Thanks guys over here for all the help. I will mark this thread as solved

Kind regards,
Steven

ICIT2LOL · Jun 20, 2015

Glad it got fixed Steven

Layback Bear · Jun 20, 2015

I would wipe the old ssd and then see if it can be used for something else.

Just because data is corrupted doesn't necessarily mean the ssd is bad. It just might be just the data.

StevenY500 · Jun 20, 2015

I'll give it a try. But both checkdisk as a clean widows install would stall halfway in the process so my guess is the SSD is bad.

ICIT2LOL · Jun 21, 2015

Layback Bear said:
I would wipe the old ssd and then see if it can be used for something else.

Just because data is corrupted doesn't necessarily mean the ssd is bad. It just might be just the data.

Yes a good tip from Layback Bear and might even be worth running a test on it via an external connection using a USB to SATA adaptor (not expensive - see pic)

Another option would be this ditty of mine

BOOTABLE UBUNTU

Make a bootable Ubuntu disk http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Set the BIOS to boot from theoptical when the machine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL> select TRYnot INSTALL

When it is finished - it takes verylittle time you will get a screen like in the pic .

Open the drive you want > Userand dig down until you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy /paste the material you want to an external source or other installed drive doingthis.

I am not sure if it will but I haverecovered tons of data etc using this method both on "dead" or justplain drives that you cannot get data from using Windows.

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