Endless Automatic Repair Loop Upon Startup (cont.)

[ADonMartini_790]

I've done another Internet search on that administrator permission issue and found another YouTube video to share with everyone. Turns out the method is the same as the previous link, with one key exception:

In both videos, the tutorials show that an error message appears when the change to permissions for "Everyone" is to be applied. The first video shows the user clicking "No" on said error message, alternating between clicking "Apply" and "OK" between discarding the error messages. Full disclosure, that's what I had done when attempting the fix yesterday. However, everyone will see that the second video shows the user clicked "Yes" on the final error prompt, and recommends a computer restart after the system changes (which shows a few failure notices during the reconfigure of security settings).

Again, I followed the steps in the first video, basically alternating on clicking "Apply" and "OK" repeatedly without accepting the "do you want to continue" prompt that warns of the setting changes. The second video (slightly more recent, dated 2021) instead suggests that the terms should be accepted on said prompt, and subsequently click "Continue" for the series of Security Error prompts ahead of restarting the computer.

I'm willing to try this new strategy, but have some concerns; since I'm borrowing a separate laptop that uses Windows 10 Home In S Mode, I worry that using this technique might cause some sort of change to the OS that won't be reversible; I would like to be able to make as minimal changes to the borrowed laptop as possible as I work to correct the issues with my own. Also, there's some concern that the error prompts caused by accepting the change might not allow for me to do the hard drive copy-and-paste at the end of the process anyway. Would anyone happen to know what may come out of trying this?

If anyone would like to leave a comment that might answer these concerns, or might recommend another method that could help, please do not hesitate to do so. All helpful replies are appreciated.

[ADonMartini_790]

I wanted to provide a quick update; not to mention, I have a question to ask following the update.

I recall that I had a semi-functional desktop computer available that I could feasibly use to conduct the hard drive copying. I put it together and tried to connect the laptop's hard drive over the weekend, but didn't get an on-screen display. Looking at the system requirements for the hard drive adapter I'm using, I saw that it is a USB 3.0 adapter, which may be incompatible to the desktop's operating system that runs Windows 2000 Professional. Those same system requirements on the adapter's package states that a USB 2.0 adapter would actually be compatible for Windows 2000.

That being said, does this mean I would have to get a second hard drive adapter with a USB 2.0 interface in order to try it on this older desktop? Please feel free to reply and advise.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartini_790

[ADonMartini_790]

Saw there weren't any responses, so I went ahead and took a chance on getting another hard drive adapter recently -- a KingWin Model ADP-07 USB 2.0 to SATA Adapter.

Turns out not much changed -- I first tried it on the older desktop mentioned before: an HP Vectra that runs Windows 2000 Professional. The computer was able to detect the USB device, but nothing from the hard drive displayed. I ended up giving it a try on the HP Stream that runs Windows 10 Home In S Mode; like before, it connected to the drive, but in attempting the cut-and-paste, I was again blocked by the "administrator permission" issue. So I'm back to square one again.

I'd really appreciate it if anyone has any idea on what is causing this and what can be done to straighten it out.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies!

ADonMartini_790

[ADonMartini_790]

OK -- I am back for another brief update.

Thinking back on the two YouTube tutorials I'd previously posted (found here and here), I decided to take a gamble and made the necessary adjustments to the drive security settings to try bypassing the "administrator permission" issue that had blocked my efforts to do a preemptive disk backup before applying the fix to the "Automatic Repair" loop. Unfortunately, the change didn't achieve the ultimate goal, but two positives came from the effort: one was that I was able to easily reverse the security changes, while the other gave me new information to share with everyone to (hopefully) get closer to some answers.

I may not have mentioned this before, but in most instances upon connecting the affected hard drive to my alternate laptop (using one of two adapters I've purchased for this repair effort -- the specific brands are named in earlier posts), the prompt pictured below will appear:

I don't know if this would necessarily be relevant to the issue, but I'll continue: I adjusted the security permissions for both the functional laptop and the affected hard drive to allow for "Everyone" with "Full Control" in the hopes of being able to break the logjam for the copy-and-paste; I was finally able to get into the "Users" area of the affected drive, and even perform some limited copying of files within since getting locked out of the drive back in December. I still wasn't able to do a copy-and-paste of the full "Users" folder itself, but I attempted to create a new folder of the same name in an external storage drive and tried copying all of the files within the affected drive onto the new folder en masse. I ended up getting the same "administrator permission" prompt, which is pictured below:

This version of the pop-up does have a notable difference from the others in that it seems to finally identify the one main item in each copy-and-paste attempt that is blocked by the "administrator permission" issue: the "AppData" folder.

Of course, I selected "Continue" after selecting the "do this for all current items" checkbox as shown; ultimately, nothing is successfully duplicated if I try copying the "AppData" folder along with everything else on the drive, but at least it would seem that the main complication has been isolated this time. A few other folders are also present amongst the "Users" folder contents, but only the "AppData" folder has been flagged for administrator permission in this attempt.

