Setup Installation :: Unable To Refresh Or Reset PC After Automatic Repair Fails
Aug 4, 2013
You have Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro installed on your PC. Your PC fails to boot into Windows and launches Automatic Repair to attempt to repair Windows.
Automatic Repair is unable to repair your PC and you select "Advanced options". After selecting "Troubleshoot", you choose to either "Refresh your PC" or "Reset your PC".
In this scenario, recovery may fail and you are returned back to the main WinRE screen. This issue may occur if the System or Software registry hives have become damaged or corrupted.
To attempt to resolve this issue, follow the steps below. Following these steps should only be used if you are attempting to use the "Refresh your PC" or "Reset your PC" options in Windows RE because your system is in a non-bootable state.
-After Automatic Repair fails to repair your PC, select "Advanced options" and then "Troubleshoot".
-Select "Advanced options" and then select "Command Prompt".
-If prompted, enter in the password for the user name.
-At the Command Prompt, go to the windowssystem32config folder by typing the following command: cd %windir%system32config.
-Rename the System and Software registry hives to System.001 and Software.001 by using the following commands:
ren system system.001
ren software software.001
I did all that but when I tried to rename the Software.001 file the system responds: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" ...
I tried to create a Ubuntu start up usb key so that i could maybe get in and rename the file but that presented more problems.
My PC fails to boot into Windows and launches Automatic Repair to attempt to repair Windows. When i try to refresh or reset alway get msg " there is a problem resetting your pc, no changes are made" My PC is preinstalled so no I don't have recovery CD/DVD Here pics
Have decided to take the plunge to reset my computer (because Windows Store would not open). Booted from the installation disk but cannot Reset or Refresh, I get "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."
I have a Windows 7 / Windows 8 dual boot setup that was initially working fine. When attempting to update the graphics drivers in Windows 8 last week, something went wrong and the system crashed. Now when I attempt to boot into Windows 8, it goes into the Attempting Automated Repairs loop which never finishes, even when left running for several hours. I attempted to boot off of the Windows 8 installation CD and do a Refresh but it just errors out saying Windows could not be refreshed.
I accidentally removed a usb cable from a powered usb hub , and a volume slider of some other program appeared superimposed and floating above my music making program , so I restarted the pc. From then on , it wouldn't start , and kept saying preparing automatic repair, then reached 40% and wouldn't go any further.
I unplugged my 2 external drives because they weren't showing in the bios , and plugged them into my laptop to check they were ok , and I am relieved to say they are.
Since i removed the drives , my desktop ( asus ) will eventually arrive at the blue recovery screen , but all these things that are supposed to fix it , aren't working.
When I try to refresh , it says the drive where windows is installed is locked. I've tried to do a system restore from 3 different restore points and none of them have worked ( one actually cited a mozilla profile as being the cause )
Re-image wont work because it cant find the image file , which is on one of my external drives which are now unplugged. Automatic repair diagnoses , but then says it cant repair. It also will not boot into safe mode.
I can use command prompt, and was hoping I could rename the system hive name , but the command prompt says X=windowssystem32.
I've tried cd%windir%system32config , but it says " the drive , the path, or the filname is not valid" . I have successfully ran regedit from the command prompt .....
I had no reasons to expect anything untoward before yesterday. The automatic repair thing happened before , about 4 months ago , but i was always able to get out of it by switching it off at the wall. Now that doesnt work and its in an endless loop .
I have hirens bootcd but there are a lot of things on it that i dont know how to use. I was able to get mini xp working via hirens but couldn't access system restore.
When I try to use the tutorial,I get as far as the Product Key entry.
The install was an original 8 I downloaded when it first came out.
I then installed 8.1, probably from the Store.
I recently downloaded and install 8.1 Media Center Pack.
Had a real problem with activation.MS Support finally had me go to where there was a long activation string and then he gave me a new Product Key, which is now on the machine and Activated.
When I get to the "Product Key" page and enter the Media Pack key, "This product key didn't work. ....."
New Windows 8 Pro with WMC install to a new Intel SSD on an old Dell Inspiron 530. I got everything activated and working fine, and then I swapped the SSD for the old HDD to finish getting all my data. But when I swapped the SSD back in, I can no longer get Windows 8 to boot--it goes into automatic repair, but none of the options are available to me. Refresh won't work, reset won't work, I can't even get system restore to work (it shows me two restore points available, but it won't let me select them.)
