Automatic repair not working, PC can't reset

[Seth00]

Hey all!
I was using my pc when the power adapter shifted and disconnected from the outlet. Upon securing the power cord and turning on the computer, Windows eventually directed me to an automatic repair screen, saying Windows could not automatically fix the problem. So far I've tried restarting pc, system restore, startup repair, and a Windows reset. After waiting for the Windows reset, I received a message saying the reset failed and nothing changed. Pretty much at a loss for what to do, any help is appreciated! Not sure if it matters, but Windows 10 was installed (not update from previous OS) using a disc!

 

[Regedit32]

Welcome to the Forum Seth00.

Have you tried booting from the DVD and running the Repair option there instead?

If your current Windows image is all ready damaged the Recovery console you are getting to without the DVD may not be able to repair things, whereas, via booting from the DVD you may be able to.

 

[Seth00]

Welcome to the Forum Seth00.

Have you tried booting from the DVD and running the Repair option there instead?

If your current Windows image is all ready damaged the Recovery console you are getting to without the DVD may not be able to repair things, whereas, via booting from the DVD you may be able to.

Thank you! I will try this soon, don't actually have a disc drive installed currently, I uninstalled it after installing Windows.

 

[Seth00]

I have the disc drive installed and ran the repair option. I tried to reset pc but got the message saying, "the drive where windows is installed is locked. Please unlock and try again." I tried system restore and got a message saying, "to use system restore, you must specify which windows installation to restore." Finally I tried startup repair but it could not repair my PC. Any idea what exactly I'm supposed to do? All help is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Jedielder]

I'm having a similar problem... it's the same symptoms, I get the repair process but nothing gets repaired. I'm on a MacBook Pro, using BootCamp. I tried repairing the disk, both for Windows and Mac. Some blocks were found to have errors and it said it fixed it. I finally restored from a previous backup, located on an external drive. This allowed me to finally get into Windows 10, but now when I restart, holding down the option key no longer gives me any boot options. I have to tell Windows 10 now, specifically, that I want to change the boot drive to the Mac partition if I want to boot into iOS. If I want to boot back into Windows 10, I have to, again, do ti manually by changing the startup drive in iOS back to Windows 10. Something is wrong with the boot process and all I did was disconnect the power cord (batter had a full charge). Good luck to you and I hope somehow an update will fix this boot/repair issue?

 

[JW09I4]

I have the disc drive installed and ran the repair option. I tried to reset pc but got the message saying, "the drive where windows is installed is locked. Please unlock and try again." I tried system restore and got a message saying, "to use system restore, you must specify which windows installation to restore." Finally I tried startup repair but it could not repair my PC. Any idea what exactly I'm supposed to do?

That message is displayed due to a few possible reasons: corrupted system files (i.e. C:\Windows), file system integrity, or BCD corruption.

Steps

1. Access Command Prompt in WinRE/WinPE
   1. If booted to Windows recovery options [WinRE]:
      • At the Advanced Startup page, select: Troubleshoot --> Advanced Options --> Command Prompt
   2. If booted to Windows installer [WinPE]:
      • Press SHIFT+F10 twice, which will open two Command Prompts
   
   
2. Command Prompt 1
   1. DiskPart
   2. lis vol
      • Find the corresponding drive letter to your Windows system partition (it will likely not be C)
      • Partition will be of Type: Primary
   
   
3. Command Prompt 2
   1. chkdsk C: /offlinescanandfix
      • Where C is the drive letter from 2.2
        
      • If errors are found, run the scan again until it comes up with no more errors found
      
      
   2. sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows
      • Where C is the drive letter from 2.2
      • I forget if UEFI requires mounting the EFI partition and using that drive letter for the /offbootdir, but if so:
        
        
        • Command Prompt 1
          • lis dis
          • sel dis 0
            • Replace 0 with the drive # Windows is installed upon if it's not installed to HDD 0
          • lis par
          • sel par 2
            • Replace 2 with the appropriate partition # for the EFI partition, Type: System:

                Partition ###  Type
                -------------  ----------------
                Partition 2    System

          • assign letter=z
        • Change /offbootdir=Z:\
      
      
   3. DISM /Image:C:\Windows /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\Windows\WinSxS
      • Where C is the drive letter from 2.2
        
        
      • If it barfs an error, you'll need to insert the Windows install USB/DVD, then issue:
        • DISM /Image:C:\Windows /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:esd:E:\Sources\Install.esd:1 /limitaccess
          • Where E is the drive letter of the install USB/DVD, and Install.esd may need to be install.wim (if so, change Source:wim:)
      
