An automatic repair loop is Windows failing to start, showing Preparing Automatic Repair and Diagnosing your PC, giving up with Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC or Your PC did not start correctly, and then restarting into the same thing. Windows launches repair on its own after two failed starts in a row, and also after two crashes or unexpected shutdowns within two minutes of startup finishing. So the loop is a symptom: something keeps Windows from starting, or from staying up once it has.
The usual causes are an interrupted update, a bad driver, damaged boot files, or a failing drive. The loop screen doesn’t tell you which, so the order in which you try fixes matters more than any single fix.
Before anything else, find your BitLocker recovery key if this PC uses BitLocker or Windows 11 device encryption. Without it, the repair tools can’t reach your Windows drive or your files.
Try these first
- Unplug everything except power, keyboard and mouse (USB drives, docks, SD cards, printers) and restart.
- Find your BitLocker recovery key before you run any repair tool.
- On the error screen choose Advanced options, not Restart.
- Read the Startup Repair log (SrtTrail.txt) or show the real stop code before you try fixes; rerunning Startup Repair rarely helps.
- If the loop began after an update, use Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Uninstall Updates.
- Do not reset or reinstall Windows until your files are copied somewhere else.
Get your BitLocker recovery key first
Windows 11 turns on device encryption automatically on many PCs, including Home editions signed in with a Microsoft account, so assume your drive may be encrypted even if you never set it up.
The recovery environment can sometimes unlock the drive by itself. When it can’t, the Command Prompt, System Restore and other tools ask for the 48-digit key. If you choose Skip this drive, the tools run but can’t touch your Windows drive or your files.
Get the key from another device before you start: aka.ms/myrecoverykey for a personal Microsoft account, or aka.ms/aadrecoverykey for a work or school account. If you manage the company’s Microsoft 365, it’s also in the Microsoft Entra or Intune admin center. Our BitLocker recovery key guide covers every place it might be.
Some repairs that rewrite boot files will also make BitLocker ask for the key at the next normal start. That’s expected, not a new fault.
The data-safe order of fixes
One clue narrows it fast. If you never see the sign-in screen, suspect an update, a boot driver, damaged boot files or the drive. If you briefly reach the sign-in screen or desktop first, Windows is loading, so look instead for a driver, service or startup app that crashes right after sign-in (Safe Mode gets around it), or for power or overheating if the PC just switches off with no blue screen. Boot-file repairs rarely help that second group.
Don’t skip step 2: the log and the stop code, covered below, often point straight to a later step. Without a clear lead, work down the list and stop as soon as Windows starts; each step carries a little more risk than the one before.
| Step | What it does | Risk to your files |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Unplug peripherals and do a cold start | Rules out a USB device or dock confusing the boot order | None |
| 2. Read the Startup Repair log and the stop code | Names the driver, update or file behind the loop so you can jump to the matching step; run Startup Repair once first only if Automatic Repair never ran | None |
| 3. Uninstall Updates | Removes the latest quality (monthly) or feature update | Low; files and most apps stay |
| 4. Safe Mode | Starts with minimal drivers so you can remove a bad driver or app | None |
| 5. System Restore | Rolls system files, drivers and settings back to a restore point | Low; documents untouched, recently installed apps may vanish |
| 6. Command Prompt repairs | Repairs system files, pending updates, boot files and file system errors | Low for system file and boot repairs; copy your files off before running chkdsk |
| 7. Copy files off, then Reset this PC | Reinstalls Windows | Keep my files keeps documents but removes apps; Remove everything erases the drive |
On some newer Windows 11 PCs, Troubleshoot also shows Point-in-time restore. It isn’t System Restore: it returns the whole Windows drive, documents included, to a snapshot from roughly the last three days, so files saved only on this PC since then are lost (files synced to OneDrive aren’t affected). Try System Restore first, and copy recent files off before you use it. If System Restore finds no restore points, System Protection was probably off; move on to the next step.
Steps 2 to 6 live under Advanced options > Troubleshoot > Advanced options. Reset this PC is one level up, directly under Troubleshoot.
Inside Uninstall Updates, try Uninstall latest quality update first if the problem began after Patch Tuesday, or Uninstall latest feature update if it followed a version upgrade within roughly the last 10 days; after that, the files needed to go back are usually gone.
In Startup Settings, press 4 for Safe Mode or 5 for Safe Mode with Networking. Two other keys are worth one try each, and each lasts a single start. 9 turns off automatic restart after failure, so a crash stays on screen with its stop code. 8 turns off early launch anti-malware protection; if Windows starts with 8 but not otherwise, your antivirus or endpoint security software is involved, so update or reinstall it from Safe Mode, or ask its vendor.
