Correcting An Endless "automatic Repair" Loop Upon Startup

Hello again, MajorGeeks -- it's been a long time since my last login to the forum. I recall that the turnaround on responses were pretty robust here; tired of going weeks or months between replies on other forums, I'll try my luck asking all of you.

Back in December (over nine months ago now), while I was doing work on my laptop computer, it was preparing to go into a low-battery shutdown; before the computer fully shut itself down, I plugged in my charging cable and waited for the power to shut all the way off, but it never did, even after a near-hour wait with nothing but a black screen without a shutdown. I ended up turning the power off manually, but every startup since then has booted into "Automatic Repair" mode, and none of the measures available in this mode has corrected the problem.

As I mentioned before, I've gone to other forums asking for help, but haven't solved the problem yet -- largely due to a lack of engagement from the other forum users for months on end; in some instances, earlier topics I opened on the subject ended up getting locked out due to inactivity. To condense what I've managed to learn about the problem so far, while I have a likely fix available to try correcting the problem, the big issue I've had in recent months was attempting to back up the contents of my internal hard drive; after a number of false starts, I began getting stymied on that issue due to "administrator permission" error prompts during backup attempts, but recently narrowed the culprit down to the hard drive's "AppData" folder, for which I am trying to work out a solution as we speak. Convoluted, I know; if anyone here has seen the "Who, What, Where, Ed" episode of Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy that involved an elaborate series of trades to get to their ultimate goal, you'd get a good idea of what the last several months have looked like on my end, especially considering that I've largely been left to my own devices for most of that time, going through quite an odyssey of trial and error while asking others for help and waiting hopelessly for replies.

To summarize in sequence, I am trying to find a way to bypass the "administrator permission" error in order to copy my hard drive's "AppData" folder specifically, so that I may then be able to perform a proper backup of the full contents of that same drive, so that I may then safely apply the recommended fix to that same drive's operating system that would fix the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop that has crippled my laptop.

For your knowledge, the affected laptop is an HP Pavilion that runs Windows 10. I am currently borrowing an HP Stream laptop which runs Windows 10 In S Mode, from which I am authoring this post and have attempted most of my troubleshooting since December. I've got access to a couple different hard drive adapters, and have a few different means of external storage for a drive backup. I will also include direct links to my other assorted forum links at the bottom of this post, so that everyone can see the full gamut of what's been recommended and/or tried thus far, lists of relevant hardware to which I have access, and other specific details that may not have been mentioned here, including screengrabs. All links below are interconnected in regards to resolving the same overarching problem, and some are more helpful or concise than others.

Thanks in advance for your help,
adonisunlimited

• HP Community: HP Pavilion Laptop Going Into Automatic Repair Upon Startup; Am Unable To Properly Log In
• HP Community: HP Pavilion Laptop Going Into Automatic Repair Upon Startup; Am Unable To Properly Log In (alternative link; hosted in different Product Discussions section)
• HP Community: Endless Automatic Repair Loop Upon Startup
• HP Community: Endless Automatic Repair Loop Upon Startup (cont.) (continuation link; opened after the original topic became locked for inactivity)
  
• HP Community: Hard Drive Backup Blocked By "Administrator Permission" Prompts
  
• HP Community: How To Copy An Internal Hard Drive's "AppData" Folder
  
• Microsoft Support Community: Correcting An Endless "Automatic Repair" Loop
  
• Microsoft Support Community: How To Copy The "AppData" Folder From An Internal Hard Drive

 

I suggest, in order to try to address your most pressing problem - the boot issue - that you download and burn to a flash drive the free version of Macrium Reflect. When you boot to that, one of the options is to fix Windows boot problems. There can be no guarantee it will fix your particular issue but it will ensure that the Windows system is correctly configured and correct any misconfiguration. You will need use of another system to burn, not just copy, the downloaded iso to a flash drive. The flash drive will then be bootable and provide access to the free version of Macrium which can also be used at any time to image your hard drive or its partitions. The free version unfortunately doesn't support file backups, just disk imaging. It's essential to try to fix this problem outside of Windows, which MR can hopefully do for you.

 

Before I respond to @Earthling, could one of the Moderators please capitalize the "A" in the thread title? I have no idea how that changed to lowercase when I finished the post. Also, I didn't get an E-mail notification about the reply to my topic even as I had the checkbox selected, so that is why I'm just now getting back onto the thread; maybe someone could notify an Administrator about that for me.

