What Is the Windows 10 Automatic Repair Loop?
Windows 10 includes a host of different troubleshooting and repair tools designed to make the process of fixing everyday Windows problems much more accessible than in older versions of the operating system. One of those tools is Startup Repair, which can fix issues with your Windows startup. If there’s a problem with a driver, service, or file that might be causing an issue when booting your PC, Startup Repair should fix it for you. However, sometimes it can’t fix the issue, and that can send you into an automatic repair loop, where Windows can’t boot because of the problem at hand, but when it tries, all it can do is run startup repair over and over. This loop may manifest in a black screen that hangs on Preparing Automatic Repair or Diagnosing Your PC. You may also get the Preparing Automatic Repair text on a blue screen, or it may complete the Startup Repair action but tell you that Automatic repair couldn’t repair your PC. At that point, you can restart, but you’ll just be sent back into the automatic repair loop. You will also have a button for Advanced Options, which may give you some more choices to help fix the issue, which we’ll cover below.
What Causes The Windows 10 Automatic Repair Loop?
The repair loop itself is caused by Startup Repair failing to fix the Windows startup problem. A failed Windows update degraded hardware like memory or a hard drive or missing or damaged system files corrupted by malware. You may also encounter this problem due to a driver issue for a specific piece of hardware or a registry error. It isn’t easy to diagnose the cause of the automatic repair loop before fixing it. The best way to get past that Preparing Automatic Repair screen is to try a few fixes and see what works.
How to Fix the Windows 10 Automatic Repair Loop
Here are several different ways you can potentially fix the repair loop error you’ve encountered. After trying each one, properly reboot your PC to see if the fix has taken worked.
