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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-12T16:00:38+00:00

    These solutions even the Bcdedit, likely won't work for most people. and the "Automatic Repair" will loop over and over again, not just 3 times, and it likely will never work. As is typical with Microcrap, their automatic options are terrible and usually never ever work correctly.

    I did the Advanced Options and went to the Command Prompt and tried the Bcdedit several times and that never did disable the Startup Automatic Repair so that option isn't likely to work for anyone too well.

    The only solution I could find (for a still okay working hard drive, meaning one that hasn't failed) was to remove it from my computer and use a (Inland brand) SATA/IDE USB controller (they run about $25) and run a Check Disk on the drive and then I put it back into the computer and it worked fine.

    Microsoft has ruined the Check Disk for Windows 8 & 8.1, so our only solution is to scan the hard drive or the Solid State Drive outside of the computer and that works. Even though on my scan it found "no drive errors," at all, so likely this was a false error reporting by the hugely bugged Windows 8.1

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-09-10T12:01:46+00:00

    I did the Advanced Options and went to the Command Prompt and tried the Bcdedit several times and that never did disable the Startup Automatic Repair so that option isn't likely to work for anyone too well.

    In my case resumeobject uid didn't work but if I used indentifier {default} (bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No) then that solved reboot loop problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-09-16T01:47:13+00:00

    I tried it the way you did Olari and it "did not work" for me at all, nor did it work on 2 other Windows 8.1 computers that have the same issue, we're all giving up and moving back to Windows 7 and abandoning Windows 8.1 for good, it's a nightmare OS and it shouldn't be used by anyone all our huge IT Department agrees, dump Windows 8.1 and move back to Windows 7, that fixes all the major bugs in Windows 8.1

    Thank you for writing this, but we tried it on 3 Windows 8.1 OS installed computers and the "Reboot" option stayed in place and we had to give up.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-11-27T01:07:09+00:00

    i will try your last one solution.

    Because my computer couldnt boot to safe mode too. So maybe problem is boot priority.

    Hope it will work with me.

    btw, thanks for sharing

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-12-19T11:54:10+00:00

    My case, nevertheless, is quite unique.

    I encountered the problem after my laptop suddenly switched off while rendering video (maybe because of the excessive CPU heat). When I restarted it, Windows failed to load and the automatic repair loop kicked in.

    Then I tried to boot via Windows USB Installation (to try to apply your suggestion) but failed. What I did after that was, I used a Ubuntu Linux USB and run it as Live CD, and thus booted in as Linux. My intention at that moment was to backup all the files in my Windows User's directory (personal data) to other external location, which I did.

    Then I shut down the Live CD session, plug out the Linux USB, and restart my laptop. Suprisingly, I managed to arrive at Windows login without that automatic repair screen!

    I do not know if this can be considered as solution. But I did encountered the same problem again, did the same procedure (Linux Live CD, backup, shutdown, restart) and the problem eliminated.

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