Automatic Recovery Cannot Repair PC

[HotPotatoToo]

Hi,

I have an HP Pavilion 590-p0050. It has been working fine, other than mysteriously getting stuck to a blank black screen at startup from time to time after a hard shutdown. This time, however, when it was hard-shut down, it goes into automatic repair on boot and tells me that it could not repair the PC. (See picture below) Things I have tried include checking the disk for errors and disabling automatic repair on boot. I am not able to boot into safe mode because it takes me back to the same error, and when I try to use a bootable USB to reinstall Windows 10, it tells me I can only reinstall if I have booted into Windows 10, which I cannot do, unfortunately. I do not have a backup of my data because the Windows backup only seems to back up once and then never again, so I do not want to do a clean install. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[WAWood]

@HotPotatoToo 

This message means that Windows has become corrupted -- so much so, that it can no longer boot. MS puts up this message to tell you that Windows will repair itself -- but in my experience of having seen this dozens of times over the years, it has NEVER been able to make those repairs. So it keeps rebooting and redisplaying this again and again -- until you get disgusted and turn off the PC!

This problem is nearly impossible to fix -- from the standpoint of making repairs and leaving your stuff intact. Some steps for trying this are listed below, but they are very hard to do and if they do not work, you are faced with doing a complete Windows reinstallation to get your PC back working again.

And if that is the case, you need to come back here and tell us what failed so we can provide instructions for things you can to do retrieve some data from your drive before you do a complete reinstallation.
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First thing you need to do is see if you can restart in Safe mode -- by doing these steps: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2304-boot-into-safe-mode-windows-10-a.html

If you don't know how to start using Advanced Startup Options, then read this: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2294-boot-advanced-startup-options-windows-10-a.html

Then, follow these steps to reset Windows Update: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/24742-reset-windows-update-windows-10-a.html

If these work, when you finally reboot, you should then be able to login to a working Windows desktop.

If these don't work, you would have to resort to reinstalling Windows from scratch.

Since the internal reset probably will not work, you would need to use external media to do a reset.

The ways to do an external factory reset are the following:
- Factory reset using external HP image you make
- Factory reset using external HP image you buy

Each of these is discussed in some detail below ...

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you make ----------
HP provides a Cloud Recovery tool that you can use, together with a 32GB USB stick, to create your on HP reset media.

Here is the link: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

This works the same as the factory reset described above.

---------- Factory reset using external HP image you buy ----------
For those PCs not supported by the Cloud Recovery, in some cases, HP offers Recover Media for sale. This can not be downloaded; instead, it must be ordered from HP.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities.

In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click &quot;Update&quot;.<br><br>If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the &quot;+&quot; symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Support.

HP contact info: https://support.hp.com/us-en/contact-hp?openCLC=true

If HP no longer carries the media you need, another site you should check for HP Recovery Media is: http://www.computersurgeons.com/

These work the same as the factory reset described above.

[HotPotatoToo]

@WAWood

Thank you for your extremely detailed response with a lot of troubleshooting steps. I tried booting into Safe mode, but unfortunately I am not able to get past the error. I am assuming that means I cannot reset Windows Update either. I made a bootable USB using the Cloud Recovery Tool, but if I understand correctly, this will erase my data? I found a place in HP Recovery Manager where I can back up files, so if I do that backup I assume it is safe to boot to the USB and do a clean install?

Thank you for your help and have a nice day!

[WAWood]

@HotPotatoToo 

Your concern is well-placed as the so-called Recovery tool erases the ENTIRE drive -- so all your personal data will be removed.

I personally do not use built-in backup solutions as I find them to be unreliable -- but I understand if you can not boot into Windows, that limits what you can back off.

My own suggestion would be the following -- but you need a working PC for this.  Follow the instructions below to download and install Macrium Reflect on a working PC.  Then follow the directions to create a boot USB stick.  Boot your PC with the USB stick and follow the directions to copy the files and folders you want to save to another USB stick.

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If your PC can not boot into Windows, a way around that is to follow the instructions below to create boot media from Macrium Reflect (MR) that can be used to boot your PC even if the hard drive is not working:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from this link on a working PC: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

That will create MR bootable media. Then, you can boot your PC into WinPE using that media.

Have patience, as that can take a while to start and bring up the screen.

Once the screen is there, read this thread about using PE Explorer -- a simple file explorer: https://forum.macrium.com/PrintTopic15803.aspx

If your disk still works, you might be then able to retrieve some files and folders from it.

Good Luck

[HotPotatoToo]

@WAWood

I apologize for the delayed response. I made a bootable USB of Macrium Reflect. I went to the Backup tab and selected my C drive. Now, do I plug in an external drive and click "Clone this disk..."? Please see the picture.

I appreciate your help, have a nice afternoon!

[WAWood]

@HotPotatoToo 

Sorry, but I'm confused now by what it is you want to do.

I thought you want to recover files from the drive, so I provided instructions on creating boot media you could use to do that.

But now, you are talking about Cloning a drive -- which is only done when you want to copy ALL of one drive to another drive of the same size.

What are you trying to do?

[HotPotatoToo]

@WAWood

I apologize for the confusion in my last post; I wasn't exactly sure where to go to recover the files. I didn't want to copy the entire drive but am not exactly sure where to go to just get the files. Do I do this manually, or is there a button to click to get the files only?

Thanks

[AndyStuart87]

Sometimes, your Windows PC doesn't start the way it should after booting, and then you will receive an error right out of the blue that reads: "Automatic Repair, Your PC did not start correctly." You can try the below mentioned DIY methods to fix the issue:

Method 1: Uninstall New Software or Drivers

Method 2: Run Start-up Repair

Method 3: Run System File Checker

Method 4: Rebuild BCD (Boot Configuration Data)

Method 5: Reinstall Windows

Further, you can also check the below link for steps to be followed in each method:

https://www.technology.org/2018/01/09/5-ways-to-solve-your-pc-did-not-start-correctly/

Hope it helps!

[HotPotatoToo]

@AndyStuart87 I apologize for a late reply. Thank you for your suggestions. I attempted the 5 steps you mentioned but unfortunately, all of them returned error messages. At this point, I would like to know the best way to recover my files, then reinstall. Is the built-in HP recovery tool good enough?

Thank you and have a nice evening!