Automatic Repair - Run in Windows 8

How Run "Automatic Repair" to Fix Startup Issues in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

The Automatic Repair tool automates common diagnostic and repair tasks for startup issues like non-bootable operating system installations. Automatic Repair starts if the computer fails over into Windows RE because of a detected boot failure. If automatic failover to an on-disk instance of Windows RE is not available, your users can also start Automatic Repair as a manual recovery tool from a Windows RE CD or DVD.

For more information, see: Windows RE Troubleshooting Features

This tutorial will show you how to run an Automatic Repair (new "startup repair") at boot to diagnostic and attempt to repair startup issues in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1.

   Note

Startup repair cannot fix hardware failures, such as a failing hard disk or incompatible memory, nor does it protect against virus attacks. Automatic Repair is not designed to fix Windows installation problems.

After Automatic Repair has run, a text log with diagnostic information and repair results is generated. The log file is located at:

C:\Windows\System32\Logfile\Srt\SrtTrail.txt

Here's How:

1. Boot to the System Recovery Options screen, and click/tap on Advanced options and Automatic Repair. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Your PC may restart after this.

​

​

2. If prompted, choose the OS (ex: Windows 8) that you want to do an Automatic Repair on. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You will usually only see this if you booted from a Windows 8 installation DVD or USB thumb drive, or ISO file if in a virtual machine.

​

​

3. If prompted, select an administrator account. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Standard user accounts and domain accounts on the computer will not be listed.

​

​

​

A) Type in the password for the selected administrator account, and click/tap on Continue. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: If you need to change the keyboard layout (language), then do so before entering your password so it will be the same language that the password was set in and match.​

​

​

4. Automatic Repair will now start "Diagnosing your PC", and attempt to automatically repair them. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Automatic Repair might prompt you to make choices as it tries to fix the problem, and if necessary, it might restart your computer as it makes repairs.

​

​

5. If startup repair could not find problems or repair your computer, then either click/tap on Shut down to turn off your PC, or click/tap on Advanced options to go back to step 1.

NOTE: Sometimes it may take to run Automatic Repair 3 times to fix the startup issue.

​

​

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Refresh Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Boot to "System Recovery Options" in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[Ex_Brit]

I installed Windows 8 in my last partition by running the setup from my C: drive. I never burned the image to a disk, which of course I can do. I now find for some reason the 8 is unbootable from my multi-boot so something has messed up to boot sector I guess. Can I run Automatic Repair from that same ISO I have stored? Or should I stop being lazy and burn the darn thing to DVD?

How do I use the installation media for doing the above?

Ignore.... I had forgotten that in fact I did burn a DVD. So booted to that and the Automatic Repair fixed it in a flash.

 

[Brink]

 

[Ex_Brit]

My life story, panic attacks then profuse excuses for the false alarms....!! LOL.



(The story is that my C drive #0 failed yesterday taking my main and spare Vista OS's with it. So am booting off Drive 1 - Win 7 at the moment until I get a new hard drive. Fortunately I can still access some of the files using hardware connectors and my USB port so can at least pull my latest desktop and certain folders into a backup folder, something I had neglected for about a month, but I lost all my emails).

 

[Brink]

I'm sorry to hear that Peter. I hate it when a drive just dies all of a sudden. Thank goodness you're able to still retrieve some data from it.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Then all I have to do is format is thoroughly and discard.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Shawn,

Would you suspect your other drives in this situation and replace them? They were the originals put there by Alienware way back when. I have another drive of the same model that failed: a Seagate3500620AS (has Win 7 x 2 on it) which is what I'm using now, and a 1TB WD1002FBYS RE3 which is divided into my Windows 8 and the rest storage.

I'm very tempted to replace those with equivalent WD Black's (SATA III 64mb cache) as I'm doing with the one that failed as they are a good price at the moment. OK my board is SATA II but that doesn't matter, I'd rather have over than underkill.

Edit: FYI they are all reporting Healthy at the moment, but then so was the one that failed....right up to the instant when it simply stopped working and produced around 5000 bad sectors in a chkdsk. Don't suggest SSD's as I'm not ready for those yet, especially their price and relatively low capacity.

 

[Brink]

Peter,

If you suspect that they are going bad, then it certainly wouldn't be a bad idea to replace them to be on the safe side so as not to lose any data. Especially considering the lower prices for them these days.

After you replace at least one, you might run a "clean" command on any you replaced, then format it to see how they perform afterwards in case it may just be corruption that a "clean" would clear.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Thanks for the opinion and good advice. I'll consult my credit card balances and see if it's feasible right now. When on a pension one has to do a lot of calculations...LOL.

 

[Brink]

I hear that.

If you got room on another drive to copy the contents of one the suspect drives, then you might go ahead so as to be able to test how a "clean" may work. Hopefully that's all it may be, and won't need to replace them.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Good idea and will look into it when I get a moment.