Automatic repair, win 10 pro, system reset?

[visionman]

Hi guys, My win 10 pro is in a loop with automatic repair, got to the stage where its asking if i want to keep my own files and make a system reset? I have some pdf files on the computer that I downloaded, and would like to keep/recover them? Will I be able to keep these files if I make a system reset? Im running a HP 8300.
Cheers visionman

[thecoalman]

As long as you are not using bitlocker you can create a live CD/USB drive using Knoppix or other linux distributions. Change your bios setting to boot from the CD or USB drive. This will give you access to the drive through Knoppix OS. Copy your files from the windows drive to an external drive, USB drive etc. There may be some hiccups but that is what Google is for.

[Cornucopia]

If you are stuck in a repair loop, perhaps the ONLY way to retrieve the data is what @thecoalman recommended.

Using Win10 recovery options will likely not work, and if they happen to succeed they will very likely wipe the drive.

But normally, when you encounter this kind of thing on a drive, you don't want to keep using it anymore. It will just be headaches from here on out.


Scott

[The_Doman]

Instead of a Linux boot disk there are also many Windows WinPe Rescue USB's to recover and copy your data to a safe place.
A good well known and now legal one is of course the Hirens BootCD WinPE version.

Hiren’s BootCD PE

[El Heggunte]

Hiren’s BootCD PE

They really should update their name to Hiren's BootDVD PE.
Because AFAIK, there is no such thing as a 3.06 GB Compact Disc.

[visionman]

thecoalman , thanks, booted from Xubuntu but could not get into the HDD containing Win 10 pro. Downloaded Knoppix V9 will try tomorrow. Thanks The_Doman for the links to (many Windows WinPe Rescue USB's) will review these tomorrow too. The Hirens boot WinPE is a little bit odd? its got a Dublin business address and ads posted in the middle of the download page? I tried earlier, before I read your posts to download it, didnt download from the download button, just too much distractions on the download page, I will come back to this option later, Thanks for the advice, I agree,with your analysis about this drive, if i can get the PDFs I will be well pleased. I was also thinking worst case I might use testdisc to recover the PDFs if i get the O/S back without them. Anyway, its a learning curve, and it seems to be all linux ,or open source resources, cheers.

[thecoalman]

If you can't get it to work take the drive out of the computer and temporarily connect it to another computer. Boot the temp computer normally and you should see the drive. There might be issues with permissions.

[The_Doman]

Thanks The_Doman for the links to (many Windows WinPe Rescue USB's) will review these tomorrow too. The Hirens boot WinPE is a little bit odd? its got a Dublin business address and ads posted in the middle of the download page? I tried earlier, before I read your posts to download it, didnt download from the download button, just too much distractions on the download page, I will come back to this option later,

I assume you are not using a decent Adblocker when surfing the net?
Indeed then many sites will show very obtrusive ads to let you accidentally click on instead of the files you really want.
Often the biggest flashing download buttons are the things to avoid.

Use the adblocker Ublock Origin and preferable not Chrome but something like Firefox
Not only to block ads/popups but also as some protection against malware/malicious sites.

Here is the link showing you need to pick for download:

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/HBCD_PE_x64.iso

[Attachment 81817 - Click to enlarge]

There are sure lot's of Windows WinPE based rescue/recovery USB's available.
But the best WinPE for me is still Sergei Strelec's WinPE
But the legality of all the included programs of many of those WInPE's is of course dubious.

[visionman]

Hi guys, thanks for the recent posts I have the good news and bad news concerning this post. A big thanks to everyone who posted, including El Heggunte, I knew it was a DVD . You gave me some great ideas and insights how to resolve this problem, instead of wondering what I was going to do. There is a You Tube video about this automatic repair issue, it has 13M views! I recently found it. Probably double that number for the people still looking to get their data back . You provided some great techniques and tools suggested with links. I will download every one of them; however, I was left wondering how long it might take to master the programs on the discs? Three good things happened today, I found the SD card that had a backup of most of the PDFs, I knew the Location, date, and database where I downloaded these PDFs from. I always use a clean 32GB SD card and just hoped I didn’t cut and paste them into win 10, so I searched all the 32gb cards and got lucky. I found this tutorial about the self-same issue on this post, and how to fix it, / rescue data, looks good, got lucky again. Hope it helps some of the 13M, who may wander into this forum.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-10-will-not-boot-it-open...5-77deceda9874

I am going to mention this as it is computer related, and I am happy as Larry with it, I drilled two holes in my wall today to put my RJ45 cables through to attach from my router to my computer ,to make my life a bit easier, Cheers.,

[The_Doman]

A big thanks to everyone who posted, including El Heggunte, I knew it was a DVD . You gave me some great ideas and insights how to resolve this problem, instead of wondering what I was going to do. There is a You Tube video about this automatic repair issue, it has 13M views! I recently found it. Probably double that number for the people still looking to get their data back . You provided some great techniques and tools suggested with links. I will download every one of them; however, I was left wondering how long it might take to master the programs on the discs?

I don't know if i understand this correctly, you are planning to burn the tools/WinPE's to physical DVD's??
Use a USB stick for that, also many WinPE compilations not even fit or work from a real DVD.
Mostly there are instruction included how to do that.