HP Laptop Stuck After Windows 11 24H2 Update – Managed to Recover Important Files

[shubham-singh]

Hi everyone, I'm using an HP laptop that has been working perfectly for the last couple of years. A few days ago, after installing a recent Windows 11 update, the system started behaving strangely. It became extremely slow during startup and eventually got stuck in an automatic repair loop. I tried Startup Repair, Safe Mode, and System Restore, but none of them worked. Since I had important work documents, project files, and family photos stored on the internal drive, I was more concerned about the data than Windows itself.

At one point I considered performing a clean installation, but I was worried that doing so might overwrite some of the files I still needed. Before making any major changes, I connected the drive to another system and attempted data recovery. Fortunately, I was able to recover most of the important files from the drive using SysTools Hard Drive Recovery Software and saved everything to an external disk first. After securing the data, I went ahead with reinstalling Windows. I'm posting here because I'm curious whether anyone else has experienced similar boot issues on an HP laptop after recent Windows updates in 2026. Did you find a solution that didn't require reinstalling Windows?

Any suggestions or experiences would be appreciated.

[Pallipurath]

Hi @shubham-singh 

Welcome to the HP Support Community.

Thank you for posting your query.

Thank you for the update. I'm sorry to hear that the issue is still not resolved. To help determine whether this is a software or hardware-related issue, I request that you perform the following steps:

Run UEFI Diagnostics:

• Press Esc repeatedly while turning on the notebook, 
• Press F2 to open HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI).
• Run the Extensive Storage Test followed by the Extensive Memory Test. 
• If either test fails, please share the Failure ID displayed on the screen.

The Secure Boot Bypass 

• Since the primary trigger is a conflict with Secure Boot certificates, forcing Windows to finish the update process with Secure Boot turned off usually breaks the loop.
• Turn off your laptop completely.
• Turn it back on and immediately start tapping the Esc key (or F10) repeatedly until the BIOS/UEFI Startup Menu appears.
• Use your arrow keys to navigate to System Configuration or the Security tab.
• Locate Secure Boot and change it to Disabled.
• Save the changes and exit (usually F10).
• Let the laptop boot up. It should bypass the Automatic Repair loop and allow Windows to properly finalize or roll back the failed update.

To further investigate could you confirm if you see:

• Displaying any specific error message or blue screen.

Take care and have an amazing day!