How to Fix the Automatic Repair Loop in Windows 8.1

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

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.

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

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.

I tried all three of these solutions and could not bypass the loop!  I tried everything and spent hours googling!  Finally, when going into my BIOS to force my PC to start from the Windows 8 installation disk I noticed Boot Priority #1 was "Windows Boot Manager".  I then changed Boot priority #1 FROM Windows Boot manager to my hard drive where my Windows 8.1 OS resides. I then saved and exited my BIOS screen. When my computer restarted it booted right to my log in screen with no more issues!  To make sure it was actually fixed I restarted my PC and everything is back to normal.   I'm not sure why some fixes work for some and don't work for others. 

Anyway, I hope this helps someone.

I tried all three of these solutions and could not bypass the loop!  I tried everything and spent hours googling!  Finally, when going into my BIOS to force my PC to start from the Windows 8 installation disk I noticed Boot Priority #1 was "Windows Boot Manager".  I then changed Boot priority #1 FROM Windows Boot manager to my hard drive where my Windows 8.1 OS resides. I then saved and exited my BIOS screen. When my computer restarted it booted right to my log in screen with no more issues!  To make sure it was actually fixed I restarted my PC and everything is back to normal.   I'm not sure why some fixes work for some and don't work for others. 

Anyway, I hope this helps someone.

Awesome! I'm glad you have figured out another solution! If you don't mind, I am going to add your solution to my main post for others to see.

I'm in this loop, but can't seem to get into bios via the Toshiba keys provided. I have a feeling I have the same issue, but how can I force to bios? I read somewhere about popping the battery inside, but I have a history of being just a little off so I'd prefer to not crack it open. Any ideas?

I'm not familiar with Toshiba.  I did find this forum topic with some information on how to access the bios.  Hope it helps:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/640-entering-bios-setup-in-toshiba-laptop/

I tried all three of these solutions and could not bypass the loop!  I tried everything and spent hours googling!  Finally, when going into my BIOS to force my PC to start from the Windows 8 installation disk I noticed Boot Priority #1 was "Windows Boot Manager".  I then changed Boot priority #1 FROM Windows Boot manager to my hard drive where my Windows 8.1 OS resides. I then saved and exited my BIOS screen. When my computer restarted it booted right to my log in screen with no more issues!  To make sure it was actually fixed I restarted my PC and everything is back to normal.   I'm not sure why some fixes work for some and don't work for others. 

Anyway, I hope this helps someone.

 Hi there, in relation to your comment. I can't change the new boot option without setting: "add boot option", "select filesystem" and "path for boot option" and I don't know what I need to type in the last box.....? 

(Can someone please help me as this's a really frustrating me that windows has done this. I can't access my log in or any documents at all and it has all of my up to date uni work on there for my corse! Windows need to sort this out. As I won't be using them again for my OS!)

thank you in advance 

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

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.

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.

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.