Reaching the repair menu, and when not to force power off
When the blue screen with Advanced options appears, you’re in the Windows Recovery Environment and can follow the table above.
If the PC never gets that far, Microsoft’s method to force it is to interrupt startup twice by holding the power button before Windows finishes loading; on the third start, Automatic Repair appears. If even that fails, make a Windows 11 installation USB on another PC and boot from it. Choose your language and keyboard, select Next, then choose Repair my PC and Next; older installation media shows a Repair your computer link instead.
Don’t hold the power button when the screen shows Working on updates, Undoing changes or a progress percentage that is still moving, or while the drive light is busy. Cutting power while Windows is writing system files can corrupt them and cause exactly this kind of loop. Give a screen like that an hour or two before treating it as frozen; our Windows Update stuck guide covers those screens.
A black Preparing Automatic Repair screen stuck with no activity for 30 minutes or more is different. Nothing useful is happening, and a forced restart is reasonable.
Read SrtTrail.txt to find the real cause
The path printed on the Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC screen, C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt, isn’t an error or a missing file. It’s where Startup Repair saved its notes, and reading them turns guesswork into a plan.
From Advanced options, open Command Prompt, type notepad and press Enter, then use File > Open, set the file type to All Files, and browse to the log. In the recovery environment, Windows is not always drive C:, so check each drive letter for a Windows folder.
Scroll to the last session in the file and find the line that starts Root cause found. It may name a boot-critical file, such as a .sys driver, as corrupt or missing, or give a bugcheck code such as 7b (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE) or ef (CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED): the stop code the loop is hiding. Treat a named file as a strong lead, not proof, then match it here:
| What the log or symptoms point to | Fix to try |
|---|---|
| A named driver file (ending in .sys), often antivirus, VPN or storage software | Boot to Safe Mode and uninstall that program or roll back the driver |
| An update, patch or recently serviced file | Uninstall Updates; if that fails, revert pending updates from the Command Prompt |
| Boot configuration or boot manager errors | Rebuild the boot files with bcdboot |
| Corrupt system files | Run System File Checker offline |
| Disk or file system errors | Copy your files first, then run chkdsk |
| Nothing specific | System Restore, then the Command Prompt repairs below |
If the PC shows a blue screen with a stop code before the repair screen, that code is the better clue. See our blue screen of death guide, or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE if that’s the code you see.
Rather have a technician sort it out?
Once the PC can start Windows, sometimes even in Safe Mode with Networking, a technician can connect with your approval and help remove the update or driver behind the loop. If the computer won’t start, call us and we’ll tell you honestly whether it can be fixed remotely or needs a hands-on repair. Once it starts, a technician can connect with your approval and fix the rest for $59.
Command Prompt repairs from the recovery environment
Open Command Prompt from Advanced options. Work out the drive letters first: run diskpart, then list vol, then exit. The examples below assume Windows is on C:; change the letter if yours differs.
Unlock an encrypted drive
Run manage-bde -status. If the Windows drive shows as locked, unlock it with manage-bde -unlock C: -RecoveryPassword followed by your 48-digit key, including the dashes.
Repair in this order
- Undo a half-installed update:
DISM /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions - Repair system files offline:
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows - Rebuild boot files:
bcdboot C:\Windowscopies fresh boot files from your Windows folder to the system partition. - Check the file system:
chkdsk C: /f. Copy your important files off first if you can (see the next section), because repairing file system errors can lose files that are already damaged. Skip the slower/rscan until your files are backed up, because it works the drive hard.
See the error the loop is hiding
Try key 9 in Startup Settings first (see above); it changes nothing permanently.
If that isn’t enough, run bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled no and restart. Windows stops jumping to Automatic Repair, so you see the real error, but nothing gets fixed, and while it’s set the power-button method won’t bring up the repair menu. Make a Windows 11 installation USB first so you can reach Command Prompt again, then turn recovery back on with bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled yes.
Copy your files before you reset
If nothing above works, the next step is reinstalling Windows, so get your files safe first. Two ways from the recovery environment:
- Notepad as a file browser. Open Notepad from the Command Prompt, choose File > Open with All Files selected, then right-click folders and files to copy and paste them to a USB drive. It’s slow but needs no typing of paths.
- xcopy. Plug in a USB drive, find its letter with
list vol, then run, for example,xcopy C:\Users\yourname\Documents E:\Backup\Documents\ /E /H /C /Ifor each folder you need.