      
   4. BootRec /Fixmbr
   5. BootRec /FixBoot
   6. BootRec /RebuildBCD
      • It should return that an installation was found, then enter Y
      • If it does not return an installation found, that's fine, as Windows will fix this upon boot
   
   
4. Reboot PC

 

[Regedit32]

If it barfs an error, you'll need to insert the Windows install USB/DVD, then issue:

• DISM /Image:C:\Windows /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:esd:E:\Sources\Install.esd:1 /limitaccess

Keep in mind the Windows.iso downloaded from Microsoft contains four indexed options. Thus in the command you gave your Sources flag of Install.esd:1 would be fine provided the Windows image the User is repairing is Windows 10 Home edition.

If it is not and they are using Windows 10 Professional edition, then they'd need to modify your command to read: Install.esd:2, unless they have all ready extracted the edition they are using from the downloaded ISO file, in which case, the source file would only contain a single indexed version of Window 10, which would use the indexed position of 1

Edit: Thanks for the correction JW0914 (re response to my comments here). I had a memory lapse and incorrectly stated above that install.esd:2 = Windows 10 Professional, when in fact its index 1. The point I was attempting to illustrate is that it is important the User uses the correct index number in the command to reflect their particular installed version of Windows 10, as JW0914 has posted in his latter posting below.

 

[JW09I4]

Keep in mind the Windows.iso downloaded from Microsoft contains four indexed options. Thus in the command you gave your Sources flag of Install.esd:1 would be fine provided the Windows image the User is repairing is Windows 10 Home edition.

If it is not and they are using Windows 10 Professional edition, then they'd need to modify your command to read: Install.esd:2, unless they have all ready extracted the edition they are using from the downloaded ISO file, in which case, the source file would only contain a single indexed version of Window 10, which would use the indexed position of 1

If the user used the Media Creation tool to download the Windows ISO, Index 1 would be Pro, 2 would be Home.

• It's highly unlikely, but if users are seeing the opposite in the install.esd [v1703 switched back to ESDs] / wim [v1501 & v1607], then the Media Creation tool is tailoring the ISO downloaded to the version of Windows, ensuring index 1 always equates to the the version installed

PS F:\sources> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:f:\sources\install.esd

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.15063.0

Details for image : f:\sources\install.esd

Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 15,305,539,033 bytes

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 15,127,824,725 bytes

Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Size : 15,129,601,869 bytes

Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Education
Description : Windows 10 Education
Size : 15,125,050,322 bytes

The operation completed successfully.
PS F:\sources> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:f:\sources\install.esd /index:1

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.15063.0

Details for image : f:\sources\install.esd

Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 15,305,539,033 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.15063
ServicePack Build : 0
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : Professional
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 19668
Files : 101896
Created : 2017.03.18 - 21:40:43
Modified : 2017.04.13 - 12:23:48
Languages : en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.
PS F:\sources> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:f:\sources\install.esd /index:2

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.15063.0

Details for image : f:\sources\install.esd

Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 15,127,824,725 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.15063
ServicePack Build : 0
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : Core
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 19507
Files : 100750
Created : 2017.03.18 - 21:40:40
Modified : 2017.04.13 - 12:23:49
Languages : en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.
PS F:\sources> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:f:\sources\install.esd /index:3

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.15063.0

Details for image : f:\sources\install.esd

Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Size : 15,129,601,869 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.15063
ServicePack Build : 0
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : CoreSingleLanguage
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 19521
Files : 100858
Created : 2017.03.18 - 21:43:23
Modified : 2017.04.13 - 12:23:50
Languages : en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.
PS F:\sources> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:f:\sources\install.esd /index:4

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.15063.0

Details for image : f:\sources\install.esd

Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Education
Description : Windows 10 Education
Size : 15,125,050,322 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.15063
ServicePack Build : 0
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : Education
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 19519
Files : 100691
Created : 2017.03.18 - 21:36:11
Modified : 2017.04.13 - 12:23:52
Languages : en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.
PS F:\sources> PS F:\sources>

 

[Regedit32]

If the user used the Media Creation tool to download the Windows ISO, Index 1 would be Pro, 2 would be Home.

Yes you are correct. I had the indexed options the wrong way around. [ memory lapse there sorry ].

My point though is your command requires the correct index number to be used, i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 4 depending on the version the User installed on their system; assuming they are using a non-extracted install.esd file to work from.