This was a clean install, so it has the 350MB recovery partition. I believe the RAID is set properly (I have no straight up AHCI option in BIOS, but I installed Windows 8 under RAID [it shows "AHCI Bios enabled!" during POST], and remembered to change to IDE mode to boot the HDD, and back to RAID before trying to boot the SSD).
I've always been able to troubleshoot these sorts of problems under XP or 7, but I'm just not familiar with these Windows 8 processes (or SSDs/AHCI/RAID stuff) yet. I've got all the linux tools, Hirens, etc. available, and can verify that the files on the SSD appear to be fine. I could reinstall if necessary, but really don't want to have to deal with the upgrade and re-activating--and even if I do have to reinstall.
Using the sfc command, I found some corrupted windows files but it was unable to repair them... Is there any way I can repair the files without having to reset or refresh my computer and lose everything I installed?
I found something called DISM, but when I used it, it said unable to find source files or something... I found my recover partitions, but they don't have drive letters. Anything I can do?
I cant boot to my windows 8. As I open my laptop it says "preparing automatic repair" >> daignosing your pc >>> attempting repairs>>> then it was stuck and cant proceed to desktop.
i tried to open advance setting by pressing "F8" then advance settings option appears. and i tried to a troubleshoot then chose>>
REFRESH YOU PC --- "theres a problem refreshing your pc" RESET YOUR PC ---- "theres a problem reseting you pc" AUTO REPAIR ---- cannot repair
Right now i want to reformat my ASUS laptop with pre installed windows 8 but i dont know what to..
I was using Ubuntu 14.04 on my laptop before. Now I want to install Windows 8. I have laptop's rescue CD. I get the following error when I tried to install Windows 8 on UEFI using the rescue CD:
"Unable to reset your pc a required partition is missing".
I think I have a problem about partitions type because Ubuntu uses ext4.
I recently purchased an Asus X551 laptop with Windows 8 but straight the way uninstalled Windows 8 and installed Ubuntu (after creating a Windows 8 recovery drive just in case). I have since decided that I want Windows 8 back as I have found that I cannot use a lot of software on Linux. The laptop did not come with any form of recovery disk or installation disk, the only reminent of Windows 8 I have is the recovery USB that I created from within the OS.
When I plug in the USB and boot from it it brings up the recovery menu with options to reset the PC but when I click it it says something like - "Unable to reset PC. A required partition is missing".
Ok, So, I started up my laptop this morning and the screen was all wonky, It was light blue and there were swiggly white bits, I waited a bit and then restarted it.
The Auto Repair started up when the computer started back up so I left it alone for a bit
"Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC"
I was like Ok, I checked the logfiles "Boot critical file c:/ci.dll is corrupt"
It won't let me refresh or restore my computer.
Forgot to say, If I restart it just loops back to the auto repair.
I have tried updating my Windows 8.1 Pro (64-bit, upgraded from Windows 8 Pro) with the new "Update 1" (KB2919355) but it always fails with ERROR code 8007005 (or 80073712).
What I have tried do to fix:
Run WindowsUpdateDiagnostic (that e.g. removes files from C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDownload and cleans Windows update history metadata info)DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /ScanhealthDISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestorehealthDISM.EXE /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup
After all of this, still the update (KB2919355) fails
There must be something that Microsoft needs to fix, there are xxxxxxxxxxxx amount of similar complains and reports out there...
I decided to install Win 8.1 RTM x64 yesterday but what I expected to be a breeze turned into a nightmare. Installation fails, I am even unable to get into Safe Mode.
I was running Win 7 Ultimate x64 before without any issues whatsoever.
I already described my issues here, with errors and logs: Windows 8.1 RTM installation fails on Dell XPS 1340
Changed memory from 2x4GB to original 2x2GB but completely same issue
I have run sfc /scannow on my system to find if there were any bad files. It comes up and says that it had found bad files and could not repair all of them. Ive run it three or four times in a row and always get the same result.
I've tried everything, and it seems nothing works. Makes it to 72 percent on "Keep files, settings and apps", "Keep files" and "Nothing". Any other methods that might work? By the way, I'm using a USB to install the upgrade.
Things I've tried:
Disable video drivers Delete temp Delete other user accounts Only Windows services No start-up programs
When I turn my windows 8 pc on it shows the Windows icon with the little thing swirling around it, however if I click go to set up it sends me to the same page but says preparing automatic repair. This page has been up for over 2 hours with no progress, any support? When I try to boot off a disc it does the same thing just comes to the black screen with the light blue colored windows icon and shows it loading but makes no progress.
