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
    2017-01-12T00:56:20+00:00

    No one was ever able to help me with this same issue , so i  managed to get mine working using Linux, a long and complicated and hackish process  wouldn't want anyone to have to do. I only did it because I was  Not going to give up at the time lol.

    IF you haven't resolved this issue yet and No one helps or finds asolution,

    I would suggest getting a Windows repair disk or downloading the ISO from Microsoft and making your own and trying to repair it that way.

    Or at least i think will could work if all else fails you could reinstall Windows  if repair does not work.  maybe you could get someone to help get your files off the drive, you can mount the hard drive in another PC and after you  do that,  then put  the hard drive back in your PC before the Windows install erased your files IF you have files that are  very valuable to you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-01-12T00:31:46+00:00

    I used Linux and carefully  made a partition of unused space on the Hard drive  After I finally managed to  reset the "dirty bit" hex code that was on the drive  Then  I installed    Grub2 bootloader and  I made  chain loader  to boot Windows from there and it is Still working fine,

    One Caveat though,  If I shut it down normally, upon restart it erases my work and goes back into the endless  repair loop that will never complete!

    So after that happened once  and I got it booting  again  using my  Grub 2 hack ,  I made a  shortcut and added it to the panel  or rather  Taskbar in  Windows™  nomenclature,    and the shortcut I made  is: " shutdown /s /t 0 "

     so I click that and  poof!  it goes  off  :)

      I was very nervous the first few times that I ran updates though after I had shut it down in that manner  but amazingly they succeeded and all has  been well!

    I know this was a very unorthodox hackish way to  fix it but I felt like it was challenging me and it made me rather upset after  a few days of  nonproductive  BS.

    I apologize for just now getting back to this thread.

    Stan Williams

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-01-12T00:11:53+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.

    I tried but now it wont even start and just says critical process died

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-10-31T22:27:06+00:00

    Hi,

    To address your concern, we suggest that you try to disable the Automatic Startup Repair option.

    To disable the Automatic Startup Repair, follow these steps:

    1. In the  Boot Options, choose Troubleshooting > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.
    2. Once you're in Command Prompt, type the following and press Enter to run it: bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No
    3. Restart the computer.

    You may also try to restore the Windows registry. To restore the registry from RegBack directory, please follow these steps:

    1. In Command Prompt, type the following and press Enter to run it:

    copy c:\windows\system32\config\RegBack\ c:\windows\system32\config* 2. If asked to overwrite files, type All and press Enter. 3. Type exit and press Enter to exit Command Prompt. 4. Restart your computer and check if the issue has been resolved.

    Please update us with the results.

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