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Saturday, July 19, 2014

How to Use DISM to Fix Component Store Corruption in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

Information

One of the most used tools when fixing corruption for Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 was the System Update and Readiness Tool (KB947821), commonly called CheckSUR. The CheckSUR tool was an excellent way for most people to see what corruption had happened on their store, and potentially fix that corruption if the tool contained the payload to do so.

In Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Server 2012, this has changed. It’s called Inbox Corruption Repair and it brings the functionality of CheckSUR into Windows rather than requiring a separate download to get the utility like you do now. This is exposed in two ways, the first is really unseen by the end user and happens when Windows detects a corrupted state when attempting to install fixes via Windows Update. When this happens, Windows fix the corruption silently and then re-install the prior packages. The manual way to use this tool is via DISM (Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management). The way this is exposed is via the DISM /Cleanup-Image functionality.

If a Windows image (Windows component store) becomes unserviceable, you can use the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management (DISM) tool to update the files and correct the problem.

For example:

To use to fix Windows component store corruption when a SFC /SCANNOW command is unable to repair corrupted system files because the store (source) is corrupted, then run the SFC command again.
To use to fix Windows component store corruption when the same Windows Updates continue to appear to be available to install even though they already show successfully installed in update history.

For more information, see:

This tutorial will show you how to do an Inbox Corruption Repair with the DISM /Cleanup-Image tool to fix component store corruption in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do an Inbox Corruption Repair with the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management (DISM) tool.

Note

The DISM /Cleanup-Image tool saves it's log files in the file locations below. To be able to view these logs, you would need to copy them from the locations below to your desktop, then open them from your desktop.

C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log

C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

OPTION ONE

To Run "DISM /Cleanup-Image" tool in an Elevated Command Prompt

1. Open an elevated command prompt.

2. In the elevated command prompt, copy and paste the command below that you want to use.

Note

Available Switch Options:

/CheckHealth - This switch option only checks to see if a component corruption marker is already present in the registry. It is just a quick way to see if corruption currently exists, and to inform you if there is corruption. It does not fix anything or create a log. This should be finished almost instantaneous.

/ScanHealth - This switch option does not fix any corruption. It only checks for component store corruption and records that corruption to the log file. This is useful for only logging what, if any, corruption exists. This should take around 5-10 minutes to finish.

/RestoreHealth - (recommended) This switch option checks for component store corruption, records the corruption to the log file, and FIXES the image corruption using Windows Update. This should take around 10-15 minutes up to about an hour to finish depending on the level of corruption.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

3. When finished, it is recommended to restart the PC to configure any updates that may have been affected by this.

NOTE: Some scans may take a while to finish and may seem like it's hung at times, but let it sit running until finished.

OPTION TWO

To Run "DISM /Cleanup-Image" tool in an Elevated PowerShell

1. Open an elevated PowerShell.

2. In the elevated PowerShell, copy and paste the command below that you want to use.

Note

Available Switch Options:

-CheckHealth - This switch option only checks to see if a component corruption marker is already present in the registry. It is just a quick way to see if corruption currently exists, and to inform you if there is corruption. It does not fix anything or create a log. This should be finished almost instantaneous.

-ScanHealth - This switch option does not fix any corruption. It only checks for component store corruption and records that corruption to the log file. This is useful for only logging what, if any, corruption exists. This should take around 5-10 minutes to finish.

-RestoreHealth - (recommended) This switch option checks for component store corruption, records the corruption to the log file, and FIXES the image corruption using Windows Update. This should take around 10-15 minutes up to about an hour to finish depending on the level of corruption.

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -CheckHealth

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -ScanHealth

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth

That's it,
Shawn

Windows 8 Freezes or Hangs: The Fix that Worked for Me

September 1st, 2012

Goto comments Leave a comment

Welcome Googler! If you find this page useful, you might want to find me on Google+.