Now onto the formal reply to @Earthling, which I thank you for messaging. I don't know if you had a chance to look through the other forum topic links I included in the original post, but the reason I hesitate over your suggestion is that another forum user (I believe the specific message about this is found in one of the Microsoft links) said that doing disk imaging on my affected drive would copy the hard drive as is, including the main operating system error along with everything else, which would defeat the purpose of what I hope to accomplish. Not saying your idea wouldn't work, as I can't be sure of that, but I worry that such an outcome would still be setting me back. Nonetheless, @Earthling, thank you for such a fast response.

Again, I'm open to whatever will help any of the assorted issues laid out in the original post.

Thanks in advance
adonisunlimited

 

Hi. You have rather missed the main point of my post. I was not advocating that you image your drive, but suggesting you create the bootable flash in order to run the Fix Windows Boot Problems routine. Whether you later also use the imaging feature is entirely optional though there isn't any logical reason not to do so as imaging is a neutral process, neither harmful nor beneficial.

 

Hello again, @Earthling Thanks again for another fast response.

I appreciate that your message got to the heart of the main problem, which I am willing to try, but I should reiterate from my original post that I would like to backup my hard drive before attempting a fix of the booting problem.

Here's the specific line I authored in the original post, because I'm kind of trying to do three separate things on my way towards correcting the endless "Automatic Repair" reboot loop:

It was recommended in one of the other forum topics (all are hyperlinked in the original post) that I should backup my hard drive ahead of performing a fix on the error, just in case something goes awry to avoid the possible loss of any data; I am quite paranoid about that, and want to avoid such a mishap like the Plague. Backing up my hard drive is basically Phase 1 in the repair process, for which I would still like to get some help, if anyone has any recommendations to accomplish this. Again, I encourage everyone to take a closer look at the assorted hyperlinks in the original post to get a better understanding of the maze I'm navigating.

Thanks in advance
adonisunlimited

P.S. I feel I should ask this again: could one of the Moderators please capitalize that lowercase "A" in the thread title? I honestly don't know why it posted in lowercase, and it's a bit annoying to see it. I should also note that I didn't get an E-mail notification about @Earthling's most recent reply to the thread, so that may cause a delay in my own response; if someone could notify an Administrator about that for me, it'd be appreciated.

 

The ONLY way to completely backup a hard drive is to image it, but imaging will include EVERYTHING on the drive including any faults, such as your boot loop. However if you do as I have recommended the only files that will be affected are the system files used to boot the system - nothing else can possibly be affected. In any case you should already have created backups of your personal files and if you have not you are already at permanent risk of losing them so correcting that would have to be your very first step. The free version of MR cannot do that but there are many, many alternative backup systems that can. However in your case you would still have to create a bootable flash drive in order to use them.

My recommendation is unchanged - create and use the MR bootable flash - your other files will not be affected and your boot problem may be (or may not be) resolved. I am completely confident in what I am saying but indifferent as to whether you accept it or not.

 

I seem to detect some possible irritation in that last remark, @Earthling, for which I hope I'm mistaken; forgive me if I seem overly doubtful about your recommendation, as that was not my intention, but considering the array of advice that has been fielded on other forums over the past several months, one can't fault anyone for being respectably cautious after any number of false starts and recommendations that ultimately went nowhere. Skepticism is healthy, and patience is a virtue; I hope there was no offense taken simply by elaborating my intentions, and apologies all around otherwise. The last thing needed here is any unintended offense from or towards anyone in either direction; my appreciation for your responses on this matter have been very sincere.

Nonetheless, I decided to take a closer look at the download link for the MR program you've provided; I've said before that it is an option I am willing to try, and will provide an update once able. If it were to work for me, then I would be happy to be done with the matter; if not, I'll be back to ask for more help. I didn't get any E-mail notification from the latest post here, so I will try to remember keeping an eye on the forums rather than on my E-mail inbox moving forward; it might make me a bit slower to respond, but I will do so once I see something posted here, so please feel welcome to comment if anyone feels the need is warranted.

