Windows 10: Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'...

Discus and support Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; A neighbor's PC was recently upgraded to what I presume to be the version 1903 update, but upon rebooting, it began the 'startup repair' loop I've seen... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by billzinn, Oct 19, 2019.

  1. billzinn Win User

    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'...


    A neighbor's PC was recently upgraded to what I presume to be the version 1903 update, but upon rebooting, it began the 'startup repair' loop I've seen described here as well as in other sources. Unfortunately, whatever corrupted the boot process has also made it impossible to access 'safe mode' as well. No matter how I try, ‘safe mode’ just cycles back to ‘startup repair’ – which does not bode well, IMHO. I've followed threads about repairing this both here and in other forums with no success, so I'm looking for assistance with this if possible.

    I have what seems to be a full "Windows 7 style” backup done from within this Windows 10 installation, which also includes a system restore image, which is currently located on a 4 TB USB3 external hard disk (the backup disk he always uses every week). Insofar as nothing I've tried has been of any success so far, I've had to implement this 'system restore' more than a couple of times to ‘reverse’ what I had attempted in my efforts to get this SSD to boot into Widows 10, once again.

    And my effort on this is for just one reason, and one reason only: there is a software application on this SSD that is the sole 'surviving copy' of a proprietary application that costs thousands of dollars to replace. And from what we've been told, to re-install and 're-activate' this software license (ie: on a clean install of Windows) supposedly REQUIRES that it first be UN-installed from the original disk before it is possible to install and activate again anywhere (... that is, according to the support group at the software firm that produces this app - AKA "SolidWorks"... although I believe this is simply a means to sell yet another copy of the software, IMHO).

    Here is what I've tried so far:

    From the 'Advanced options' (booting from the installation media, a USB flash drive), I've attempted to enter 'safe mode' but 'startup repair' begins again immediately upon rebooting...

    So.. I tried to do 'Startup Settings;' and disable any 'early load' malware or antivirus software, which of course simply began the repair loop once again as it rebooted.

    So.. again from the startup repair, I chose to "Uninstall recent updates" for both quality updates (which tells me there are "pending update actions" which prevent uninstalling a quality update ) and features updates (which tells me it 'ran into a problem and won't be able to uninstall the latest feature update'..).

    So.. Using the startup repair / troubleshooting access, I initiated the command prompt to do the following:

    1. Run chkdsk /f on both the "C:" drive (boot) as well as the system drive (DWindows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... :) with no errors found.

    2. I've then used the Command Prompt to try "bootrec /rebuildBCD" - which tells me it found (0) Windows installations, and then I tried "bootrec /fixmbr" - which ended successfully... And then "bootrec /fixboot" which tells me "access is denied".

    So.. then I tried accessing "srttrail.txt' from the 'system' drive (D:\windows\system32\LogFiles\Srt) and all entries show error codes of "0x0" but at the end it says: "Root cause found: a recently serviced boot binary is corrupt" - which arguably I take to mean that a registry corruption issue has occurred. So, I began tracking this down on the system drive (DWindows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... :) in an effort to restore ‘backup’ registry hives only to find there are no 'backup' registry hives to be found in D:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack – absolutely nothing in this directory whatsoever - because this ‘registry backup’ feature ‘went away’ in version 1803 (and later, or so I just found out).

    So.. I guess my only other option now is to try to ‘renew’ the PC and try to retain this SolidWorks software without having to make him ‘ante up’ close to $5K/year (or spend the $8K to buy the ‘perpetual license') ONCE AGAIN... (not likely to save the full operation in any 'renew'' situation, I’d suppose but "hope springs eternal" as my late father would say..).

    Unless, of course, some blessed soul out there has a ‘better idea’ on how to repair this apparent registry corruption and save my neighbor’s bacon (which at this point, I'm kind of doubtful of, I guess …)

    :)
     
    billzinn, Oct 19, 2019
    #1
  2. djoatmeal Win User

    Boot loop after update no safe mode option-repair fails- restore fails


    Last night around 9pm I noticed the pc was doing another update. Endless boot loop again. I ran through the steps from yesterday with one new result and it will not boot.
    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... [​IMG]
     
    djoatmeal, Oct 19, 2019
    #2
  3. djoatmeal Win User
    Boot loop after update no safe mode option-repair fails- restore fails



    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... [​IMG]

    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... [​IMG]
     
    djoatmeal, Oct 19, 2019
    #3
  4. djoatmeal Win User

    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'...

    Boot loop after update no safe mode option-repair fails- restore fails


    For reference here is the current state of what I have.
    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... [​IMG]

    Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'... [​IMG]
     
    djoatmeal, Oct 19, 2019
    #4
Thema:

Windows 10 Update failed - now trapped in 'startup repair' loop and no access to 'safe mode'...

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