Well boys, it got me... The dreaded "Preparing Automatic Repair" endless loop in Windows 8. They say the only solution is reinstall.. but I've got to try to fix this!!
Here's what happened. I plugged in my MP3 player via USB and while browsing the contents, explorer froze up (when it fades to grey but you can view and interact with other windows that are open). Since it refused to close (Win8 doesn't like ending task on explorer), I did a reboot. It asked me to wait, or force a restart, so I forced it.
Upon booting, I got the "Preparing Automatic Repair"... which fails to repair and asks me to restart. Restarting brings it up again. I'll click advanced and try to get safe mode to go on. When it restarts, it doesn't bring up the safe mode options, but... the Automatic Repair yet again.
Attempted the following on the DVD insall disc: "Refresh (didn't let me)" "System Restore (no restore points for some reason)" "automatic repair (again)" "safe mode (auto repair blocks the path)" ok just... every option. Tried chkdsk (r and f and all others). Tried reparing the boot, mbr, and all those options (said success but doesn't help my situation.)
The most vital one I tried was sfc /scannow (also with offbootdir and offwindir options). It says Windows Resource Protection could not perform the task (i'm 100% certain my drive letters are correct, I had someone do this with me.)
What other option have I got? If I can't fix this, I'll switch back to Win7, iz3D support on there anyway and my Mobo's utilities will work on Win7 too... might as well eh?






