Is there a way to force SFC /SCANNOW command to run even if there is a system repair "flag" set ? I keep getting "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart ..." . The problem is that i cannot boot into windows normally and keeps reseting, and giving me the option to boot normally or start a system repair , which can't do a thing. I tried Safe Mode and it hangs up and resets at CLASSPNP.SYS . I disabled autoreset and i get a BSOD with an error concerning the verification of a "KnownDLL" that ended with failure. Tried running Repair > CMD > SFC from Repair disc, tried running from ERD commander > CMD , or the SFC shortcut with same result. I've installed the hdd on another system , booted with the Win7 of that computer and tried running SFC /Scannow /Offbootdir=xxx /offwindir=xxx , and got same message.

Hello D3xt3r, Is there a pending.xml file present on this system? ( c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml) If so what is in that file Thanks, Darrell Gorter No pending.xml on the system I am trying to troubleshoot, but a reboot.xml. Since the date is from much earlier (12/01/2010), I am thinking this may be a file to keep. Anyhow, I have an issue with a Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit system as well, which seems to spin cycles. Is there any chance to remove the repair flag and force the system to run a sfc /scannow ? I really would love to save this system and avoid a complete reinstall (with Windows Virtual machines, etc.) if possible. However, these semi-automatic and never functioning Microsoft repair attempts are driving me nutsville. Where are the good old .ini days?

This is a really good q, the answer would fix my problem but it seems there is no answer, is that because in fact there is no answer could I please ask? I have deleted the pending and reboot files from winsxs but still told the WinRE won't run due to a pending reboot (which doesn't reset no matter how many boots one does), is there somewhere else to look, or an ability to force SFC to run regardless of the pending boot?

for me it doesnt solve the problem...i am typing SFC /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=C:\ /OFFWINDIR=C:\Windows in the command prompt and it gives me different options when I do that. one of them is sfc /scannow, which I select and get the same message "there is a sys. repair pending which reqrs reboot to complete. restart windows and run sfc again. when I reboot, the system tries to scan for bad files and then says that there was an error in the dskchk due to some recently installed programs. i have not installed anything recently

@vikal Try adding another backslash at the end of /OFFWINDIR=C:\Windows\

I deleted the pending.xml and it allowed me to run the sfcscan. It said there were no issues though. I ran the second command below, since my windows was on the D drive when booting into repair. SFC said it found issues and fixed them. But I'm still getting the stop 0x00000051 issue when booting windows. When I boot in safe mode, it just reboots, without showing me blue screen stop error. Anyone else have luck fixing this? del x:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml SFC /SCANNOW /OFFBOOTDIR=D:\ /OFFWINDIR=D:\Windows

Hello, Since you deleted the pending.xml file, you need to reinstall. Deleting the pending.xml causes and number of potential issues, these will vary with the updates that were in the process of installing and the OS is probably corrupted at this stage, any and all updates that were in the process of installing are now in a partially installed state and it's doubtful there is any recovery from that. If there were security updates they may not be installed properly so the OS may not be protected for example, the pending.xml file is essential for proper installation of updates. I Thanks, Darrell Gorter [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en

Hi, In the future, if you need to run an offline verification, here's how, http://mikemstech.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-perform-offline-system-integrity.html -- Mike Burr Technology

Thx a lot Arthur. After 2 days without windows, i could finaly boot with 2. Boot into Last Known Good configuration.. thx!!!!!

I moved the pending.xml file to another location. After running sfc/scannow , it says did not find any integrity violations. What do I do now? Can't start windows 7 normally since the last update, only safe mode is allowed. Already tried system restore and startup repair.