Which brings me to all of you: what can be done to resolve this matter now? Hopefully, this piece of information will finally jostle some helpful information loose from anyone here. Please, I implore anyone to leave a comment that may be useful if you are reading the topic.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartini_790

[ADonMartini_790]

Just leaving a message to keep the topic active -- if anyone has a helpful comment to make, feel free to contribute whatever advice or tips you may have.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies!

ADonMartini_790

[ADonMartini_790]

Just making a fresh post to keep the topic open -- I'm still having some issues, so feel free to leave a comment if:

• you know how to copy a hard drive's "AppData" folder without getting an "administrator permission" error

• you can recommend a successful means to back up the contents of a hard drive without getting an "administrator permission" error

• you may know of a means to correct the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop issue, with or without the need to back up the hard drive beforehand (if necessary)

Any helpful replies are appreciated -- thanks in advance

ADonMartini_790

[ADonMartini_790]

Sorry to have to do this so frequently, but I want to make sure the topic isn't locked out for inactivity; again, if anyone has an explanation for what is causing the issue or what can be done to correct it, you are welcome to leave a reply.

Thanks again in advance

ADonMartini_790

[ADonMartini_790]

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Boot-and-Lockup/Endless-Automatic-Repair-Loop-Upon-Startup/m-...

I'm back for another update; after having lots of roadblocks during the pre-recovery phase, I've decided to simply move onto the next step.

According to the link above, I will need to have access to 20GB of available space on the Windows partition to perform the recovery function; unfortunately, the issue I'm facing is that the HP Stream laptop I'm using to conduct the correction on the affected HP Pavilion only has about 28GB of total space, with much of it already being occupied. I could utilize the internal drive of the affected laptop or a separate uninstalled internal drive purchased months ago for a potential fix, or even a portable hard drive I have on hand (all of which have well above 20GB in free space), but the tutorials included in the link above seem to preclude those options, to the best of my gathering.

Would anyone know what can be done in light of this issue? If anyone needs any additional clarification or specifics, please let me know what information you may need, and I will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartin_790

[ADonMartini_790]

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@ADonMartini_790 wrote:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Boot-and-Lockup/Endless-Automatic-Repair-Loop-Upon-Startup/m-...

I'm back for another update; after having lots of roadblocks during the pre-recovery phase, I've decided to simply move onto the next step.

According to the link above, I will need to have access to 20GB of available space on the Windows partition to perform the recovery function; unfortunately, the issue I'm facing is that the HP Stream laptop I'm using to conduct the correction on the affected HP Pavilion only has about 28GB of total space, with much of it already being occupied. I could utilize the internal drive of the affected laptop or a separate uninstalled internal drive purchased months ago for a potential fix, or even a portable hard drive I have on hand (all of which have well above 20GB in free space), but the tutorials included in the link above seem to preclude those options, to the best of my gathering.

Would anyone know what can be done in light of this issue? If anyone needs any additional clarification or specifics, please let me know what information you may need, and I will respond as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance

ADonMartin_790

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I've had a thought in the past 24 hours since my last post...

The drive I'm trying to apply the fix onto is a Hewlett-Packard 762990-006 Hard drive 1TB 5400RPM SATA RAW 7. It obviously has more than 20GB of free space I could use, if it weren't stuck with this Automatic Repair error. A while ago, I went ahead and bought a Crucial MX500 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5-inch SSD, which seemed most compatible as a placeholder or back-up drive. It's never been used, and had never been installed into my HP Pavilion, so all of its available disk space is completely untouched.

I've been wondering if I could somehow make use of this secondary drive somehow to perform the download of the rescue tool in that link from my above post, either through my hard drive adapter or by directly installing it into my laptop temporarily in order to pull it off? Or perhaps someone here might have a better idea I could try?

Please leave a reply once able -- thanks in advance

[ADonMartini_790]

After an extended absence to work on the issue, I am back to hopefully finish correcting the problem with the "Automatic Repair" reboot loop. It took quite a while to address some related issues, but it would seem that they have been dealt with to enough of a degree to my satisfaction that I can proceed with fixing the main problem.

Referencing the posts made in the original version of this thread by @Ub6424 (which can be found here and here), I made a recent attempt to create a bootable flash drive to hopefully correct the problem. Unfortunately, as the screengrab below will show, there was not enough available disk space on my alternate laptop to finish creating it.

With this update, I'm at a bit of an impasse; would anyone have an idea of what could possibly be done here? The overall space on my alternate laptop's C-drive is a maximum of 28.3GB, and most of it is already consumed. My affected laptop has about 1TB of C-drive space, but it isn't accessible because of the Automatic Repair error. It'll be tough to borrow another laptop or reach another computer for which I can install the HP Cloud Recovery Tool to make a rescue disk anytime soon, so any suggestion that might help out would be great.

Once I'm able, I'll try to post links to some other sites that got me up to this point, as it's been a while since I last posted on this particular forum; it might be helpful for everyone to see what was done, and what else was learned about the problem.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies!

ADonMartini_790