Automatic Repair is a tool in Windows operating system that helps you analyze and resolve the issues that prevent your system from booting up properly. The tool has been present in almost all Windows iterations for users’ ease of convenience should they wish to invoke it and resolve any unexpected behavior themselves. Moreover, the tool automatically kicks in if your PC fails to start properly three times in a row.
That being said, many systems get stuck on the Automatic Repair screen and instead of diagnosing the PC, users end up staring at a black blank screen, and the loop doesn’t seem to break.
Fortunately, the issue is not due to an underlying hardware problem and is a software-based issue that you can easily resolve using the solutions mentioned in this guide.
However, there can be more than one reason behind this issue, and you might need to try more than one fix to completely resolve it.
Before you dive deep into the methods listed in this guide to resolve the problem, it is imperative that your first learn how to enter the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) as most of the solutions listed in this guide will require you to do so.
How to Enter Window Recovery Environment (WinRE)
First, power on your system, and at the first signal of boot up, press and hold the power button again for at least 20 seconds to shut down the system. If you are working with a Desktop PC, you can also pull the plug on your PC.
Now, repeat the aforementioned process three times, and on the fourth time allow your PC to boot up without any interruption. This will load the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
1. Boot your Device in Safe Mode
One of the most common reasons your device is stuck in the Automatic Repair tool is either a corrupt/damaged third-party service or interference from a software. Hence, booting into the Safe Mode will allow you to only boot with essential Microsoft services and successfully diagnose if the problem is caused by a third-party software/service.
Once the Windows Recovery Environment has been loaded, you can see the ‘Choose an option’ screen. Locate and click on the ‘Troubleshoot’ tile to proceed.
After that from the ‘Troubleshoot’ screen, click on the ‘Advanced options’ tile to proceed.
Now, on the ‘Advanced options’ screen, locate and click on the ‘Startup Settings’ tile to continue.
Then, on the next screen, click on the ‘Restart’ button present in the bottom right section of the screen to boot into the Safe Mode on your PC.
2. Delete the Corrupted/Damaged File
Many times, the Startup Repair is not able to perform its function due to a critical boot file being damaged or corrupted. Hence, in a scenario like this, deleting the file is a sure shot to resolve the issue.
First, enter the Windows Recovery Environment using the steps provided earlier in this guide.
After that, click on the ‘Troubleshoot’ tile present on the ‘Choose an option’ screen to continue.
Then, from the ‘Troubleshoot’ screen, click on the ‘Advanced options’ tile to continue.
Next, on the ‘Troubleshoot’ screen, locate and click on the ‘Command Prompt’ tile to open the Command Prompt.
Now, on the Command Prompt screen, copy+paste or type the below-mentioned command and hit Enter on your keyboard to execute it.
cd C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\Srt
After that, again type or copy+paste the below-mentioned command and hit Enter to proceed.
cd c:windowssystem32drivers
Finally, to delete the problematic file, type or copy+paste the below-mentioned command and press Enter on your keyboard.
Delvsock.sys
Once the file has been successfully deleted. Restart your PC by either closing the Command Prompt window or by typing the below-mentioned command in the window.
shutdown /r
After the restart, check if the issue persists on your computer.
3. Rebuild the Boot Configuration Data and Run CHKDSK
According to the official forum chatters, many users have been able to resolve this issue after rebuilding the BCD on their system. Along with that, running the CHKDSK command to identify and fix bad sectors on your hard drive is recommended.
First, invoke the Windows Recovery Environment using the steps mentioned above in this guide.
After that, from the ‘Choose an option’ screen, click on the ‘Troubleshoot’ option to proceed.
Next, on the ‘Troubleshoot’ screen, locate and click on the ‘Advanced options’ tile to continue.
Then, on the ‘Advanced options’ screen, click on the ‘Command Prompt’ tile to proceed.
Now, on the Command Prompt screen, type the below-mentioned commands and execute them one at a time.
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcdbootrec.exe /fixmbrbootrec.exe /fixboot
Once you have successfully executed all the above commands, enter the below-mentioned commands, one at a time, and execute them by pressing Enter on your keyboard after each command to execute them.
chkdsk /r cchkdsk /r d
Finally, restart your PC and check if the issue was resolved.
