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

Anonymous

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!

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Anonymous

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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156 additional answers

Anonymous

2014-09-12T06:25:37+00:00

Hi Seth,

Thank you for the update.

However, G: is a reference drive. For example, if you are checking for C: drive, then you need to type:

CHKNTFS /X C: and query the state of C: drive. Similarly, for any other drive.

Please keep us updated with the status of the issue and post back the error messages for further assistance.
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Anonymous

2014-09-11T17:26:11+00:00

fsutil dirty query g:

Returns: 'fsutil' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

CHKNTFS /X G:

Returns: Cannot query the state of drive G:

Manual reboot results in Automatic Repair Loop.
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Anonymous

2014-09-11T16:13:16+00:00

Hi Seth,

Based on the response of the chkdsk, please try the following steps and check if the issue persists.

You can open command prompt from the same Windows in Windows Recovery using which you initiated Automatic Repair.

Open a command prompt windows, type the following and hit Enter:

fsutil dirty query g:

This command will query the drive, and more than likely it will tell you that it is dirty.

Next, type CHKNTFS /X G:. The X tells Windows to NOT check that particular drive (G) on the next reboot. At this time, manually reboot your computer, it should not run Chkdsk now, but take you directly to Windows.

Do let us know in case you need further assistance, we will be happy to help.

Thank you.
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Anonymous

2014-09-11T15:48:33+00:00

bcdboot c:\windows with the USB recovery drive plugged in:

Returned: Failure when attempting to copy boot files.

I performed the power drain, but it did not change anything.

I tried bcdboot c:\windows again resulting in the same failure.
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