Clicking to view the contents of Startup Repair’s “Diagnosis and repair details” reveals the error to be “Boot critical file $file is corrupt” with one or more failed repair attempts, where $file is the name of a critical system file needed for Windows to start up. When attempting to use the automated repair feature of Startup Repair, it attempts to repair your PC but fails. Discrepancies in the file signature indicate that a file has been modified, infected, or tampered with by unauthorized persons or software. Windows uses digital signatures to identify if system files have been damaged or modified by anyone since the date Microsoft digitally “signed” the files. If you are using Startup Repair from a recovery-only CD (typically 120 – 160 MiB), it will not have the file repair option needed. In particular, this message indicates that Startup Repair identified that the file in question was determined to be damaged, corrupted, or infected. The error “Boot critical file is corrupt” is displayed when Startup Repair fails to correct problems with a non-booting PC. Symptom 1: Startup repair fails with message “Boot critical file $file is corrupt” The error messages, alerts, warnings, and symptoms below are tied to this error. The following information on this error has been compiled by NeoSmart Technologies, based on the information gathered and reported by our global network of engineers, developers, and technicians or partner organizations.

3.2 Fix #2: Scan for viruses with Easy Recovery Essentials.

3.1 Fix #1: Scan the Windows drive for corruption.

3 Fixing “Boot critical file is corrupt” on Windows.

2.2 Cause 2: Corruption of system files.

1.2 Symptom 1: Startup repair fails with message “Boot critical file $file is corrupt”.

1 About “Boot critical file is corrupt”.

Unknown or corrupt image file