System File Checker Windows 10 and Finding Empty Folders, Files and Double Files October 28, 2020June 3, 2021 Raza Ali Kazmi Data Management, Duplicate Data, Empty Folders, Solutions, Windows System File Checker is Microsoft’s in-house diagnostic functionality in Windows. It is a command-line based tool that performs system repair and troubleshooting. SFC analyzes your operating system files for corruption and repairs them if they’re found corrupted or deleted. In order to restore the original versions of your files, SFC might require the Windows installation media. Apart from scanning your system files for corruption, there are other tasks you can accomplish using SFC. Product Spotlight (Duplicate Files): Use Sorcim’s Clone Files Checker to clean empty folders and remove 1000s of duplicate documents in your PC. Clone Files Checker follows Google Software Principles. It will not ask you to provide email address to download the software. You might need to run the SFC if Your computer freezes a lot for apparently no reason Your operating system crashes with/ without the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Some Windows features are not working at all You’ve identified a possible issue with your operating system files and components Your Windows installation is corrupted Your computer restarts itself Your computer doesn’t boot up Running SFC Using Command Prompt Does your computer startup? If so, you can run the SFC straight from the Command Prompt. Type in Command Prompt in the Search box on the taskbar. In the search results, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Type sfc /scannow in the elevated Command Prompt window and press Enter to execute it. As there are plenty of OS files, it can take a lot of time. If you’re restoring files from a USB flash drive, it all depends on your device’s speed. During this step, if any files are found that have been modified by a virus, SFC will repair them and inform you via a prompt. If no corrupt files are found, you’ll receive a notification stating no integrity violations were found. After successfully completing the process you will have to restart your computer. Viewing SFC Logs The System File Checker tool generates a log of every file that was scanned and repaired. The log file shall be helpful to determine the nature of the problem and possible resolution. CBS.log is generally found in the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS directory. The actual location of this file may differ from case to case. Opening Command Prompt from the Windows Installation Media If your computer doesn’t startup, there is another way to run SFC diagnostic. Boot your computer from the original installation media and then use the Troubleshooting menu to start Command Prompt. Insert your operating system’s installation media. Restart your computer and press the F2 or Delete key to start the BIOS setup. Select the installation media as the first boot device. Select the hard disk as the second boot device. Save the changes, exit. Your computer shall reboot and start the Windows 10 setup bootstrapper. Choose your keyboard and language settings and click on Next. On the next page, click on Repair your computer. Click on Troubleshoot, followed by Command Prompt. Find Empty Folders, Files and Double Files It’s not uncommon to come across empty folders, empty files while browsing through your hard disk. Similarly, duplicate (double) versions of your files can make your files disorganized and messed up. Searching files gets difficult due to the number of redundant results. You could open an older version of a file and edit it again thinking you haven’t completed it. These double files can take your precious time and impact productivity. So what is the possible way to eliminate double files and fix disorganization? Thankfully, there is an algorithm-based application that does this long, tedious duplicate cleaning job in a few minutes. Using Clone Files Checker, you can Search your hard disk for duplicates Search your USB stick, external hard disk & network drive for duplicates Search your iTunes library music for identical music in your library based on music tags Load your cloud drive and search for duplicate files Finding Empty Folders Download and install Clone Files Checker. In the main interface, click on Remove Empty Folders. CFC will prompt you to select directories for the scan. Click on Add Path, and select the desired directories that contain empty folders. Adding the path for empty folder scan To proceed, click on Delete Empty Folders. Clone Files Checker Prominent Features Clone Files Checker is an efficient duplicate finder. Here are some of its prominent features: File Previewing Besides, Clone Files Checker has an in-house previewing functionality to make it easy to review and compare your files. Just select a file and CFC will display the preview on the right-hand side panel of your screen. Scan Customization Just like you can define folders to search for duplicates, you can define the folders to exclude from your search. The default scan criteria is all files. This means each file located in the selected area will be scanned for duplication. You may change it through. You can select independent file types of your choice to scan them or exclude them from your search. Selecting all files is recommended if you’re looking to reclaim maximum storage space. The custom files option is best suited if your aim is to find a specific set of duplicates. Easily Remove Double Files with Few Clicks As soon as Clone Files Checker finishes the scan for duplicates, it’ll ask you to choose one of the options from Quick-Fix and Review & Fix. The Quick-Fix displays a wizard that guides you through the deletion procedure. You will want to specify the file version you want to retain (oldest or newest) and your preferred action. You can delete your duplicates, or move them to a new folder. Deleting the duplicates comes with a backup functionality that you have to first enable from the program settings. Backing up your files will allow you to undo the deletion later if you change your mind. Export Duplicates List You can export the list of duplicate files to a comma-separated CSV file. You can also view the previous scan results from the History tab.