Startup Repair is an utility feature of Windows which solves any issues with the startup of Windows. Startup Repair kicks in only when your computer unexpectedly shuts down during the startup due to any faulty hardware or outdated driver issue. But, some Windows 10 users are complaining about an abnormality of the Startup Repair in the forum. According to them, the computer is stuck in an never-ending Startup Repair loop. If you are experiencing the same kind of problem at your end, no need to worry. Just follow these fixes and the problem will be solved easily. But, before going for the main fixes, try out these workarounds which can solve this problem with minimal efforts.
Workarounds–
1. Disconnect and reconnect all your devices-
a. Shut down your computer.
b. Disconnect all the external devices (printers, speakers etc) from your computer.
c. Connect one external device at a time to your computer and keep restarting your computer.
If you notice the computer is working fine without a certain external device, then that device is causing this error.
2. Check if your Windows is updated or not.
If any of these workarounds didn’t work out for you, go for these solutions-
NOTE:-
A. To try all these fixes on your device, you need a bootable installation media (or the Windows 10 DVD from which you had installed the Windows 10). If you don’t have one, you have to create a bootable installation media. After you have created the bootable installation media for your device, you may proceed to the main solutions.
B. In these fixes, you need to run some commands in Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode. To open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode follow these easy steps-
1. Plug in the installation media you have created (or the Windows 10 installation DVD) and set your language preferences and click on “Next“.
2. Now, click on “Repair your computer” on the bottom left corner of the Recovery Environment.
3. In Troubleshooting window, click on “Advanced options“.
4. In the Advanced options window, click on the “Command Prompt“.
5. Now, choose a account with Administrative privilege. Enter your account password and click on “Continue“.
Command Prompt window should be opened in Troubleshooting mode.
Fix-1 Fix booting related issues-
1. Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode (process is described before), and type these commands one by one and hit Enter after each time to execute them.
bootrec /Fixboot bootrec /FixMBR bootrec /RebuildBCD
Wait for a while as these commands may take some time to be executed.
Close the Troubleshooter window.
Reboot your computer. Check if it is working or not.
If the issue is not yet solved then go for this step-
Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode as the same way as earlier and type these commands one by one and hit Enter after each time to execute them.
bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup c: cd boot attrib bcd -s -h -r ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old bootrec /RebuildBcd
[Important: Replace “C:” with the drive letter of Windows installation drive on your computer]
Close Command Prompt window in Troubleshooting mode.
Restart your computer. If the issue is still not resolved then go the next fix.
Fix-2 Disable Automatic restart after failure-
1. Plug in the installation media you have created (or the Windows installation disk). Now, set your language preferences and click on “Next“.
2. Just, click on “Repair your computer” on the bottom left corner of the Recovery Environment window.
3. In Troubleshoot window, click on “Advanced options“.
4. In Advanced options window, click on the “Startup Settings“.
5. In the Startup Settings window, click on “Restart” in the bottom right corner to restart your computer to safe mode.
6. Now, as your device is rebooting, you will be shown options of Startup Settings. Choose “Disable automatic restart after failure” option ( Usually comes in option no.9). This will disable the automatic restart after failure.
7. Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode (process is described before) and type these command in Command Prompt window and hit Enter.
bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No
Close Command Prompt.
Reboot your computer. After rebooting, check if the computer is still stuck in the infinite Startup Repair loop.
NOTE-
If you want to resume the Automatic Startup Repair again on your computer, you can do it just by running this command in the Command Prompt window of Troubleshooting mode–
bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled Yes
Fix-3 Use Chkdsk to analyze the errors on the hard drives-
1. Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting window again.
2. Now, copy and paste or type this command in Command Prompt window and hit Enter to execute it.
chkdsk /f /r C:
[Important: Replace “C:” with the drive letter of Windows installation drive on your computer.]
As your hard drive will be checked for any kind of physical or logical damage, this process will take some time.
Close Command Prompt window.
Restart your computer. After rebooting your computer check if your computer is working normally or not.
Rebooting your computer in Safe Mode-
To reboot your computer in Safe Mode follow these steps-
1. Plug in the installation media you have created (or the Windows 10 installation disk). Now, click on “Next“.
2. Click on “Repair your computer” on the bottom left corner of the Recovery Environment window.
3. In Troubleshoot window, click on “Advanced options“.
4. In Advanced options window, click on the “Startup Settings“.
5. In the Startup Settings window, click on “Restart” in the bottom right corner to restart your computer to safe mode.
6. Now, as your device is starting up, choose the option no.4 i.e. “Enable Safe Mode” to boot your computer in Safe Mode.
Once your computer boots up, it will be in Safe Mode (You will able to notice the black background in the Desktop).
Now attempt these fixes-
Fix-4 Uninstall recently installed programs in Safe Mode-
If this problem is happening just after when you have installed a third party application on your computer, or Windows has recently received an upgrade, uninstalling it in Safe Mode can be helpful.
1. Press Windows key+R to launch Run and then type “appwiz.cpl” and then hit Enter to open Programs and Features window.
2. In Programs and Features window you will able to notice the list of installed applications along with the dates they were installed. Scroll down to find the problematic application, right click on it and then click on “Uninstall“.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the application from your computer.
If you want to uninstall a recently received Windows Update–
1. In Programs and Features window, click on “View Installed Updates” on the left pane.
2. Now, in Installed Updates window, you will be able to notice installed updates in “Microsoft Updates” section. Notice the recent updates (look for the column “Installed On” ). Now, double click on the most recent update to start the uninstallation process.
3. Now, when you are prompted for assurance, click on “Yes” to uninstall the update.
Windows will uninstall the updates on your computer.
