How to Fix the Automatic Repair Loop in Windows 8.1

Anonymous
2014-03-24T00:15:09+00:00

I installed the update KB2919394 and my computer was thrown into the dreaded automatic repair loop, which Microsoft hasn't fixed yet.

Anyways I thought I would give some solutions on how to get out of this. Solution 1 is what worked for me.

Solution 1

This solution is to disable the automatic repair from starting if your computer fails to boot into windows.

What you will need - A Windows 8 or 8.1 CD

Step 1: Place the CD in your drive and proceed to boot from it

Step 2: When the install screen pops up, look to the bottom left and select "Repair Your Computer".

Step 3: You will now see a screen that says "Choose an option". Select "Troubleshoot", then "Advanced Options", and finally "Command Prompt".

Step 4: You should now see the command prompt. Type "bcdedit" (without quotes) and hit enter.

Step 5: A list should have appeared. Towards the top, you should see "resumeobject" (It is under "default"). Highlight the long number, including the brackets, and copy.

Step 6: Now type "bcdedit /set (the long number you copied) recoveryenabled No" (Without quotes). Hit enter.

Step 7: You should now see the message "The operation completed successfully"

Step 8: Type "Exit" (Without quotes)

Step 9: Reboot

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Solution 2

Booting into safe mode first, then rebooting the computer.

What you will need - nothing

So you are at the screen that says something on the lines of "Windows did not load properly".

Step 1: Select "Advanced repair options"

Step 2: Select "Troubleshoot"

Step 3: Select "Advanced Options"

Step 4: Select "Start up settings"

Step 5: Select "Restart"

Step 6: The computer should restart. Now you want to hit the 4 key, which is safe mode.

Step 7: You should be able to log in now. Restart the computer and the computer should boot normally.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Solution 3

Running check disk to see if your hard drive is the problem

What you will need - A Windows 8 or 8.1 CD

Step 1: Place the CD in your drive and proceed to boot from it

Step 2: When the install screen pops up, look to the bottom left and select "Repair Your Computer".

Step 3: You will now see a screen that says "Choose an option". Select "Troubleshoot", then "Advanced Options", and finally "Command Prompt".

Step 4: Type "chkdsk /r C:" (Without quotes)

Step 5: The scan should start. This could take several hours depending on the size of your hard drive.

Step 6: Once the scan is done, type "exit" (without quotes).

Step 7: Reboot

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Solution 4 (Found out by user DayDay13)

Making sure your hard drive is first in boot priority.

What you will need - nothing

Step 1: Boot into BIOS on your computer

Step 2: Go into your boot priority list

Step 3: If you see "Windows Boot Manager" as number 1 in your priority, change it so that your hard drive is number 1.

Step 4: Save and exit BIOS

Step 5: Reboot

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Microsoft community, please do not delete this thread. These are confirmed solutions that have worked for many others with the automatic repair loop problem. I will add more if any other solutions become available.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

110 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2015-06-16T15:03:52+00:00

    I ran into the endless repair loop from simply force shutting down my computer a couple of times after a program hung. The first time, the repair process took 8 hours just to reach 30% and I KNEW there wasn't really anything super serious going on, so I wanted to stop it!

    It was also very irritating is that that I kept seeing the message "Press any key to stop automatic repair" briefly flash on the screen, so I constantly kept banging on my keys to no avail (why show the message at all if that doesn't stop it, MS?).

    Solutions 1 - 3 did NOT work for me. What DID work however was going into Advanced Options (from Solution 1, step 3), and booting into Safe Mode with Command Prompt. For some reason, that did the trick where the other solutions failed. After booting into safe mode w/cmd, then restarting my computer again, it finally booted ok.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-10T20:34:55+00:00

    i tried all the solutions but nothing worked. my keyboard lost power always when i had to  hit any key to avoid repair. being a usb keyboard and the same happend with all usb2 and 3 plugs.took me three or more hours of sweat to think it out

    i tried an old ps2 keyboard from my junk case and it worked, i'm out of the loop and have the windows cd as first boot option on my pc.

    hope it helps someone else

    good luck

    frank, italy

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-05-22T14:56:54+00:00

    I tried solution 4, but in the boot mode options all that shos up is Windows Boot Manager, USB Storage Device, Internal ODD Devices, USB Floppy Device and Onboard NIC Devide. Any help as to why my hard drive isn't on this list?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2015-05-22T07:07:51+00:00

    Thank you!!!!  After many hours solution 3 did the trick

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Anonymous
    2015-04-16T22:42:36+00:00

    I have a Asus Desktop and I try the BIOS thing and I only see a option that says Toshiba and disabled and I don't know how to fix this loop can someone help me?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments