Repairing Windows 10 installation offline

FreeBooter said:

Are you executing these commands from booted Windows 10 installation media?

I have have run these in PE before with the same outcome, but the difference is that it reports the logging is limited in PE. Currently running these from another Windows 10 machine with the installation media mounted. Drive D is the damaged Windows installation, and drive F is the latest installation media.

FreeBooter said:

Mounting what also don't change the X: drive letter to D: when executing the commands.

Let's run from drive letter X.
x:\>DISM /image:d:\ /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:f:\Sources\Install.esd:6

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.3570


Error: 605

An error occurred accessing the temporary folder C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\07558672-4B20-454B-A09A-2B4F592EC742.
Ensure that the path to the temporary folder exists and that you have Read/Write permissions on the folder.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

I will run this from PE when I get home and take a picture for you so you will know that it makes no difference.

FreeBooter said:

Are you executing these commands from booted Windows 10 installation media?

Yes. Since notepad is available in PE I copied the output from the command line and saved to the USB installation media. I did take pictures with my phone, but I think that would be redundant. Here it is:
X:\sources>dir e:\windows*
Volume in drive E has no label.
Volume Serial Number is A6D4-EE4D

Directory of e:\

11/09/2023 08:26 PM <DIR> Windows
0 File(s) 0 bytes
1 Dir(s) 9,101,791,232 bytes free

X:\sources>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:D:\sources\install.esd

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.1949

Details for image : D:\sources\install.esd

Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 15,139,674,619 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Home N
Description : Windows 10 Home N
Size : 14,368,233,902 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Size : 15,142,346,396 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Education
Description : Windows 10 Education
Size : 15,475,605,732 bytes

Index : 5
Name : Windows 10 Education N
Description : Windows 10 Education N
Size : 14,684,197,328 bytes

Index : 6
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 15,472,691,215 bytes

Index : 7
Name : Windows 10 Pro N
Description : Windows 10 Pro N
Size : 14,702,310,788 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

X:\sources>dism /image:e:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:D:\sources\install.esd:6

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.1949


Error: 605

An error occurred accessing the temporary folder X:\windows\TEMP\37B1EF20-2384-49B2-8F09-54D72710BBC9.
Ensure that the path to the temporary folder exists and that you have Read/Write permissions on the folder.

The DISM log file can be found at X:\windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

X:\sources>sfc /scannow /offbootdir=e:\ /offwindir=e:\windows

Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service.
As seen here, doing the same thing from PE provides no advantages.

I did copy the DISM log to the USB installation media, but there are no clues in there.

- - - Updated - - -

FreeBooter said:

So you boot your computer with Windows installation media and execute the Dism command and got this error message?

Execute following commands.

Code:

bcdedit | find "osdevice"

Md D:\Scratch

DISM /image:d:\ /scratchdir:D:\Scratch /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:f:\Sources\Install.esd:1

Running in PE. I copied the output from the command line to notepad and saved to the USB installation media.
X:\sources>bcdedit | find "osdevice"
osdevice partition=E:

X:\sources>md e:\scratch

X:\sources>dism /image:e:\ /scratchdir:e:\scratch /cleanup-image /restorehealth /source:D:\sources\install.esd:6

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.1949


Error: 605

An error occurred accessing the temporary folder e:\scratch\AA43E7EF-188C-4025-AA14-930778FEC5E1.
Ensure that the path to the temporary folder exists and that you have Read/Write permissions on the folder.

The DISM log file can be found at X:\windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log
Doing this in PE produces the same result, minus the convenience.

Something else needs to be fixed first before DISM and SFC will work.

I think what would be helpful right this moment is a way for me to know the version and build number of the damaged Windows installation so I could get same version ISO, and create a new installation so I could compare and patch files manually.

FreeBooter said:

Can i ask why you are executing Dism and SFC commands from WinRE maybe we can focus on repairing boot problem you are having?

You don't need same version of Windows 10 better, yet you need latest version of Windows 10.

I don't understand what you're asking me. You asked if I can run this in PE and I did and I provided the output for you to confirm.

I have the latest media created by the media creation tool. This is what I have been using. Using this latest version, what can I do?

But... If automatic repair tools fail I will have to replace any missing or corrupt files manually, and I will need to know the version on disk.

FreeBooter said:

You have tried all possible solutions to resolve Dism and Sfc errors i'm saying if there is boot error let us know not all boot errors happens because of corrupted Windows system files.

This copy of Windows boots into automatic recovery, which fails after a minute, giving me an option to run tools in PE or shut down. Selection to reboot into startup options (such as safe mode) results in automatic recovery again. It does not show startup options.

The recovery definitely sees the Windows installation, both from the recovery on disk or running recovery from USB installation media. This is as far as I have gotten it for now.

I don't yet know what is broken, but I was hoping to patch with files of the same version installation. It would be great to know the version and build number of the broken Windows installation on disk.