Windows 8 will be released to the masses in October of this year. As a developer, I’m lucky enough to get Windows 8 RTM a bit earlier.
Despite what everyone is saying, the new Start Screen really isn’t that bad. In fact, it will be very nice once all your apps are updated to take full advantage of it. And contrary to popular belief, the desktop is still around, and everything works pretty much like it did in Windows 7.
Still, I have a few gripes: There are no more gadgets. Instead, there are live tiles on the Start Screen. That’s lame.
Worse yet, I have experienced the infamous hanging/freezing issue that was supposedly fixed during the testing phases of Windows 8.
In short, every 30 minutes or so, my puter would lock up for about 30 seconds, the hard drive would be pegged to 100%, and then everything would go back to normal.
Like I said, Microsoft supposedly fixed this in the test versions of Windows 8 – but it seems they didn’t, really.
There are many solutions to be found on Google, but there is only 1 that worked for me…

If you look in the event viewer, you will see that every time Windows 8 locks up for 30 seconds, you get 2 entries:

WARNING – storahci – Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued.
WARNING – disk – The IO operation at logical block address 5b9408 for Disk 1 was retried.

If you search Google, you’ll find various explanations of how to fix this problem. The most popular are:
The command-line solution from My Digital Life Forms:

I had the same problem. Then I found a topic here, where a guy had intel motherboard and win8 freeze during boot. Somebody told him that it is win8′s fault, and there is something what we have to type into CMD and solves the problem. It solved for me.
type this into CMD: bcdedit /set disabledynamictick yes it solves the freezing problem. And don’t forget to restart.

The Hyper-V Install fix from Paul Thurrott’s site:

But one thing did work. And while it’s working perfectly for me—three days and no hangs at all, fingers crossed—it may not work for you. I’ve tried this on three PCs, to great results. But there’s no guarantee.
And that workaround is…
Install Hyper-V.
I explain how to do this, and what the requirements are, in Windows 8 Feature Focus: Client Hyper-V.

Miscellaneous other fixes:

Install the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers
Reinstall/Reset Windows 8
Defrag your hard drive
Mess around with TRIM if you have an SSD
Stand on your head while patting your tummy and sipping a cup of espresso (don’t get any up your nose)

Well, I tried the command-line fix. I tried installing the Intel RST drivers. I installed Hyper-V. I even stood on my head…
But nothing worked.
Just a note here: I have to say that the Microsoft community forums were seriously Useless since they were the ones who recommended a Reset or Reinstall of Windows 8. Seriously? I mean, I just installed the damn OS, it’s brand new, and they think the solution is to reinstall/reset?! Methinks not. Thanks for nothing.
Anyway, many people also noted that this hang problem only occurs if you have Windows 8 installed on an SSD. Not so, my friends. The freezes I experienced were for my normal HDD. My SSD worked fine.
They also say that this is a particular issue with Sandy Bridge machines. Guilty, your honor! I do have a Sandy Bridge puter.
I then tried various combinations of the above solutions, to no avail.
This was getting to be a seriously annoying problem. But then I found a post on the Windows 8 Forums by user “borate”:

+++++++++ UPDATE ++++++++++
After a full week of stability it appears that the problem is resolved and may have been caused by a combination of missing or incorrect drivers/settings…
Since the SATA drives (running AHCI mode) were set to enable “hot swap” in the BIOS and LPM was disabled in PCI power management there have been no further instances. Earlier, the latest AHCI SATA drivers were installed, and those may have contributed to the fix.
Why these changes were necessary and not made by the O/S upon install is problematic. Hopefully, the RTM will do better.

