Another Windows 8.1 Stuck in "Automatic Repair"

[CaliZ]

I've searched through the forums and found a few similar and somewhat useful posts regarding this issue.
Link 1
Link 2

Details/Work Completed Thus Far:
HP Envy laptop 2013 era
-Full/long built in HP diagnostic test, all hardware passed without error
-Temporary backup of hard drive made
-Backup drive checked for files, valid
-Past "Automatic Repair", advanced options available (*Requires user login, and still authenticates)
-Tested System restore, 3 points fairly recent made, yet unable to complete due to "No drive with system restore enabled"
-Ran
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd
bootrec /scanos
Windows installations found: 0
-Then ran bcdedit and rebuild, no further progress
-Checked for pending updates, none found
-Checked in command prompt, system files and user files still intact
-Ran "Refresh PC", failed to complete

Conclusion:
I do not suspect this to be a hard drive issue as both onboard testing, and an external disk analysis utility I use did not show any issues (Bad blocks/sectors).

I do not have the recovery discs/OEM reinstallation media from the client at this time but have requested it. (Not likely to have or made at time of first use.)

Some other research has shown to try using DaRT 8.1, but unfortunately I do not have access to the mdop without a volume licence subscription. Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank you.

 

[FremontPC]

Is BIOS set to UEFI boot or legacy?

 

[CaliZ]

It was set to UEFI boot, which reading on other topics, I've switched to legacy with no change.

 

[FremontPC]

I recall running into something like this, but don't remember the details of the fix. Have you seen this (check boozi's post):

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/the-drive-where-windows-is-installed-is-locked

Remember to switch back to UEFI too.

 

[FremontPC]

It sounds like the system lost the info it needs to identify the Windows partition via the GPT scheme. As I recall, I went through the steps "boozi" laid out, switched back to UEFI and then Windows was able to complete the automatic repair.

 

[CaliZ]

Thank you for your help. I tried that also but did not succeed as it prompted an error relating to the disk not being suited for MBR of some sort. I've moved on with other ways of resolving the issue.

 

[Mike McCall]

Assuming there's no virus at fault, have you scanned for reallocated sectors? My thinking is that if there is such a problem it may cause the system to stall while trying to read, and because of your comment about the MBR error. Just thinking out loud.

 

[CaliZ]

Hi Mike. I'm not sure what I would use to check for that. SFC wouldn't typically do that.

 

[Mike McCall]

Try Hiren's Boot CD.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/

 

[FremontPC]

Prime tool for that is Crystal Disk Info. I use the portable (zipped) edition from Sourceforge. Mike makes a good point: If the drive is failing, you could have "Sectors Pending Reallocation" which means that SMART realizes a portion of the drive can still be written to, but the drive can't read that info back. It just gets "stuck" in that mode until you zero the drive and force it to reallocate (bail on the bad sector and grab a sector from the pool of spares that it keeps on hand). That would wipe the entire drive which would destroy all data on the drive. Of course, verified backups would be the first step before wiping the drive in such a manner.

That being said, a drive with sectors pending reallocation is not worth keeping in my book. Do a system image backup and pray that the bad sectors only held temp files or something unimportant. If you suspect critical data was involved, then call in the pros. Often it's only areas of the drive that Windows writes to frequently, so perhaps not much lost, but sometimes you're going to draw the black marble. If you run Crystal Disk Info and see a bunch of reallocated sectors and sectors pending reallocation, then you're likely going to have a rough time of cloning the drive or making a valid backup.

That aside, take a look at my earlier posts, especially if you got the "drive locked" when you tried to refresh or reset. When you have the BIOS in legacy mode, it will be looking for the typical MBR arrangement to complete the boot. If the system came with Win8 or later, it's going to use GPT instead and you're not going to get that to boot in legacy mode. MBR just doesn't support the partition scheme that GPT does. So while you can apply the fix that was mentioned by "boozi", you will afterwards have to switch back to GPT w/ secure boot in order to complete repairs and have a bootable drive.