Laptop stuck on Preparing Automatic Repair

sometime yesterday I tried to boot my windows 10 laptop and it got stuck on the login screen, before I pressed anything to go to the password screen. I tried moving the mouse around to no result. I figured it was frozen so i held down the power button until the laptop turned off. when I turned it back on with the power button, I saw a brief message in the top left displaying that my OS hadn't shut down properly, followed by numbers i couldnt make out. afterwards, it got stuck on that spinning wheel screen for 15+ minutes.
with no result, I restarted it again and then the Preparing Automatic Repair screen came up. eventually this went away but I was looped back to the spinning wheel screen for another fifteen minutes.
can anyone help or explain? thanks in advance, my first post:)

Caledon Ken said:

Hi sheehy. Welcome to TenForums @sheehy


Are you able to login after the last fifteen minute wait?


Is your data backed up?


Do you know if it was doing an update(s)?

Hey, my computer has not gone past the loading wheel screen no matter how many times I restart.
I have not backed my hard drive up , mostly due to lack of money and thoughtfulness. The computer wasn't doing an update last time I could use it functionally, and the last time I went past the loading wheel screen (as I would when the computer was running normally), it froze up and caused the first manual reset I had to do.

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update at 9.47pm uk time
my laptop went black for a moment after being stuck on the wheel loading screen, then rebooted with those numbers in top left, "preparing automatic repair" visible. 10 or so minutes passed and another reboot, back to the wheel loading.

Caledon Ken said:

So I assume you have data. I would recommend first trying to get that off machine.

Do you have another machine to that you can build a boot disk on, maybe someone else's machine. (recognize we are all in lockdown.)


If you want to skip. I would power off machine. Power on and when you see the dots rotating hold power button down until it powers off.

wait five secs, power on, see the rotating dots, hold power button down again until it powers off.

Power on again.

Windows should start the Advance Startup Options.

Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

Go troubleshoot > Advance options > uninstall updates ( I read you didn't think it was doing updates, lets be sure)



I recommend getting data first, your call.

I tried to boot into advance startup options but it didnt work. followed the instructions. it might be of note that when I turned off the machine the first and third time, the Preparing Automatic Repair text was there. After completing your given instructions, it continued to start up and say Preparing Automatic Repair. Waiting to see what happens next as of 11.55pm uk time.

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sheehy said:

I tried to boot into advance startup options but it didnt work. followed the instructions. it might be of note that when I turned off the machine the first and third time, the Preparing Automatic Repair text was there. After completing your given instructions, it continued to start up and say Preparing Automatic Repair. Waiting to see what happens next as of 11.55pm uk time.

Also, should note I dont have a disk drive in this laptop.

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sheehy said:

I tried to boot into advance startup options but it didnt work. followed the instructions. it might be of note that when I turned off the machine the first and third time, the Preparing Automatic Repair text was there. After completing your given instructions, it continued to start up and say Preparing Automatic Repair. Waiting to see what happens next as of 11.55pm uk time.

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Also, should note I dont have a disk drive in this laptop.

11.58pm uk time
the preparing automatic repair text is gone and the laptop restarted quickly, the os text was in top left , now stuck on the loading wheel which is the state it was in when I tried using advance startup options a few minutes ago.

Please perform the following steps:

1) Find 3 or 4 flash drives that you can format (> or = 8 GB)

2) Make tools that can be used to recover important files, test the drives, and troubleshoot

3) On a working computer create:

a) a new bootable windows 10 iso 1909:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10
Download Windows 10 ISO File
Download Windows 10 ISO File
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10


b) bootable Ubuntu flash drive:
Create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu tutorials
Create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu
Linux to the rescue! How Ubuntu can help a computer in distress | PCWorld

c) Kyhi boot rescue flash drive:
Toolkit Item: Kyhi’s Rescue Disk – Win10.Guru
Toolkit Item: Kyhi’s Rescue Disk – Win10.Guru

d) Macrium rescue media:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free
Creating rescue media - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase
Creating rescue media - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase
Fixing Windows boot problems - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase
Fixing Windows boot problems - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

4) Indicate whether you want to:
a) continue troubleshooting
b) perform a reset save files equivalent (reinstall drivers and applications)
c) perform a clean install (reinstall drivers and applications, restore backed up files)

I dont have the means or money to do this. In honest I am only 16, and the files I have on my laptop are not completely necessary. If i were to lose them, I'd be able to go about replacing them. More than anything I want to actually just boot the computer. Recovery of files is not my main goal right now

See if you can find a friend, neighbor, or relative that can lend a flash drive that can be formatted.
Or see if they can make for you a bootable windows 10 iso: step 3a

With a bootable windows 10 iso these are some options:

a) Custom install:
Custom Install Windows 10

b) Clean install:
Clean Install Windows 10

Do I have to do this? Is there no work around without using a usb or an iso? I know about the advanced startup options but I just cant get to it, pretty sure the Preparing Automatic Repair is stopping it.

There are two main methods for troubleshooting when using Windows:
a) the Windows Recovery Environment on the computer
b) the Windows Recovery Environment on a bootable Windows 10 iso

Update the specs in the "My Computer" section:

System Specs - Fill in at Ten Forums
In the left corner below in your post you find 'My System Specs'.
After clicking it you can find a link a little below that says 'Update your System Spec', click on this link to get to the page where you can fill in your system specs.
System Info - See Your System Specs - Windows 7 Help Forums

Include PSU. cooler, case, peripherals and anything attached to the computer by wired or wireless (mouse, keyboard, headset, printer, xbox, USB wireless network card, etc.)