If OneDrive backs up your folders, your Documents, Desktop and Pictures may be under C:\Users\yourname\OneDrive (or OneDrive - CompanyName for a work account) while the usual folders are empty, so copy that folder too. Files that had finished syncing are already safe in OneDrive.
On most desktops and many laptops, you can also remove the drive and read it from another PC with a USB adapter; some thin laptops have storage soldered to the board, so check before opening the case. With BitLocker on, you’ll need the recovery key there too.
Once your files are safe, choose Reset this PC. Keep my files keeps your documents but removes installed apps and settings. Remove everything wipes the drive. Both need your apps reinstalled afterward.
If several office PCs loop at once
When two or more PCs land in Automatic Repair on the same morning, look for the shared change before fixing machines one by one: a Windows update, a driver pushed by the PC maker’s update tool, or an update to your antivirus or endpoint security agent. Pause that rollout first, in an Intune update ring, a WSUS approval or the security console, so PCs that haven’t restarted yet don’t join the loop. Then check the vendor’s status page or Windows release health for a published fix.
Pull the BitLocker recovery keys for the affected PCs from Intune or Microsoft Entra ID before anyone goes desk to desk.
Recent Windows 11 versions also include Quick machine recovery. After repeated failed starts, the recovery environment connects to a wired or WPA/WPA2 password Wi-Fi network and checks Windows Update for a fix Microsoft has published for widespread boot failures. It’s on by default for Home and unmanaged Pro PCs, but off on PCs joined to a domain or managed through Intune or similar tools. Turn it on under Settings > System > Recovery > Quick machine recovery, or for every PC at once with the Recovery CSP in Intune.
When it’s hardware, and when to stop
Repair tools can’t fix hardware, and on a failing drive each attempt can make data recovery harder. Stop and get hands-on help when:
- The drive clicks or grinds, disappears from the BIOS/UEFI setup screen, or
chkdskreports bad sectors. - You get a different error on almost every start, which often points at memory or the motherboard.
- The recovery environment itself freezes or is very slow.
- The laptop was dropped or had liquid spilled on it.
- Your files matter, there’s no backup, and the drive shows any sign of failing.
A PC that can’t start Windows can’t accept a remote connection, so the first part of this job needs someone at the keyboard, or a local repair shop if the drive or other hardware is the problem. Once it boots, sometimes even into Safe Mode with Networking, removing the update or driver that caused the loop is a typical $59 fix through our remote support service, done with your approval while you watch; here’s what can be fixed remotely.
Common questions
Why does my PC keep saying Preparing Automatic Repair?
Windows starts Automatic Repair after two failed startups in a row. If the underlying problem, such as a broken update, a faulty driver, damaged boot files or a failing drive, is still there, every restart fails the same way and you land back in repair. The fix is to find that cause using Startup Repair’s log, Uninstall Updates or Safe Mode, not to keep restarting.
Will Startup Repair delete my files?
Not normally. Startup Repair works on boot files, system files and startup settings, not your documents or photos, though if it finds file system damage it can run a disk check that may lose files that were already damaged. Uninstall Updates, Safe Mode and System Restore also leave personal files alone, although System Restore can remove apps installed after the restore point. Point-in-time restore and Reset this PC can both remove files, so copy them off before using either.
How long should Automatic Repair take?
Diagnosing your PC usually finishes within several minutes, though it can take longer on an older hard drive. If the black Preparing Automatic Repair screen sits with no drive activity for half an hour or more, it’s stuck and a forced restart is reasonable. If it shows Working on updates or Undoing changes with progress, keep waiting.
Why does the recovery screen ask for a BitLocker key?
Your drive is encrypted, and the recovery environment couldn’t confirm it’s safe to unlock it automatically. Without the key, repair tools can’t read or fix your Windows drive. Look it up on another device at aka.ms/myrecoverykey for a personal Microsoft account or aka.ms/aadrecoverykey for a work or school account, or ask your IT admin. There is no way around this step.
Can I fix an automatic repair loop without losing data?
Usually, yes. Most loops are caused by updates, drivers or boot files, and fixing those leaves documents alone. Data is at risk mainly when the drive is physically failing, when the BitLocker key is lost, or when someone resets Windows before copying files. Follow the order on this page and copy your files off before any reset or Point-in-time restore.
Does this work for Windows 10 too?
Yes. A Windows 10 automatic repair loop has the same causes and fixes, because Windows 10 uses the same recovery environment, the same Advanced options menu and the same Command Prompt repairs. One difference: Windows 10 may ask you to choose an administrator account and type its password before Command Prompt or other tools open. Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, so if a Windows 10 PC loops after updates and the hardware qualifies, plan its move to Windows 11.