AHA! Now that makes sense! Since the hard drive seems to be pegged for 30 seconds, and since it seemed that Windows 8 couldn’t access the hard drive and was issuing a reset, it made sense that changing the BIOS hotswap setting just might work.
So, I went into the UEFI (new type of BIOS) screen at boot, and I set my SSD and HDD to Hot Swap = Enabled.
For 2 days now, I haven’t had a single disk error in the Event Logs. WOOHOO!!
Note that the Link Power Management change borate speaks of above was not necessary in my case. Also, I’m using the standard Microsoft storahci driver, not Intel’s RST driver.
I really hope that Microsoft gets their act together and fixes this before the general availability of Windows 8. This is a bug that should never have made it into the RTM version of Windows 8. Since newer machines with Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors generally use UEFI instead of the old-school BIOS, and all the systems I’ve worked with have the setting for hot swappable drives, this is a major problem. Lots of people are reporting it, from what I can see.
Seems to me this could become a rather show-stopping bug that could knock the wind out of Windows 8′s momentum – especially considering people’s fear/hatred of the revised interface.
Well, we’ll see. In the meantime, try enabling hotswap for your drives, and see if that doesn’t fix the freeze/hang issue for you, too!

Texas Border Rancher Makes Frightening Discovery; Claims Proof That 9-11 is About to Happen Again [VIDEO]

July 16, 2014 by Tim Walker | News, Videos

Mike Vickers owns a sleepy little 1,000 acre ranch that borders the U.S.-Mexico border. Vickers says that a minimum of 30 illegal immigrants cross his ranch, each and every day. The problem is that the Border Patrol station is just over five miles away and getting help to the ranch is time is just useless most days.

Vickers recently found something on his ranch that one of the illegal-aliens dropped, and that single find has Vickers, the local community and the entire Border Patrol in alarm.

In May, Vickers discovered a dictionary on his property, but this is no ordinary dictionary on English dialect. The book is Urdu-to-English, something that many American’s are unfamiliar with and are soon about to be as disturbed as the local political arena in and around the country.

Urdu is the National language of Pakistan. The language is in fact spoken in many parts of Afghanistan and India. The discovery of the book on the ranch brings to question “are extremists crossing our borders to the south and leading a jihad against the U.S.?”

Vickers discovered the book, reported it to the Border Patrol but has only come forward recently due to the fact that the agents he reported it to, did little or nothing about it.

The book in fact, was found near an electric fence, so Vickers see’s this as a case of getting zapped by the fence in the night, and dropping an important document that may lead authorities on a quest to seek out its owner.

A single Border Patrol agent has recently come out and told TheBlaze that he is not surprised by Vickers’ discovery at all. “We’ve found Quran, prayer rugs and many other unusual items at the border that certainly raise concern,” the agent said.

Border Patrol has a new slang for the noted crossers, “OTM’s”, meaning “Other Than Mexicans.”

“We have limited resources,” the agent said. “It’s frustrating for all of us and there’s no doubt that we have OTMs coming from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and other parts of the world that we are very concerned with……… these guys won’t be turning themselves into Border Patrol like the family units or children.”
The entire incident concerns Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), who quoted this month that ‘he believes extremists are plotting another Sept. 11^th style attack on the United States.’
“This jihadist group ISIS and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have promised direct confrontation with America,” Poe said last month. If Poe is right, the Republican Party in Washington is sure hitting the ‘nail on the head’ in this matter.

Poe undoubtedly believes that extremists will carry out any future attack, and are most likely to cross into the U.S. from the Mexico/Texas border.
“Of course the way they would come to the United States would be through the porous border with Mexico. The drug cartels will bring people into the country no matter who they are — for money,” he said. “Everyone in the world knows that the border between the United States and Mexico is completely porous.”
Poe believes that putting National Guard troops along the borders is one step in the right direction for preventing such attacks on the U.S.
“National security does not start overseas; it starts at the border between the U.S. and Mexico,” he said.

ALERT -- House Resolution Calls on Border State Governors to Deploy National Guard Forces

Via CNS News

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has introduced a resolution calling on border state governors to deploy the National Guard to stop the influx of illegal immigrants, since Pres. Obama “never will.”