I upgraded to windows 8.1 when it was available and the first time I turned off my computer after upgrading, it all started and now I'm stuck in this automatic repair loop. To top it all off my mobo: Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3... has now become my main issue.
I have a bootable flash drive loaded with windows 8.1 and a bootable DVD loaded with windows 8.1 but my mobo supports only HDD and CD-rom...
I have no clue what to do, as I can't use a repair disc to repair my computer and I CANNOT Reset my PC, I have way to many files that I need on my HDD.
Just reinstalled windows 8, loaded everything up and had it perfect. Then I installed a windows update (could it have been 8.1?) and then my computer would not boot. It got stuck on the windows 8 logo with the circle just spinning. After I restart it tries to automatically repair but that doesn't work. I popped the Windows 8 disc in and tried to do a system restore using a restore point but it said "You need to select an OS. Please restart the system and select an OS". ??? I'm not dual booting! Windows 8 is the only OS installed!
Tried safe mode but the windows logo just hangs. Any possibilities to salvage this before doing yet ANOTHER reinstall or refresh or whatever.
my Gateway SX 2370 shutted down during system restore and now my computer keeps running automatic repair. And I getting tired of this continuous operation....
My PC started off on Win 8 and I upgraded to Win 8.1 .
I want to do a completely fresh installation. I do not mind going back to Win 8 and redownloading Win 8.1 afterwards.
My problem is that when I go to PC Settings > "Remove everything and reinstall Windows", I get the error: "Insert media. Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files."
I have a partition on my computer "HP_RECOVERY (F:)". It states 1.24 GB free of 10.6 GB. When I open it, it contains a folder called "Recovery" and "HP_WSD.dat" -- the .dat file is 1 KB. When I open the folder, it says that it is empty (hidden folders and files are set to be shown). If I look at the folder properties, it states that it contains 1 file, 2 folders. The size is 69 bytes.
I have not touched this recovery partition ever since I got this PC. I have, however, run a partition software before because I split my (C:) into (C: and D:). I do not know if this may have somehow corrupted my recovery partition.
What is the best way for me to quickly and cleanly format my PC without losing my registration key? I do not have a copy of Win 8 or Win 8.1 on a CD or USB.
I opened up cmd as admin and typed in "reagentc /info" and it output this:
Code: C:WINDOWSsystem32>reagentc /info Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configurationInformation: Windows RE status: Enabled Windows RE location: ?GLOBALROOTdeviceharddisk0partition3RecoveryWindowsRE Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 8fc8db37-7d80-11e3-91ec-faa553f3f5b4 Recovery image location: Recovery image index: 0 Custom image location: Custom image index: 0REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.
I upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 via the Windows store and so. Do not have a DVD or any media to do a refresh or recovery ... I need to refresh Windows 8.1 as many of my apps do not open.
I tried this from this site here. All went fine but when i went to refresh windows cannot find any media again.
How to: REFRESH your Windows 8.1 installation without installation media.
I bought two new, cheap, Gateway computers for the office, but I need to get them upgraded to Pro so that I can join them to my domain. The computers are pretty decent, though, both w 4GB memory, and one's a dual core, and the other a quad; the dual rates at a 4.1 WEI, and the quad is a 4.5.
My Win 8 media was created from my MS Action Pack subscription and should be valid for upgrading this computer.
I tried all of the standard install options for Win 8 from that media, but each time the computer goes through the whole process and finally reboots itself back to where it was before and simply says "Windows 8 Upgrade Fails".
I've thought about wacking the partitions, and installing 8 from scratch, but I guess I'd rather not if I didn't have to...
how I can get this upgrade to go through?
Oh yeah, and where is the setup log? I looked in C:windowspanthersetuperr.log but that file was empty.
"Microsoft has introduced two interesting and very useful features in Windows 8. Refresh PC and Reset PC are the two new features that fix all Windows issues by refreshing settings or resetting everything. These features allow you set your Windows 8 settings to their defaults, or reset Windows 8 to factory settings (original settings) by deleting data and installed apps.
Though most of us have the Windows 8 installation media, it’s always a good idea to make necessary changes to the default settings so that you can Reset Windows 8 without inserting the installation or recovery media."
