Windows 10: Windows support article for repair boot loop not reliable?

Win 10 users: Has anyone here ever had this happen?

This morning system booted to "Preparing Automatic Repair on startup", and claimed that it could take "an hour or more" to repair. I did nothing different to the system, so I'm guessing something got downloaded via Windows Update that did this. But it just hung there. Restarted and hung there.

This is apparently a very common issue with Win 10, but Microsoft's fix for my situation entailed the following: Hard shutdown and reboot 3 times in succession. This is supposed to tell the OS that something is wrong and I need Safe Mode (Editorial: Damn Microsoft for not simply enabling F8 to do that pre-OS like it was on Windows 7). Tried it maybe 15 times with no "press any key within 8 seconds to bypass repair" like Microsoft says is supposed to work.

One time I booted and it showed me that it was Repairing beginning with Stage 1 and gave me a percentage...but it was moving VERY slowly. It did get to Stage 2, which it completed....and then the system rebooted and Stage 1 started again. Both times Stage 1 took forever at 34% complete, only to jump to 80% maybe an hour later.

Long and short, I was caught in a boot loop and couldn't get into safe mode. But then just a short while ago the system decided I had done the hard shutdown/boot thing correctly, gave me a chance to skip the repair (which I intend to do overnight tonight), and now I'm typing this.

I'm wondering if anyone has a suggestion for why the "black screen" safe mode solution didn't work that often, and if you've had similar things happen.

As it is, hard shutdowns can mess things up, and making that a requirement to bypass a boot repair loop is irresponsible.
Sorry this is so long. I hope someone reads this.

Support article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...c-in-safe-mode

Windows 10 Enterprise version 1909.

:)

 

Windows 10 Repair Boot Loop

Hi Jed,

If your computer is stuck in a boot-loop state of Windows, it could mean that automatic repair isn't able to repair a corrupted or broken system file, but attempts to repair it over and over again. For us to assist you properly in resolving this boot-loop
state, kindly respond to the questions below:

• Did the issue occur even after removing the USB wireless mouse?
• Aside from running DISM, what other troubleshooting steps have you done? This is for us to know and to avoid any duplication of efforts on your end.

We look forward to your response.

 

Automatic Repair Loop Continued Woes


The automatic repair loop might be caused by the following issues:

• filesystem corruption
• corrupt MBR or BCD
• improper registry settings

This article covers all the possible reasons and solutions:
Fix Automatic Startup Repair Loop in Windows 10, 8 and 7 | Password Recovery

I hope this helps!

 

Automatic repair loop

Hi there, thanks for your question.

Here are the steps I generally recommend to fix automatic repair boot loops:

Use Check Disk Utility

Fix Boot and Rebuild BCD via Command Prompt

Restore Windows Registry

Delete the Problematic File

Disable Automatic Startup Repair

Check Device Partition and OsdevicePartition

Perform Refresh or Reset Your PC

These steps are listed in detail with instructions in the below article:

https://www.technology.org/2017/11/14/7-ways-fi...

If you're still experiencing issues after these steps, please let me know and I'll see what else we can try! Thanks!

Note: Non-Microsoft websites are linked. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised
on the site before you decide to download and install it.