My Windows 8.1 is stuck in an automatic repair loop, how can I fix this?

Anonymous
2014-01-02T16:49:35+00:00

my laptop will not boot at all, when I turn it on the screen shows 'preparing automatic repair' then 'diagnosing your PC'. After this, the screen shows 'your PC did not start correctly' and it doesn't work when I restart it so I selected advanced options. After this, if I click continue the repair screen appears again and I am redirected back to the same page. I can't access my desktop at all and an administrator hasn't been set on my laptop, so after clicking troubleshoot I can't refresh or reset my PC.After this I clicked on advanced settings and I cannot choose system restore, command prompt, system image recovery or startup repair because they either don't work or need an administrator and I haven't set one as I mentioned before. My last resort was startup settings which requires restarting the PC. 9 options are to choose from and I tried almost all and it won't boot up in safe mode. Help!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2014-04-02T19:25:00+00:00

I've inserted the System Recovery disc 1 that came with the computer. No change.

Usually that means that that device is not higher than the hard drive in the boot device order.  You would probably need to get into your BIOS screen to change that.  See your User Guide or contact HP for more information.  Post your product id (e.g. what details you need to use HP's site to find your particular documentation and downloads but not your serial number) if you need someone to help interpret your user documentation.  In W7 HP had a nice tool that gave me those details.  I never found anything analogous from W8, except in bits and pieces.

HTH

Robert Aldwinckle

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-09-08T16:16:34+00:00

    Hi,

    Since Automatic Repair fails to repair your PC, now select "Advanced options" and then "Troubleshoot" and try these steps:

    b.Select "Advanced options" and then select "Command Prompt".

    c.If prompted, enter in the password for the user name.

    d.At the Command Prompt, type the following commands and hit enter.

    bootrec /fixMBR bootrec /Fixboot bootrec /rebuildBCD

    Restart the computer and check the issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-08T15:46:48+00:00

    Solved my problem but it likely won't help many here.

    Basically, wife's machine. Was time for a new one anyway so got a new mobo and ram. Re-installed, everything fine. Until I hooked up the other drives (4 drives in the machine). Then... same problem. Making a long story short, seems like one drive was throwing the whole setup off. Unhooked the 4th drive... problem went away. But I have no idea how a bad slave drive could cause a problem like this one. It was a 3T drive but the system was reading it as 4T for some reason.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-08T14:47:10+00:00

    Hi Anannya,

    I tried the above steps. This is what the system shows on the command prompt.

    X:\windows\system32>bootrec /fixMBR

    The operation completed successfully.

    X:\windows\system32>bootrec /Fixboot

    The operation completed successfully.

    **X:\windows\system32>**bootrec /rebuildBCD

    Scanning all disks for Windows installations.

    Please wait, since this may take a while..****.

    Successfully scanned Windows installation.

    Total Identified windows installations: 0

    The operation completed successfully.

    X:\windows\system32>

    I shut down the system to restart(Did not have a restart button) and it gave me a blank screen forever. Nothing happened after that.

    What else can I do to get this issue fixed? What is causing the problem and is the Hard Drive corrupted?

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-30T23:03:02+00:00

    Well I have a machine that has a new drive installed, formatted, fresh installed win 8 and... sits and spins. Finally goes to auto repair and... reboots. Back to sitting and spinning and... going to auto repair.

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