Announcing H. Res. 675, Rep. King called the flood of illegal immigrants a “presidential-caused crisis”:

“There is nothing in President Obama’s $3.7 billion request that secures our border. Even though this President has the power to close the border, I know that he never will. In fact, he refuses to do so.

“The American people must understand that this surge in illegals coming across our border is a presidential-caused crisis. This President’s lawless actions such as DACA have caused this nightmare. These actions clearly demonstrate that he is not bound by the Constitution and will not take seriously his obligation to defend our sovereign borders.

“This crisis is devastating our communities and putting the burden on American taxpayers. Right now there is an incentive for illegals to continue to pour across our border, and the only way to discourage them is to seal our border and send them back. Therefore we call upon the southern border Governors to call up their National Guard units to secure the border. This resolution also commits the United States House to funding the states for the cost of securing our border. These are the only supplemental appropriations the House should be considering.”

Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), a co-sponsor of the resolution, said that deploying the National Guard “sends a clear message” to illegal immigrants:

Yesterday, the North Carolina congressman , which would make this request of the governors of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It would also recognize and defend the constitutional authority of any governor to deploy the National Guard to secure the border.

“In order to resolve the crisis on our southern border, we need to strictly enforce our immigration laws – something the Obama administration has failed to do,” said Congressman Jones.

Keep reading

URGENT - Top U.S. General Says Mexico Border Security Now ‘Existential’ Threat to U.S.

Via Defense One

A top United States general in charge of protecting the southern border says he’s been unable to combat the steady flow of illegal drugs, weapons and people from Central America, and is looking to Congress for urgent help.
Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, commander of U.S. Southern Command, has asked Congress this year for more money, drones and ships for his mission – a request unlikely to be met. Since October, an influx of nearly 100,000 migrants has made the dangerous journey north from Latin America to the United States border. Most are children, and three-quarters of the unaccompanied minors have traveled thousands of miles from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
“In comparison to other global threats, the near collapse of societies in the hemisphere with the associated drug and [undocumented immigrant] flow are frequently viewed to be of low importance,” Kelly told Defense One. “Many argue these threats are not existential and do not challenge our national security. I disagree.”
In spring hearings before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Kelly said that budgets cuts are “severely degrading” the military’s ability to defend southern approaches to the U.S border. Last year, he said, his task force was unable to act on nearly 75 percent of illicit trafficking events. “I simply sit and watch it go by,” he said. But the potential threats are even greater. Kelly warned that neglect has created vulnerabilities that can be exploited by terrorist groups, describing a “crime-terror convergence” already seen in Lebanese Hezbollah’s involvement in the region.

Keep reading

Russian Commander: Bodies Dead For Days Before Flight Took Off

MOSCOW (AP) -- A top pro-Russia rebel commander in eastern Ukraine has given a bizarre version of events surrounding the Malaysian jetliner crash - suggesting many of the victims may have died days before the plane took off.
The pro-rebel website Russkaya Vesna on Friday quoted Igor Girkin as saying he was told by people at the crash site that "a significant number of the bodies weren't fresh," adding that he was told they were drained of blood and reeked of decomposition.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 was shot down Thursday, killing all 298 people aboard. The plane was flying 10,000 meters above an area where Ukrainian forces have been fighting separatist rebels. Each side accuses the other of downing the plane.

Keep reading...

Russian Rambler.RU reported that Obama decided to un-freeze 2.6 billion $ and transmit it to Iran. US media is silent about it, even though Iran is still building nuclear weapons and threatening destruction of the U.S.

