"System Recovery Option is not compatible..."

I'm running Windows 7, and I've been having problems with blue screening upon exiting a game. It would only happen when I exited, never during gameplay. I tracked the error down to ntoskml.exe, so I figured it was either bad RAM or corrupted system files. Since the system files would be the cheaper option to fix, I did an SFC /SCANNOW, and sure enough, there were files that were corrupted, along with their backups. When I tried to use the Windows 7 disk to repair them, I got this gem:

System Recovery Option is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair

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Now, I'm pretty sure it's the same disk, since it's not like I have a bunch of Windows 7 disks lying around. So far, popular consensus in my google results is that I just have to save what I can off the hard drive and reformat. I'd rather not. Anything less drastic I can do?

unplug any second hdd's. reloads are exciting though, everything is so fresh and untainted

Try running the SFC tool offline from the Windows RE...

How to Run the System File Checker (Sfc.exe) Offline in Windows 7 and Vista
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/run-sfc-offline-windows-7-vista/

Just make sure to adjust the drive letter depending on where your system is installed, referring to the following command...

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

redduc900 said:

Try running the SFC tool offline from the Windows RE...

How to Run the System File Checker (Sfc.exe) Offline in Windows 7 and Vista
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/run-sfc-offline-windows-7-vista/

Just make sure to adjust the drive letter depending on where your system is installed, referring to the following command...

sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows

Click to expand...

I managed to make a repair boot disk on my usb drive, but I got this error when I ran that command:

Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service

Click to expand...

Check to see if you have a pending.xml file located in the C:\Windows\winsxs directory, and if so... rename or delete it prior to running SFC offline.

Not seeing a pending.xml, but I am seeing a reboot.xml.

System Recovery Option is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair

Click to expand...

Not sure about the error you got while using a USB key, but that one can be caused by a mismatch on boot. What I mean is, if you have a UEFI Windows install and boot off the DVD under legacy system restore won't be able to do anything. I had the same message come up while trying to restore a system image. I wasn't paying attention to the fact that drives are listed twice in the boot menu and was trying to boot the DVD under UEFI and restore an image that was from a legacy(BIOS) install.

it could be because the system you are trying to repair is a different bit version (32 or 64) from the repair disk you are using. Use the same bit version. I tested this and it seemed to work.