Locked In Automatic Repair / Can't Refresh

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. Any other suggestions?

I see lots of Google hits for this problem but no fixes other than to do a reinstall.

One post indicated a Windows Update was the cause of the problem, but the fix was still to reinstall.

If you have installation media, I'd suggest trying to repair from the DVD rather than using the repair files on the system disk.

The files on the system disk that are used to repair may be corrupt from the crash; it's happened to me before (once) with previous windows versions.

Just another thing I'd try too: You could remove your system disk and put it in another computer and run chkdsk on it.

Refresh is not your only option. Although when I was in this loop I did a refresh and it worked to resolve the problem.

You can also RESET your installation.

Pretty much, when you fail to start into Windows successfully 3 times, on the 4th boot attempt it SHOULD bring you to a window that gives you options such as the F8 on boot in previous Windows versions. One of them should be to RESET Windows. If the refresh fails then use reset.

Windows 8 removes need for 'F8' key, advanced boot menu redesigned - TechSpot

I was trying the Refresh from the installation DVD but that didn't work. I just tried to do a Reset from the installation DVD but it kept asking for the installation media. I guess I'm just going to write this one off and try a different OS instead. (I also did a check disk but it didn't find any errors.)