 

[JW09I4]

@Regedit32 Great point =] I meant to say so and clearly forgot after downloading the ISO to verify the indexes.

Since I can't edit my prior post for some reason:

• If it barfs an error, you'll need to insert the Windows install USB/DVD, then issue:
  1. DISM /Get-WimInfo:E:\Sources\Install.esd
     • Where E is the drive letter of the install USB/DVD, and Install.esd may need to be install.wim
       
     • Indexes should be (still issue command to verify):
     1. Windows 10 Pro
     2. Windows 10 Home
     3. Windows 10 Home Single Language
     4. Windows 10 Education
  2. DISM /Image:C:\Windows /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:esd:E:\Sources\Install.esd:1 /limitaccess
     • Where E is the drive letter of the install USB/DVD, and Install.esd may need to be install.wim (if so, change Source:wim:)
     • Where 1 is the corresponding index from Step 1 that corresponds to the version of Windows installed

Also, if Step 3.3 from my prior post results with any corruption being fixed, the SFC command in Step 3.2 must be re-ran.

• Ideally, DISM's /restorehealth command should always be ran prior to running SFC, as DISM checks for corruption in the WinSxS directory, of which is what SFC pulls from if any system files are corrupted in C:\Windows.

• While slightly off-topic, the /restorehealth command differs slightly when you're booted to Windows.
  • DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
    • PC must be connected to the internet, as it verifies the WinSxS directory's file hashes against known good copies through Windows Update
      
      
    • I personally recommend running Restore Health and SFC at least once a month and I've attached Task Scheduler XML exports that can be imported into Task Scheduler [WinKey+R, TaskSchd.msc, Enter]. One may wish to modify the schedule, as I have each set to run every Sunday at 12:00 [DISM] & 13:00 [SFC] respectively
      • Remove the .txt extension, as XMLs are not allowed to be attached for security reasons
      • Prior to import, please review the XML in an XML viewer which performs syntax highlighting (Internet Explorer, Atom Editor, Notepad++, etc.), to ensure one knows what the task does, verifying it's not malicious (verification is an important habit to have).

 

[Jedielder]

I wanted to thank you for your reply. I am trying some of this... I'm still having issues but hopefully it will get resolved. Again, thank you.

That message is displayed due to a few possible reasons: corrupted system files (i.e. C:\Windows), file system integrity, or BCD corruption.

Steps

1. Access Command Prompt in WinRE/WinPE
   1. If booted to Windows recovery options [WinRE]:
      • At the Advanced Startup page, select: Troubleshoot --> Advanced Options --> Command Prompt
   2. If booted to Windows installer [WinPE]:
      • Press SHIFT+F10 twice, which will open two Command Prompts
   
   
2. Command Prompt 1
   1. DiskPart
   2. lis vol
      • Find the corresponding drive letter to your Windows system partition (it will likely not be C)
      • Partition will be of Type: Primary
   
   
3. Command Prompt 2
   1. chkdsk C: /offlinescanandfix
      • Where C is the drive letter from 2.2
        
      • If errors are found, run the scan again until it comes up with no more errors found
      
      
   2. sfc /scannow /offbootdir=C:\ /offwindir=C:\Windows
      • Where C is the drive letter from 2.2
      • I forget if UEFI requires mounting the EFI partition and using that drive letter for the /offbootdir, but if so:
        
        • Command Prompt 1
          • lis dis
          • sel dis 0
            • Replace 0 with the drive # Windows is installed upon if it's not installed to HDD 0
          • lis par
          • sel par 2
            • Replace 2 with the appropriate partition # for the EFI partition, Type: System:

                Partition ###  Type
                -------------  ----------------
                Partition 2    System

          • assign letter=z
        • Change /offbootdir=Z:\
      
      
   3. DISM /Image:C:\Windows /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\Windows\WinSxS
      • Where C is the drive letter from 2.2
        
        
      • If it barfs an error, you'll need to insert the Windows install USB/DVD, then issue:
        • DISM /Image:C:\Windows /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:esd:E:\Sources\Install.esd:1 /limitaccess
          • Where E is the drive letter of the install USB/DVD, and Install.esd may need to be install.wim (if so, change Source:wim:)
      
      
   4. BootRec /Fixmbr
   5. BootRec /FixBoot
   6. BootRec /RebuildBCD
      • It should return that an installation was found, then enter Y
      • If it does not return an installation found, that's fine, as Windows will fix this upon boot
   
   
4. Reboot PC