Windows 10: Windows Defender Offline Scan failure with Error code: 0xc0000221

When I run 'Windows Defender Offline Scan' the PC reboots and displays a blue "Recovery" screen saying:


Your PC/Device needs to be repaired

The operating system couldn't be loaded because the kernel is missing or contains errors.

File: \windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

Error code: 0xc0000221

You'll need to use recovery tools. If you ...........


None of the boot options work when selected, but a Ctrl-Alt-Del did allow the PC to successfully boot back into Windows.


I assumed this may be because of a recovery partition problem, but this looks ok to me:

WINRETOOLS, 490 MB NTFS, Healthy (OEM Partition)

500 MB, Healthy (EFI System Partition)

OS (C, 464.11 Gb NTFS. Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

571 MB NTFS, Healthy (OEM Partition)


Any ideas?

:)

 

Defender Periodic Scanning or Offline Scanning?

That link does suggest it's useful to use Defender offline scanning in addition to periodic scanning and a third party real time anti virus (e.g. Kaspersky).

 

windows Defender Offline scan not working - Error code 0x800000a

windows defender offline scan not working! error code 0x800000a and ID event 2031

 

offline scan by win defender

Hi,

To further assist you with your concern with Windows Defender, follow the steps below:

• Open the Run window by pressing Window + R button.
• Then type services.msc and hit "Enter".
  
• Look for Windows defender service in the list and right click on it and select start.
• Once Windows defender is opened try to do the offline scan on that window.

Let us know how it goes.