After the unistallation process is complete, reboot your computer. Your computer should perform normally.
Fix-5 Rollback driver updates in Safe Mode-
If any of the drivers on your computer has received an update, rolling back the driver update may fix this problem.
(NOTE– Display driver is chosen to describe the process. )
1. Boot into the Safe Mode (follow the process mentioned earlier.)
2. Press Windows key+R to launch Run and then type “devmgmt.msc“. Device Manager window will be opened.
3. In the Device Manager window, scroll down to find “Display adapters” from the list of installed drivers. Click on it to expand it. Now, in the expanded list of drivers, double click on the graphics driver you are using. Properties window will open.
4. In Properties window, go to the “Driver” tab. Now, click on “Roll Back Driver” option. Then, click on “OK“. Process of rolling back the driver will begin.
5. Choose “My apps don’t work with this driver” if you are asked “Why are you rolling back?“. Finally, click on “Yes” to start the rolling back process.
Close Device Manger window.
Reboot your computer. After rebooting your computer, check if it is still stuck in Startup Repair loop.
Fix-6 Perform a System Restore in Windows RE-
Performing System Restore may solve your problem as the System Restore restores your computer to a specified date when this error hadn’t happened.
1. Plug in the installation media you have created (or the Windows 10 installation disk). Now, click on “Next“.
2. Click on “Repair your computer” on the bottom left corner of the Recovery Environment window.
3. In Troubleshoot window, click on “Advanced options” to go to the Advanced Options window.
4. Now, within the Advanced options window, click on the “System Restore” option in the right side of the window.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to restore your computer from a previously saved restore points.
Reboot your computer. After rebooting, your problem should be solved.
Fix-7 Restore Windows Registry with CMD-
Restoring Windows Registry will solve your problem if the problem is happening because of a corrupted registry key.
1. Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode. In Command Prompt window, copy-paste this command and hit Enter.
cd C:\windows\system32\logfiles\srt\
[Important: Replace “C:” with the drive letter of the drive where Windows is installed on your computer]
2. Now, to open the file in Notepad, type this command in Command Prompt and hit Enter.
SrtTrail.txt
3. SrtTrail file will be opened in Notepad. Press Ctrl+O and then go to this address “C:\windows\system32“. Scroll down to find “cmd“. Right click on “cmd” and then click on “Run as administrator” to open Command Prompt with Administrative rights.
4. Now, in Command Prompt, copy-paste or type this command and then hit Enter.
cd C:\windows\system32\config
5. Now, you have to create a backup of Software, SAM, Security, System etc.
Copy-paste these commands one by one in Command Prompt and hit Enter after each of them to execute all of them.
rename DEFAULT DEFAULT.bak rename SAM SAM.bak rename SECURITY SECURITY.bak rename SOFTWARE SOFTWARE.bak rename SYSTEM SYSTEM.bak
6. Once the backup operation is done, the last step is to restore the registry on your computer. Finally, Copy-paste this command in Command Prompt window and hit Enter to execute it.
copy c:\windows\system32\config\RegBack c:\windows\system32\config
Once the command is executed, close Command Prompt.
Reboot your computer and after rebooting check if the computer is still in the Startup Repair loop or not.
Fix-8 Set correct value to partition-
1. Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode, and type “bcdedit” and hit Enter to check the boot configuration data of your system.
2. Notice the values of the device partition and Operating System partition. Make sure the values are correctly set to the respective drives.
Generally, device partition and OS-device partition should be configured to C: (Assuming that the Windows is installed in C: drive on your computer).
If you see any kind of exception (if the device partition is set to any different drive), just copy-paste these two commands one by one in Command Prompt window, and press Enter for each time to execute them on your computer.
bcdedit /set {default} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=c:
After setting correct value to the respective partitions, Reboot your computer to save these changes.
After rebooting, check if your problem has solved or not.
Fix- 9 Delete the problematic file from your system-
1. Open Command Prompt in Troubleshooting mode, and type these commands one by one and hit Enter after each of them.
cd C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Srt SrtTrail.txt
2. After opening the file you should see this type of line-
Boot critical file c:\windows\system32\drivers\filecm.sys is corrupt.
The file name in bold will be the problematic file on your device which is the root cause Startup Repair loop on your computer. (Ex- for our system, it is filecm.sys which is causing the problem.)
3. To delete the problematic file, you have direct to the location of the file and then you can delete the file. Copy and paste these commands in Command Prompt and press Enter for each of these commands to execute. This process is going to delete the file from your system –
cd c:\windows\system32\drivers
del filecm.sys
(In the second command, replace “filecm.sys” with the name of the problematic file on your system.)
[IMPORTANT: Don’t delete any other driver except the problematic one]
Restart your computer.
After rebooting your computer, the problem with never ending Startup Repair loop should end and your computer should perform normal.
Fix-9 Reset or Refresh your computer-
If any of the above mentioned solutions didn’t work out for you, then the resetting or refreshing your computer is the last available option.
1. Plug in the installation media (or the Windows 10 installation disk). Boot your computer. Now, click on “Next“.
2. Click on “Repair your computer” on the bottom left corner of the Recovery Environment window.
1. Click on “Troubleshoot” and click on “Reset this PC“.
2. Now, you will have two choices-
a. Refresh your PC– Refreshing your PC will make sure that all the personal file and the settings will remain untouched.
b. Reset your PC– Resetting your PC will delete all of your files and reset all the Settings to the default settings.
Choose any of these options and click on it.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.
Your computer will be reset/ refreshed.
After the process is complete, the problem of infinite Startup Repair loop should be fixed.