Thanks in advance
adonisunlimited

 

Ok, you want to back up some files before trying any more fixes and you're getting permission issues? Simple, don't use Windows, get a live Linux Distro, boot from it, and you'll be able to copy anything you desire. Many Linux distros offer the "live" option - it does not install anything to the drive. Get Rufus and make a bootable USB of the Linux iso.
Can I try Zorin OS before installing it on my computer?
Absolutely! You can run Zorin OS from a USB drive to test-drive it without touching your computer's hard drive.

Boot loop - Press F8 repeatedly while the computer starts up. This is how the Windows Boot Options menu appears. Then go to Troubleshoot -> Advanced Options -> select Command Prompt, enter "bcdedit / set {current} recoveryenabled No" (without the quotes) in the Command Prompt window. Type “exit” and press Enter
Next reboot, have a camera (smartphone) and record the screen as it boots. You might catch a flash of a blue screen that you can review in the video that will tell you what is really going on.

Extra Reading

 

Sorry for the slow response; again, I didn't get an E-mail notification about your reply, so thanks for doing so, @Foogoo.

I've glanced at the links you provided, but haven't had the chance to really sit down and absorb the information yet; nonetheless, it does look promising, and I will eventually update the thread with whatever information comes of what I end up trying out.

Again, thanks to everyone who has contributed so far; it's greatly appreciated.

adonisunlimited

 

Forgive the long delay between posts, but I've been working hard on dealing with the matters brought up in my earlier messages.

I'll keep things brief: to update the situation, I went ahead and worked with the Macrium program in recent weeks to see what good it would do for the laptop affected with that "Automatic Repair" startup loop. At best, it led to mixed results.

The two links below go into how the Macrium process went, both for the drive backup and the boot-error fix respectively.

• https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/fo...older-to-external-storage/page-3#entry5588102
  
• https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/fo...older-to-external-storage/page-3#entry5588698

That will have to do for now; since the Macrium method fell short, I'm turning focus onto another recommendation on fixing the error, which is found here. At the moment, it is stymied due to disk-space constraints on my alternate laptop, so I'm open to suggestions on how to circumvent the disk-space error in using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool, or for how to attain its rescue media as freeware in a fashion similar to how I got hold of Macrium.

As always, thanks in advance for any helpful responses.
adonisunlimited

 

I have a quick update on this topic...

The last couple of nights, I got a prompt from Windows about the laptop needing to perform updates on the Windows 10 operating system, but needed more disk space to complete the update. Reading through the message, I noticed something that could be helpful to what I mentioned above; I made sure to take a screengrab, which is included below:



Imagine the luck for this to come up just as I'm trying to figure out a way to find room on this secondary laptop (remember that the laptop having the "Automatic Repair" error is an HP Pavilion running Windows 10 Home, while the secondary laptop is an HP Stream running Windows 10 In S Mode). For better context, I will add another screengrab of what happened when I tried using the HP Cloud Recovery Tool recently, which is included below:



Simply put, would it be possible to do as recommended by that Windows 10 Update message, and somehow use external storage to temporarily extend the disk space on the laptop's hard drive in order to use the HP Cloud Recovery Tool to carry out the process to create bootable rescue media?

The thing about the secondary laptop (the HP Stream) is that it only has, give-or-take, about 1GB left for use in a 28.3GB max capacity hard drive, when about 27GB would be needed for the task; I have access to a few external drives, and if such an extension is temporary, I wouldn't have to worry about making any major changes to the secondary laptop, which I've only been borrowing for all this time in order to try fixing the other.

In case anyone would need to see it, the Windows 10 Update message also provided this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/free-up-space-for-windows-updates-429b12ba-f514-be0b-4924-ca6d16fa1d65

If this seems doable for what I need, or if anyone is familiar enough about this type of thing to coach me in how to do this safely, feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks in advance
adonisunlimited

 

Just to add onto my last couple posts regarding the disk-space issue with my alternate laptop, I've taken a couple of screengrabs that might add some insight:




Referencing the earlier post above, if it is indeed possible to use Windows to temporarily extend the space of the secondary laptop's C-drive with an external storage device in order to generate enough room on the disk for the HP Cloud Recovery Tool to create bootable rescue media, I would really appreciate a response on how to do it very soon.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies...hope to hear from someone soon.
adonisunlimited

 

Hello again, MajorGeeks -- I'm still having a snag in creating rescue media for my computer, largely due to the limited amount of disk space left in the laptop that I've been borrowing to do the task.

