When Windows operating system crashes, the operating system runs system file checker (SFC) to analyze all system files for damage or corruption and fix any issues with files by replacing them with fresh, cached versions.

A successful SFC scan can fix many issues in Windows operating system but SFC can also fail at times and cause “Windows resource protection could not perform the requested operation” error to appear on the screen.

When you get this error, you can be certain that some corrupt files needed by Windows couldn’t be fixed. This in turn could lead to other problems.

Thankfully, there are some simple solutions to fix the “Windows resource protection could not perform the requested operation” error. Read on to know more about them.

Solution One – Run SFC in Safe Mode

• Press Windows logo key and R simultaneously on the keyboard to bring up Run command tool on the screen
• Type msconfig in the Run command box and click OK

• In the system configuration window, go to Boot tab

• Tick Safe boot option
• Click Apply -> OK
• Click Restart when prompted by System configuration
• Windows will now boot into Safe mode
• Open command prompt with admin rights
• In the command prompt windows that opens, type sfc /scannow and hit Enter

• See if the SFC completes the process without any errors.

Solution Two – Run CHKDSK

If your hard drive is corrupt or has bad sectors, SFC would fail even in Safe Mode. You can use the CHKDSK utility to check the integrity of the hard disk and fix any file system errors. Here are the steps to follow.

• Type cmd in the search box
• Right-click on command prompt in the list of results and select Run as administrator
• In user account control pop-up, click Yes

• In the command prompt window, type chkdsk /r

• When the system asks you to schedule CHKDSK during next restart, type y as an answer
• Close the command prompt window and restart PC
• CHKDSK can take a long time which depends on the size of the disk and data stored in it. When the chkdsk process is completed, windows will boot normally.
• Once you are logged in windows, open command prompt with admin rights
• In the command prompt windows that opens, type sfc /scannow and hit Enter
• See if the SFC completes the process without any errors.

Solution Three – Make changes in security descriptors for the winsxs folder

One of the reasons for SFC failing is the System file checker utility is not able to access contents in winsxs folder. The winsxs folder contains important files for your Windows installation and backups and updates of those files.

Sometimes security descriptors of the folder prevent SFC utility from accessing the contents of the folder and that might be the cause of error. Here are the steps to fix the issue

• Open command prompt window with administrator rights
• In the command prompt window, type ICACLS C:\Windows\winsxs and hit Enter

• After the command is executed, close command prompt window
• Restart your PC and see if the SFC issue has been resolved