"Preparing automatic repair" black screen error loop

Macker7777

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Jul 7, 2013
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I bought a new toshiba laptop with windows 8 which was working fine till one day a problem happened. I was using my laptop normally when all of a sudden a message came up saying theres an error that occured and it must restart it then went to the toshiba logo screen with "preparing automatic repair" underneath it. It keeps switching between the toshiba logo screen and the black screen. It is very frustrating because my laptop is now completely unusable.
I have a toshiba satellite pro c850-1cw
 
Solution
When W8 won't boot
Difficult to access anything without an Installation disk or Repair disk/drive. You could repeatedly try shift plus F8 at power on and you may get into Safe Mode. Meanwhile, if you have access to another machine running W8, create a recovery media. A small USB flash drive would suffice, the files only require around 250 Mb. Type 'Recovery' at the Start Screen and choose Create a Recovery Drive from Settings. Uncheck the box for Recovery Partition if you have little space, ie small USB flash or CD. Once created, insert drive/disk in the failed PC and change the boot order in BIOS accordingly, USB boot or DVD/CD .
Once booted, navigate to Advanced Options and try Recovering to an earlier date, or from the...
When W8 won't boot
Difficult to access anything without an Installation disk or Repair disk/drive. You could repeatedly try shift plus F8 at power on and you may get into Safe Mode. Meanwhile, if you have access to another machine running W8, create a recovery media. A small USB flash drive would suffice, the files only require around 250 Mb. Type 'Recovery' at the Start Screen and choose Create a Recovery Drive from Settings. Uncheck the box for Recovery Partition if you have little space, ie small USB flash or CD. Once created, insert drive/disk in the failed PC and change the boot order in BIOS accordingly, USB boot or DVD/CD .
Once booted, navigate to Advanced Options and try Recovering to an earlier date, or from the Command Prompt try sfc /scannow followed by enter
If that fails consider Refresh your PC.
 
Solution

Manhunter

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Dec 23, 2013
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I had the same problem described here with Win8 and the error loop. I did not have a recent emergency restore disk or Win8 installation DVD. I had just installed Symantec System Restore Desktop trial and this problem occurred during the restart. (I had previously had no problem installing another version of SSR and had uninstalled it before installing the Desktop version.)

After MANY attempts to reboot, and getting into the loop each time, I finally disconnected EVERYTHING from the computer. With everything disconnected, including the power cord, I pushed and held the power on button for almost a minute then tried rebooting with just the monitors and keyboard attached. It appeared to start loading, momentarily showed the "OOPS"/gathering info, blue restarting screen then went into the black screen with the "Preparing automatic repair" notice.

Then it actually changed to "Diagnosing..." and, as I recall (I was so shocked I didn't believe it) it said it was scanning the hard drive for errors and it could take an hour. It didn't. After a minute it tried to restart but ended up on a blue Win8 screen with an apology for not being able to load Windows. It offered to go back to a previous Restore point or Cancel. It also noted only the system files would be affected and that recently installed program(s) might need to be reinstalled. I clicked "Restore" and after a quite a few minutes of disk activity and the black Logo screen (DELL) with the moving dots... Win8 loaded and only a few minor changes were noted. Nothing spectacular except I needed to reinstall the program that may have caused the issue on restart after installing (Symantec System Restore Desktop Trial.) Hope this might help someone get out of the loop.
 
Mar 18, 2014
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Jimmy5star

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Apr 16, 2014
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4,510


 

MuchPCFails

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Sep 1, 2014
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What if I cant get it in safe mode? Please help.
 

Lmadril5

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Jan 4, 2016
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I did all of the following but am still getting an error. I have a usb flash drive inserted in my computer but I can't seem to get my computer to recognize it. Can you be more specific on how to do this please.
 

Depends on computer, which BIOS. Essentially you need to go to the Boot screen with the USB drive inserted and select it as the 1st boot device, some BIOS require you to select the drive and make it number one boot.

 

Depends on computer, which BIOS. Essentially you need to go to the Boot screen with the USB drive inserted and select it as the 1st boot device, some BIOS require you to select the drive and make it number one boot.

 

Lmadril5

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Jan 4, 2016
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I changed it in the Bios now I'm just unsure what to do. I rebooted the computer but it's doing the same thing. I keep having to use F12 to go into the bios but don't see anything about the sfc. I also have hit the hdd recovery and it asks me if I'm sure and I say yes then it starts again and goes to a black screen.
 

What do you have on the USB? Repair or Install? If it 's not booting to the USB it probably means the USB boot is suspect. Personally I prefer to D'load the relevant ISO and use Rufus to set up the USB drive. If you have access to another machine I could dropbox a Win 8 ISO for you...


 

Lmadril5

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Jan 4, 2016
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I have another computer I can use as well so if you could drop box it that would be great. Do I just put it on the usb and then put that in the corrupted computer?
 

I'll PM the details, meanwhile I have a slow connection so it will be some hours before it's available to share. Also I'll need your email, so use PM to pass that on. Essentially once you have the ISO you install Rufus and use it to set up your USB which will need to be min 4Gb and all other data will be destroyed. I'm presuming you require 8.1 64bit

 

ESF

Commendable
Mar 9, 2016
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The way I fixed this problem ( to me it happened on windows 10) is that i used a bootable usb stick with "DBAN". DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) is like an OS with which you can erase your hard drives. I used DBAN to erase my hard drive clean and then used a bootable Windows 10 usb stick to reinstall Windows. This will erase everything on your computer...but it works. I had no choice, I have tried everything to recover my Windows but with no success before this. Hope this helps.
I have done this on a Lenovo Ideapad 100 15IBD