Iran nukes: A bitter pill to swallow

If Iran and world powers couldn’t clinch a nuclear deal after five hard months of bargaining, what hope is there that yet more time will help?
Quite a lot actually, say experts. Even though Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany remain far apart on key issues, some progress has been made, the analysts said.
“The chances are better than ever that there will be a final deal,” said Richard Dalton, Britain’s former ambassador to Tehran, now at the Chatham House think-tank.
“But hard work on the politics of it has to be done in Washington and Tehran," Dalton said.
On Friday, the parties announced an extension until Nov. 24 of their July 20 deadline to reach a deal, prolonging and augmenting the terms of an interim accord struck last November.
This came after a 17-day, sixth and final round of negotiations in Vienna that saw US Secretary of State John Kerry jet in but fail to secure a breakthrough. The mooted deal is aimed at dispelling fears that Iran might develop nuclear weapons, after a decade of rising tensions, Iranian nuclear expansion and bellicose rhetoric.
Iran, which denies wanting the bomb in the first place, in return wants the lifting of painful UN and western sanctions strangling its economy. But the hoped-for agreement is both extremely ambitious and fiendishly complex. Iran appears to have given ground on two things: The future of the Arak reactor, which could provide Iran with weapons-grade plutonium, and more stringent UN inspections.
Tehran has proposed changing the design of Arak so that much less plutonium can be extracted from the reactor's spent fuel rods.
More UN oversight of Iran’s nuclear facilities would give the world added confidence that Iran is not secretly building a nuclear weapon.
But two problematic issues remain. The first is how, and at what pace, to ease sanctions. Some are UN Security Council ones, others EU and still others US, making lifting them tricky.
The major sticking point, however, is uranium enrichment, a process, which makes uranium suitable for peaceful purposes but also, when highly purified, for a nuclear weapon.
Iran wants to expand drastically its enrichment program.
It says its needs to enrich for Bushehr, its only current nuclear power plant, once a deal with Moscow to supply fuel for Russian-built plant expires in 2021. Iran also says it needs to make fuel for more nuclear power plants that it plans to build around the country.
But with years until the Russian contract expires, and any new facilities years if not decades away, the powers say Iran has no need for enrichment on a major scale.
They fear Iran’s covert aim is to enrich uranium to weapons-grade, so the powers want cuts in Iran’s capacities, and for a “double digit” number of years, a senior US official said this month.
In an attempt to break the deadlock on this issue, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif aired in the New York Times this week what he called an “innovative proposal.”
It includes Iran agreeing to freeze its enrichment capacities at current levels, and for between three and seven years.
For Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, an Iranian lecturer at Manchester University, Zarif “cannot go back home and say he has agreed a freeze on all aspects related to enrichment.”
While Zarif’s proposal still remains unacceptable to the West, analysts said that it constitutes an opening gambit, which could form the basis for serious negotiations.
—

White House Spokesman Jay Carney Decorates His House with Soviet Propaganda

April 13, 2014 By Greg Campbell

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A recent article in MOM Magazine offers a glimpse into the home of Jay Carney and his wife, ABC News contributor Claire Shipman. The article offers the usual things one might expect to see- a mother trying to balance the pressures of work life and home life.

However, lurking in the background are unsettling framed propaganda posters from the former Soviet Union.

White House spokesman Jay Carney spends much of his time trying to defend the president’s policies to reporters. Conservatives have long charged the Obama Administration of promoting a socialist or communist agenda and Carney has worked to fight back the notion that this government is promoting collectivist ideology.

But still, the president’s spokesman adorns his walls with Soviet propaganda.

According to Business Insider,

One of Carney’s posters is a version of this iconic design by artist Dmitry Moor with a soldier pointing his finger alongside text that says “Have YOU Enlisted?” in Russian.

The other poster features a female factory worker. According to this eBay seller, who is offering one for $1,660, the poster was printed on June 26, 1941, days after Russia began fighting the Axis powers in World War II. It encourages women take jobs vacated by men who have gone to fight. The woman in the poster is switching out a tag with a man’s name to one with hers and the text says: “Women! Learn production, replace workers who went to the front! The stronger the hinterland – the stronger the front!”

