Windows 10 Preparing for repair boot loop.

[daveza]

I'm getting desperate..

Win 10 on HP laptop.

After client tried to install Anniversary Update the laptop restarted into a perpetual loop of Preparing for repair.

It briefly flashed what could be a command box then goes to a screen showing it is unable to boot with either Stop Code NTFS file system or Stop Code fat file system.

The advised solution is to prep a usb drive with Win 10 install media and boot off that.

I tried this , got as far as being asked to choose Language etc when it just restarts and goes back into the previous loop.

I have come across a few references to this particular sequence but none of them have a solution.

I could try the HP repair option which will restore the previous OS but then I would have to start from scratch - and I cannot find confirmation that the 'free Windows' 10 install will activate the code seeing as we are out of the free period.

Anyone had any experience with this issue ?

 

[daveza]

Just boot into the flash drive and do the upgrade from there...

I tried that.

The advised solution is to prep a usb drive with Win 10 install media and boot off that.

I tried this , got as far as being asked to choose Language etc when it just restarts and goes back into the previous loop.

 

[NorthPole]

If it has already been activated (previous win 10) then it will still be activated... (should check online when it is running again)

 

[daveza]

If it has already been activated (previous win 10) then it will still be activated

But if I use the HP repair partition to restore back to Win 7 or Win 8 and then restart the Win 10 install process ( not sure ) then that activation will be gone no ?

 

[daveza]

View attachment 393368

The top option.

I can't get that far before it auto restarts and goes back in a loop.

 

[NorthPole]

But if I use the HP repair partition to restore back to Win 7 or Win 8 and then restart the Win 10 install process ( not sure ) then that activation will be gone no ?

Shouldn't be, as I understand it, it checks online to see if you had a activation hence the ability to perform clean installs after the initial upgrade.

 

[Rickster]

When in doubt, format.

 

[sajunky]

The advised solution is to prep a usb drive with Win 10 install media and boot off that.

More robust option is to burn DVD from Windows 10 ISO image, it supports both UEFI boot legacy boot.

If you created USB stick without UEFI boot option, you have to disable UEFI/Secure boot in BIOS setup to perform repair.