Since the attempt to use Macrium fell short of fixing the boot issue, I've tried to use the HP Cloud Recovery Tool and the Windows Media Creation Tool, but both need a lot of free Gigabytes of disk space, and the computer I've borrowed has less than 2GB left on a 32GB drive. Feel free to see this link for a more complete explanation.

Hope somebody has a good tip for me to try...thanks in advance
adonisunlimited

 

You mentioned an external drive. How large?

 

Welcome to the discussion, the mekanic...I'm glad to have a response from anybody right now. I've got a few different threads open on this and other forums about this issue, and have gotten little to no response in any of the other ones.

To answer your question, I have a few external drives of varying capacities and available space for each. I've take a screengrab of "This PC" that shows the (C drive of the laptop I'm borrowing, and three of my external hard drives attached for comparison.



Hope that image helps...

My short-term goal is to reclaim enough space that mysteriously depleted over the years (see link for better explanation) to create rescue media for a separate laptop; the ultimate goal is to fix the boot issue on that laptop mentioned in my original post.

Thanks again for wanting to help out, by the way.
adonisunlimited

 

My half baked idea is to use an external as a boot drive. And, red is bad.

 

Yes, the mekanic, red is indeed bad in this context LOL. Sorry for the slow response, but MajorGeeks doesn't send me any timely E-mail notifications that my thread got a reply (if any E-mail notification whatsoever).

I mentioned on this other thread of mine (screengrabs included, along with a detailed explanation) that the goal is to free enough space to create an external boot drive, but the laptop I am borrowing doesn't have enough disk space; oddly, its disk space had been gradually draining for no good reason for some time, and now there's barely anything left on it now when I could really use it.

That said, any ideas on what can be done to correct either the low disk space matter on the (borrowed) HP Stream laptop, or the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop on the HP Pavilion laptop (that actually belongs to me)? It'd be nice to have this dealt with once and for all for this holiday season.

BTW, Merry Christmas Eve, Season's Greetings, and Happy Holidays to all here on MajorGeeks.

 

Hello again, MajorGeeks.

First and foremost, I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who spared the time to help me out with this issue, both on this forum and others, over the past thirteen-and-a-half months. Granted, I would have liked to have seen more engagement and mobility from other users on here so that I wouldn't have needed to join so many forums and create so many topics to resolve the problem, but to whomever that did engage with me here to help out, thank you. The effort was truly appreciated. Each of you tried to help me navigate my way through every frustrating twist and turn of the repair effort, whether it was backing up the hard drive, opening up the laptop, or most recently, trying to create the external rescue media; the whole ride was driving me bonkers, so I also thank you all for your patience and empathy wherever given. A thousand times over, thanks for everything.

Which brings me to why I've returned: in the past few weeks, I finally broke down and managed to pull together the funds to sign up for the HP SmartFriend Service, albeit begrudgingly. Working with one of the HP SmartFriend technicians via teleconference (as well as a Staples technician prior to that -- thank you for your help, Steven), it was determined that the hard drive was clear of any errors in another battery of scans, and through HP SmartFriend, I ended up purchasing the installation media through them. Several days later (about a week ago now), another SmartFriend teleconference led me through the reinstallation attempt, only to receive a series of error messages; from the results, the technician determined that the errors pointed to a more fundamental problem that was never in the software to begin with. Apparently, the root cause of the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop was a malfunction in the laptop's motherboard all along; as such, it was never feasible to correct the matter at home on my own, with or without professional guidance. Based on that, the only options to truly fix the matter are to either surrender it to a professional for repairs, or simply invest in a new laptop altogether -- whichever may come first.

So, yes, I got that bad news fairly recently. Facts are stubborn and depressing things sometimes; while I can accept the answer as to why the problem occurred, it sucks that it took more than a year to get to that answer in the first place. Since I don't currently have the estimated $300-$400 available to pay HP to fix the defective motherboard, I'll just close the topic with this reply as my "answer" to the question.

Sorry I couldn't solve the problem in a way that might've helped other users; at best, anyone else with this "Automatic Repair" reboot loop might want to consider that it's a hardware issue rather than a software problem.

If anyone might be working on this type of problem right now, best of luck to you.