What to do when DISM is broken?

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[bbearren]

I had in my mind that I was going to spend some of my free time today getting the Windows 7 Ultimate side of the dual boot on my main desktop prepared for Windows 10. But I noticed something else booting back and forth between 7 and 8. The boot times going into Windows 8 were normal, but it seemed like the logon times were pretty sluggish. I have a couple of drivers that are delayed load, but they don’t interfere with using the PC as soon as the desktop is visible.

But it was unresponsive for a few seconds, which is unusual. Sfc /scannow found errors it couldn’t fix, so I ran DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. It couldn’t get the image (it couldn’t connect) from Windows Update (which is the default), and even when I defined a source path to a mounted ISO file, it still couldn’t find the image. The error code was consistent, 0x800f0906. There are a number of solutions for this error code, which is associated with .Net 3.5 installation and also with corrupt image file un-locatable source issues. I tried all that I came across, but always received the same error code. Nothing that I found worked.

My conclusion (I have nothing to back this up) finally came down to the probability that the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management tool was itself corrupt. Long story short, I used a drive image from April 10 where the DISM tool actually worked. That left me with over 100 Windows Updates to install, which I did in groups of 10. After each group, I ran DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. After the third set, it found and repaired corruption in the image. All the rest looked like this last one:

I think I’ll be a little more regular in running sfc /scannow as part of my routine maintenance. A system that has a bit of corruption in it can still make a good drive image with no indication of anything amiss. If sfc /scannow comes up clean, then it’s a pretty good bet that the system is clean, and a drive image will more likely be reliable and trouble free.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

• This topic was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by bbearren.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by bbearren.

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I always run a sfc /scannow as well as an antimalware scan before creating my monthly system images.

.NET 3.5 is part of Windows and in Win 7 can be turned on or off in Programs & Features/Turn Windows features on or off, but I don’t know if turning it off and then on would result in fixing it.

Prior to the third set of updates, what was /restorehealth reporting ?

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[bbearren]

I always run a sfc /scannow as well as an antimalware scan before creating my monthly system images.

.NET 3.5 is part of Windows and in Win 7 can be turned on or off in Programs & Features/Turn Windows features on or off, but I don’t know if turning it off and then on would result in fixing it.

Prior to the third set of updates, what was /restorehealth reporting ?

It seems that the error code being related to both DISM and .Net 3.5 has to do with a Windows Update failure in both cases.

On the other hand, Windows Update was working fine for regular Windows Updates. That’s what led me to surmise that the DISM tool itself must have been corrupted, and couldn’t invoke Windows Update. From what I’ve read in my search for a fix it was an installation error code, and DISM by default downloads a current image file from Windows Update.

Before the third set of updates /RestoreHealth was giving me the same results as in the attached image. After the third set it repaired corruption found in the image. The rest were all good.

Prior to restoring my drive image, in my efforts to repair the DISM error, the error code was always the same, and the common wording in the DISM log was “could not connect” when searching for an image file.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by bbearren.

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the Diagnostic Tracking Service patch KB 3022345, issued in April, appeared to be corrupting Windows files when SFC, was run, but actually didn’t and DISM failed to work as a consequence. The patch has been reissued several times and now works as it should. If you used an April image, it probably restored your OS to its state prior to the installation of the defective patch. When you reinstalled the subsequent updates, you would have received the final, fixed version of the patch.

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[bbearren]

the Diagnostic Tracking Service patch KB 3022345, issued in April, appeared to be corrupting Windows files when SFC, was run, but actually didn’t and DISM failed to work as a consequence. The patch has been reissued several times and now works as it should. If you used an April image, it probably restored your OS to its state prior to the installation of the defective patch. When you reinstalled the subsequent updates, you would have received the final, fixed version of the patch.

That patch and a couple of others were mentioned in some of the information I read while searching for a cure for 0x800f0906. After a while everything began to point to DISM being broken in some fashion, and the April image worked. That was also why I was trying DISM after each group of patches, in case I broke it again I would be able to narrow it down to one or two out of 10 Updates.

But as you mentioned, I probably got the “new and improved” patch that didn’t break DISM. I still have no idea what was causing my logon dragging on and on that spurred me to try sfc and then DISM. Whatever was causing that also got cured by restoring a good drive image and going back through those updates.

The longer I play with this stuff the more convinced I am that nothing really beats a good drive image, and making sure that you do indeed have a good drive image is something to keep in mind. Also having fresh duplicates of your data scattered around makes restoring a good drive image a fairly simple and convenient task.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by bbearren.

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You may not want to uninstall any patch provided by Microsoft, especially when you don’t know what it does and the Microsoft description is so vague as to be useless. So, if you have Microsoft update KB3022345 installed and you now have SFC indicating there are problems, you can easily correct them without uninstalling KB3022345 by following the instructions here:

For Windows 7:
http://thetechcookbook.com/windows-7-update-kb3022345-causing-corrupt-files/

For Windows 8:
http://thetechcookbook.com/windows-8-update-kb3022345-causing-corrupt-files/

The problem is one of permission settings. No logic changes are made in the above website instructions. I had the problem in Windows 7 SP 1 (64-bit)and the simple procedure at the above URL (for Windows 7) corrected it. SFC once again runs cleanly.

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