My Apologies for this, and you are right, Windows Automated Repair especially on Windows 8 are about 10% effective. What you are originally asking, is a way to boot up so it shows you the boot process step by step.
What we need to fix you up, is an Install Disk. You'll have to get that from your Systems Administrator from your work, if you can get it, we can run a Command Prompt from the Install Disk and run a DISM command.
But the problem is the state your system is in makes it almost impossible to log in, so virtually all of the regular solutions can't work.
To get to Safe Mode, you have to press F8 almost immediately, eventually you will hit it at the exact time it needs to be hit, and you should see Advanced Boot and Repair Options, the Safe Mode is on the "Troubleshooting" page. There should be a tutorial on how to get to Safe Mode, here it is:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2757-safe-mode-start-windows-8-a.html
I think I know what your system is doing, I want you to try this:
Down in my Sig you will see "Hirens Boot CD" - Click on that, download the ISO image, and burn it to a disk. Stick it in your drive, and boot to it.
You will see "Mini XP" in the list of programs, click on that and it will load a stripped down version of XP. After it comes up, dont worry about clicking anything, just hit the Start Menu and look for "Check Disk", they made a quick tool to scan all of your hard drives. What I want you to do is scan your SYSTEM drive. It will list the drives that have drive letters, if your system is on C, then just type in C and hit enter.
Before you do, open My Computer and make sure about the Drive letter for the system. It's usually the largest partition on the hard drive.
I'm pretty sure your Windows 8 has detected that it needs to run a CHKDSK, but don't let that run from within Windows 8, always do it from Hiren's or some other Boot CD, you can also run it from an install disk.
Just to be safe, run the disk check on all of the partitions it finds.
When it is done, take the Hiren's Disk out and then reboot, and let me know what happened.
There is one other thing I can have you try, but I will need to know exactly what kind of hard drive is in your machine.
...it's a deployed image install from employer with domain login and specific authorised programs which would be lost.
Give a call to your company IT manager, try to get an install disk, and once you get it, I can tell you how to run the DISM command from it.
I'll try to find someone here who has experience installing over the Net, perhaps we can get to a command Prompt from the Install process. There should be a "Boot from Net" option on your motherboard, and your employer should have the link and credentials to do a remote install. If we can get a an install happening, we can get to the Troubleshooting options of the install disk and get to a command prompt and run the DISM command from there. At least we can get a reinstall happening, you would have to save your personal files first, you can use Hiren's Boot CD to do it, through the same Mini- XP.