Quick fix: At the Automatic Repair screen, choose Advanced options → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt, then run bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No to disable the loop, reboot, and Windows will attempt a normal boot.

Your PC powers on, shows the Windows logo, then displays “Preparing Automatic Repair” for a minute, then “Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC” with two options: Shut down or Advanced options. Reboot, and the same cycle starts again. The Automatic Repair process has detected that boot failed, but its own repair attempts also fail — leaving you in an infinite loop with no way to reach the desktop.

Symptom: Windows boots to Automatic Repair, fails, reboots, repeats endlessly.
Affects: Windows 11 (and Windows 10) after a bad shutdown, failed update, or filesystem corruption.
Fix time: ~20 minutes.

What causes this

Windows tracks boot success. After two consecutive boot failures (forced shutdowns, BSODs), Windows’ bootloader switches to Automatic Repair on the third attempt. Automatic Repair runs startrep.exe, which tries a series of repairs: rebuild BCD, replace corrupted system files from cache, restore registry from automatic backups. If any of those fail or themselves crash, Repair fails — and Windows boots back into Repair instead of normal mode.

The most common root causes: a corrupted system file from interrupted update, a broken BCD (Boot Configuration Data), a damaged registry hive, or a driver that crashes during boot.

Method 1: Disable the repair loop and let Windows attempt normal boot

The first try. Often succeeds because the underlying issue was minor and self-healing.

At the Automatic Repair screen, click Advanced options.
Click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt.
You may be asked to enter your account password. Do so.
Run this to find which drive letter Windows is on (it may not be C: in WinRE):
```
diskpart
list volume
exit
```
Note the letter for the volume labeled Windows.

Disable the auto-recovery trigger:

bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No

Close Command Prompt and choose Continue: Exit and continue to Windows 11.
The PC attempts a normal boot. If it succeeds, you’re back in.

This doesn’t fix the underlying issue — it just disables the auto-recovery flag. If Windows boots, immediately diagnose what triggered the original failure (Method 2 or 3).

Method 2: Rebuild BCD and repair system files from Command Prompt

When Method 1 lets you boot but instability remains, or when Method 1 doesn’t boot at all.

Return to Recovery Environment → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command Prompt.
Determine the Windows drive letter (Method 1 step 4).
Run these (replace D: with your Windows drive letter):
```
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd
```
If bootrec /fixboot returns “Access is denied”, run bcdboot D:\Windows /s D: /f UEFI instead.
Run System File Checker against the offline Windows installation:
```
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=D:\Windows
```
Check the filesystem:
```
chkdsk D: /f /r
```
This may take 30-90 minutes for full /r scan. Don’t interrupt.
Exit and continue to Windows 11. Boot should succeed.

This sequence fixes the most common boot corruption issues — bad BCD, missing system files, filesystem errors.

Method 3: Use System Restore or roll back the latest update

Use when Methods 1 and 2 don’t restore boot — typically because a Windows Update introduced incompatibility.

Return to Recovery Environment.
Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced options → System Restore.
Pick a restore point from before the issue started (usually a date a day or two before symptoms began).
Confirm and let System Restore run. The PC reboots once during the process.
If System Restore isn’t available (no restore points exist), return to Advanced options and choose Uninstall Updates.
Pick Uninstall latest quality update first. If the loop began after a feature update, choose Uninstall latest feature update.
Reboot. Windows should now boot normally on the previous version.

This is the right move when the repair loop started immediately after a Windows Update — the update is almost certainly the cause.

How to verify the fix worked

Windows boots to the lock screen without entering Automatic Repair.
Reboot three times consecutively. Each should reach the desktop without the repair loop appearing.
Open Event Viewer → Windows Logs → System. Recent entries shouldn’t show critical errors or repeated service failures.
Run sfc /scannow from an elevated Command Prompt. Result should be “no integrity violations found.”

If none of these work

If the repair loop persists, the issue is hardware-level or at the firmware layer. Check hardware: bad RAM and failing storage are the top hardware causes. Run Windows Memory Diagnostic from Recovery Environment (or boot a Memtest86 USB) for at least one full pass. Check storage SMART values from another PC (slave the drive via USB enclosure). Reset UEFI: a corrupted UEFI variable store can prevent boot. Reset BIOS to defaults from the UEFI setup screen (F2 or Del during early boot). Check boot order: if a second drive was recently added or the boot order was changed, the wrong drive may be at the top of UEFI’s boot list — set it back to your Windows drive. For the rare case where all of this fails, the path forward is a clean install from Windows 11 installation USB. Personal files survive under Windows.old after the install.

Bottom line: The Automatic Repair loop is exitable — disable the auto-recovery trigger to attempt normal boot, then repair the underlying issue with BCD rebuild, sfc, and chkdsk.