Windows 8.1 Home Infinite Repair Loop

[Mainstay]

Lenovo laptop w/ 8.1 Home booting to "Automatic Repair" in an infinite loop on a WD 1 TB Hybrid 8 GB SSD / HD.

I have all of his files backed up and the HD had *some* corruption (found.000) showing.

The user is a fresh graduate and no longer has access to some of the expensive programs he was entitled to as a student... so wants to try to save Windows, in all its glory.

I cannot break the loop.

If I go into a recovery environment (via W8 boot CD) the drive shows as being locked (as a result of being in hibernation mode, I presume) so Refresh is out of the question.

I have booted to command prompt and tried bootrec commands:

Bootrec /fixMBR
bootrec /fixBoot
bootrec /rebuildBCD

no dice.

CHKDSK and SFC have all been run, successfully, but no change.


I have renamed windows\config\system in an attempt to start a fresh system hive - no dice. I have restored the backup version of that hive, no dice.

Not sure what else to try.

Again, the objective is to save Windows.

Any input greatly appreciated!

 

[frase]

I had same thing, unfortunately had to N&P, I tried everything including what you stated. Though did you try and remove the HDD and run CHKDSK on another system via USB>SATA connector.

I used the bcdedit command as below , didn't work for me as drive no longer recognised the boot drive OS

"try disabling the feature via Command Prompt.
Type bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled NO
and press ENTER Key.
If the message reads "The operation completed successfully", then Automatic Repair will not appear."

and try to reset your computer.

This caused my experience to just display a generic 0x screen so use with caution.

 

[Mainstay]

did you try and remove the HDD and run CHKDSK on another system via USB>SATA connector.

I will attempt this again... perhaps I missed something here.

I will also try that bcdedit command...

Will use with caution - thanks!

I have a clone of the drive, but it took ages to make, so not looking forward to copying it back if this fails.

=)

Thank you for the input!

 

[discipulus]

Failing drive? Did you test it?

 

[Mainstay]

drives tests fine in mhdd (7 x 150 - 500 ms sectors, but that's it).

 

[ZenTree]

What make and model is the computer?

edit: ignore that. Just seen. We have had two laptops, same make and OS and the issue lies with the lenovo usb blocker software not liking an update. Of course you need to get into windows to be able to uninstall it.

We managed a system restore but if that's not working not sure what you could do off the top of my head..

 

[Mainstay]

just wiped and reloaded from ISO.... hours wasted... but system is functional again.

am really a fan of Lenovo, but we've had such odd conflicts with their fingerprint software, recovery software, and essentially their very bloated Lenovo branded software lately that I am starting to recommend them less.