4. Restore your Device Using System Image Recovery
If you have been experiencing this issue after a third-party software install or after a major upgrade, there is a high probability that it is the root cause of the issue. Thus, you can easily gain back access to your computer by restoring your device to an earlier point using the System Image Recovery.
Once you are in the Windows Recovery Environment, locate and click the ‘Troubleshoot’ option.
After that, on the next screen, click on the ‘Advanced option’ tile to continue.
Now from the ‘Advanced options’ screen, click on the ‘System Image Recovery’ tile to proceed. Your machine will now restart.
Once restarted, the ‘System Image Recovery’ the screen will appear on your screen. Find your account name listed under the section and click on it to continue.
On the next screen, enter the account password that you used to log in to your computer and click on the ‘Continue’ button to proceed. If you don’t have a password, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.
After that, on the ‘Select a system image backup’ screen, click on the radio button preceding the ‘Use the latest available system image’ option and click on the ‘Next’ button to proceed.
In case you are restoring the system image to an entirely different machine, you will need to format and partition the storage drive in order to match the format of the drives you are restoring the image from.
To do so, locate the ‘Format and repartition the disk’ section and click on the ‘Exclude disks’ button. In case the option is greyed out, click on the ‘Install drivers’ option present on the window to install the drivers of the disks you are restoring. Once you have formatted the previous partitions or installed drivers for the disks you are restoring, click on the ‘Next’ button to proceed.
After that, on the next screen, click on the ‘Finish’ button to start the backup restore process.
The restoration process will now begin on your machine; wait patiently while the process completes. Once the restoration process completes, a prompt will appear on your screen asking you to restart the PC. Click on the ‘Restart’ button to restart your PC and check if the issue is still there.
5. Factory Reset your PC
If nothing seems to be working for you, as a last resort, you can completely wipe your PC and eradicate the issue right from its root. This will reinstall the Windows on your system and also completely delete all the files, folders, and system settings, bringing back the PC to a factory state.
To do so, from the ‘Choose an option’ screen in recovery mode, select the ‘Troubleshoot’ option.
Next, click on the ‘Reset this PC’ option present on the screen.
On the next screen, you will have to choose between either keeping your personal files as is and refreshing the system apps and settings or removing your personal files and apps along with rolling back the system settings to default.
The ‘Keep my files’ option will reset all system settings and apps to a new state, leaving your files intact. And the ‘Remove everything’ option would remove all your personal files along with apps and system settings, rolling back your machine to a brand new-like state.
Click on your preferred machine method from the ‘Reset this PC’ screen. For instance, we are choosing the ‘Remove everything’ option here.
After choosing either of the options on the previous screen, you would need to select the medium of reinstalling Windows on your Machine. You can either select the ‘Cloud download’ option to download fresh OS files from Microsoft servers or you can choose ‘Local reinstall’ where Windows uses existing files present on the local storage to reinstall Windows on your machine.
Choose the preferred option on the screen by clicking on it. Alternatively, you can also navigate using the arrow keys and press Enter on your keyboard to select an option. We have selected the ‘Cloud download’ option here.
Note: None of the options on this screen would need you to insert an external installation media for reinstalling the Windows.
On the next screen, you will need to choose if you would like to remove your files only from the Windows installer drive or all the drives. Click on the ‘Only the drive where Windows is installed’ option present on the screen to select it. Otherwise, choose the ‘All drives’ option to remove files from all your drives.
Next, click on the ‘Just remove my files’ option to delete your files. In case you are giving away your machine and do not want your files to be recovered, click on the ‘Fully clean the driver’ option. We are selecting the ‘Just remove my files’ option here.
It might take your Windows machine a few minutes to get everything ready; wait till the next screen appears.
Now, Windows will list down the impacts of resetting according to your preferred settings. Read them and click on the ‘Reset’ button situated on the bottom right corner of the screen to start the process.
When the process completes, your PC will restart as a new machine and you won’t have to face the ‘Preparing Automatic Repair’ screen anymore.
There you go people, hopefully, these above-mentioned solutions will help you fix the Automatic Repair loop on your Windows 11 PC.
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