You cannot use the System File Checker (Sfc.exe) tool to verify or to repair Windows Vista in the following two scenarios:
- Windows Vista is in a mounted image file.
- Windows Vista is in a bootable Windows Imaging Format (WIM) file that is stored on a network share that you connect to as a network resource.
If Windows Vista is in a mounted image file, you cannot use the System File Checker tool. For example, you cannot use a command that resembles the following:
sfc /verifyonly /offwindir=c:\mount2\windows /offbootdir=c:
If Windows Vista is in a bootable Windows Vista image file that is stored on a network share that you connect to as a network resource, you cannot use a command that resembles the following:
sfc /verifyonly /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows:
If you try to use the System File Checker tool in these scenarios, the command does not work as expected. If you try to repair Windows Vista in these scenarios, the System File Checker tool tries to repair the image. But the repair is not finished, and you receive a message that resembles the following:
C:\Users\User_Name>sfc /verifyonly /offwindir=c:\mount2\windows /offbootdir=c:
Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.
There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart
Windows and run sfc again.
However, the repair process does not finish when you restart Windows Vista, and the image is not changed.