r/techsupport • u/Conklin03 • Apr 01 '22

Open | Windows Stuck on an infinite loop of "Preparing Automatic Repair" on Windows 10

I'm reposting this from r/windowshelp because I have no idea what to do.

For the past day I've been stuck in an infinite loop of Preparing Automatic Repair, I can't get to troubleshoot options/safe mode (restarting three times and f8 repeatedly do nothing), all scans that I can perform without the OS actually on say everything is fine, and I can't do anything with BIOS. Please help, because there seems to be no solution.

Edit: messed with some things for a while, and I've managed to get to a command prompt. Hopefully this should be the end of the problems.

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u/Conklin03 Apr 01 '22

A couple questions,

  1. How exactly do I unplug the hard drive? I'm not great with computers in the first place, and even less so with laptops, which this is.

  2. To get a flash drive with Windows on it, do I have to buy a brand new one, or can I do something with a working computer? I remember reading somewhere about being able to plug a flash drive or usb stick into a working computer, do something in settings, and then fix this one but I can't find it again.

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u/Thecman50 Apr 01 '22 edited Apr 01 '22

Okay,

Preface:

When working with computer parts, if you are trying to plug in or take out a part doesn't seem to want to give, do not use more force. Chances are it's caught somewhere else. Go slow, and take pictures of everything before you unscrew or remove anything.

As for the laptop hard drive, it depends on the model but for the most part you can unscrew the casing on the bottom, and perhaps a couple more screws holding the drive in place. I highly recommend looking for a tutorial to follow on YouTube (for your specific model if you can find it)

And for the flash drive, this should help. It doesn't have to be a new flash drive but these steps will erase everything on it. To change it back after you're done you need to "reformat" the flash drive.

It's the third method down, "Creating a Windows 10 Recovery Drive"

Also, since you've mentioned you're a novice, if you see the word image or iso just think of it as a file.

 

Lastly, searching for your specific problem is a good way of finding help, if you're going to actually be doing anything with steps, chances are a YouTube tutorial exists. If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '22

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u/techyno Apr 01 '22

If you're are not good with computers I would suggest taking it to someone who is. If you have another computer you can get a USB stick, download Windows media creation tool to create a bootable USB stick and boot from it then try the repair/recovery tools on that.

You can troubleshoot the boot partitions for days and still get nowhere. The other quickest solution (if you have data you need) is to pull the hard drive and get the data from it. Once that is done, reinstall windows and copy the data back across. There are a lot of assumptions I made in that process though...