On boot loading circle is stuck with the text "Preparing automatic repair"

[Isopodlover]

Computer randomly crashed and is now showing a loading screen with the text "preparing automatic repair" and a loading circle which is not moving. I have never had this issue and the screen has been stuck like this for about 3 hours.   Any ideas on what I can do to fix it? 
Photo of the screen (sorry for low quality)

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Isopodlover 

Welcome to the HP Forum.

This error can be hardware related or your PC has a corrupted boot loader.

Since the PC crashed out of the blue I'm thinking hardware. Probably a failing system drive.

Check your PC's hardware using HP Diagnostics as follows:

Start the PC. Repeatedly tap the "ESC" key.

Select "F2". Run system and component tests to confirm: a drive problem, a memory problem, or other component problem. Run extensive tests.

Let the Forum know how the hardware test results go

Regards.

[Isopodlover]

Hello @Bill_To 

Thank you for taking your time to try and help me, I ran all the extensive component tests as well as an extensive system check, and everything came up as passed.

Thanks again.

[Bill_To · Accepted solution]

Greetings @Isopodlover 

My pleasure.

I guess you have a corrupted Windows boot loader. Very unusual to see Windows crash but the hardware seems to be okay.

A corrupted boot loader, in my experience, can be difficult to fix.

You will have to remove the system drive, connect the system drive to a different PC. Try to mount the drive to see if you can back up data to the second PC or external USB media.

You may need a M.2 PCIe, NVME to USB 3.0 adapter unless the second PC has an open M.2 drive socket to try the data backup.

One choice is to try to fix the boot loader after backing up data. Reconnect the system drive to your PC. Then check this video for steps to take to attempt a fix.

The second choice is to reinstall Windows. You have a HP Cloud Recovery option or a clean Windows installation option using the Windows 10 Media Installation Tool available Here. Windows 11 is Here.

W11 24H2 is now the only option at Microsoft. I don't know if you are using W10 or W11. I don't know what version of Windows shipped with your PC. The HP Cloud Recovery version may be W10.

Either option will take time; you may wind up trying both.

Regards

[Isopodlover]

Thank you so much for helping me through this, I was rather stressed about it. Tried the second option and everything went smoothly, the computer boots up perfectly fine now.

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Isopodlover 

My pleasure.

Good to see things are okay.

Keep an eye on this. I'm still wondering why the PC crashed for no valid reason.

Regards