Of course, nobody can blame Mr. Carney or his wife for being history buffs and such mementos are certainly interesting relics of world history. However, considering the fact that the Soviet empire murdered millions upon millions of people, was routinely brutal and oppressive towards free expression, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and serves as a black mark on the history of human civilization, it seems inappropriate to adorn one’s home with vestiges of totalitarian brutality.

It certainly seems telling of a world perspective that the Carney household would decorate their home with collectivist propaganda.

Hamas says its forces are fighting IDF troops inside Israel

Ynetnews

Published:

07.19.14, 10:32 / Israel News

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Supreme Court To Obama Administration–Congress Writes Laws; You Don’t!

July 17, 2014 by Marita Noon 1 Comment

Now that the dust has settled on the Supreme Court’s 2014 session, we can look at the decisions and conclude that the Administration received a serious smack down. Two big cases got most of the news coverage: Hobby Lobby and the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) recess appointments. In both cases, the Administration lost. At the core of both is the issue of the Administration’s overreach.

Within the cases the Supreme Court heard, one had to do with energy: Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG) v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—and it, too, offered a rebuke.
The UARG v. EPA decision came down on June 23. The decision was mixed—with both sides claiming victory. Looking closely, there is cause for optimism from all who question the president’s authority to rewrite laws.
A portion of the UARG v. EPA case was about the EPA’s “Tailoring Rule,” in which it “tailored” a statutory provision in the Clean Air Act—designed to regulate traditional pollutants such as particulate matter—to make it work for CO². In effect, the EPA wanted to rewrite the law to achieve its goals. The decision, written by Justice Scalia for the majority, stated:
Were we to recognize the authority claimed by EPA in the Tailoring Rule, we would deal a severe blow to the Constitution’s separation of powers… The power of executing laws…does not include a power to revise clear statutory terms that turn out not to work in practice.
The Supreme Court did allow the EPA to regulate CO² emissions from sources that already require permits due to other pollutants—and therefore allowed the EPA and environmentalists to claim victory because the decision reaffirmed that the EPA does have the authority to regulate CO² emissions. However, at the same time, the decision restricted the EPA’s expansion of authority. Reflecting the mixed decision, the Washington Post said the decision was “simultaneously very significant and somewhat inconsequential.”
It is the “very significant” portion of the decision that is noteworthy in light of the new rules the EPA announced on June 2.
Currently, the Clean Air Act is the only vehicle available to the Administration to regulate CO² from power plant and factory emissions. However, the proposed rules that severely restrict allowable CO² emissions from existing power plants bear some similarities to what the Supreme Court just invalidated: both involve an expansive interpretation of the Clean Air Act.
In his review of the UARG v. EPA decision, Nathan Richardson, a Resident Scholar at Resources For the Future, says: “In strict legal terms, this decision has no effect on EPA’s plans to regulate new or existing power plants with performance standards. … However, if EPA is looking for something to worry about, it can find it in this line from Scalia”:
“When an agency claims to discover in a long-extant statute an unheralded power to regulate “a significant portion of the American economy” . . . we typically greet its announcement with a measure of skepticism. We expect Congress to speak clearly if it wishes to assign an agency decisions of vast “economic and political significance.”
The UARG v. EPA decision is especially important when added to the more widely known Hobby Lobby and NLRB cases. Justice Scalia’s opinion invites Congress to “speak clearly” on agency authority. It is now up to our elected representatives to rise to the occasion and pass legislation that leaves “decisions of vast ‘economic and political significance’” in its hands alone.
The decision—while “somewhat inconsequential”—is, in fact, “very significant.” The Supreme Court has, perhaps, outlined the first legislation of the new, reformatted, post-2014-election Congress.

The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc., and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE). Together they work to educate the public and influence policy makers regarding energy, its role in freedom, and the American way of life. Combining energy, news, politics, and, the environment through public events, speaking engagements, and media, the organizations’ combined efforts serve as America’s voice for energy.

Here’s the “Loophole” in IRS Code to Legally Move Your IRA or 401(k) to Gold