Automatic Repair fails to repair my PC

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I ran into an issue on Windows 8.1 that can be fixed (according to articles I've read online) by running automatic repair, so that's what I tried to do.

Each time I run it, automatic repair fails and says, "Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC"...and then it says it wrote this log file:

D:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt

This doesn't make much sense to me, because that log file is in a D: drive which doesn't map to a hard disk. My D: drive is a CD-drive, not a hard disk. I'm not sure how I could check this log file and find the underlying problem here to fix automatic repair...when I check the same log file in my C: drive it doesn't contain any errors...probably because it logs my last boot into Windows...so is there even some way to check this file while in the repair screens?

Alexandru

Posted 2014-04-15T13:17:17.973

Reputation: 425

D: may be your system recovery drive, since it's just a FAT32 drive and nothing's stopping the OS from writing to it. Not sure why it chose that drive to write to, but oh well. Go into Computer Management and mount your system recovery drive and see if you can find the file. – allquixotic – 2014-04-15T13:20:47.033

@allquixotic Thanks, I'll give that a shot when I get home from work! – Alexandru – 2014-04-15T13:24:04.340

On a side note, automatic repair (formally startup repair in Windows 7) is notoriously bad at fixing anything. I've never once had it work correctly. – Nathan C – 2014-04-15T13:55:28.190

@NathanC I think I must have some infection on my system that's causing DCOM errors, and I read this post which implies running an automatic repair fixes the issue: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-system/dcom-got-error-1084-attempting-to-start-the/ca233242-3c7d-4112-b241-d9b7fb367371

– Alexandru – 2014-04-15T14:28:19.277

Alternatively, I think my primary drive might be failing...that might be the root cause. I'm also going to run a manual disk check on my C: drive in safe mode: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-error-checking-windows-8

– Alexandru – 2014-04-15T14:29:22.613

In the end, it turns out my primary hard drive has failed. – Alexandru – 2014-04-16T00:53:51.330

Answers

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Obviously the D: drive seems not to be the one you expect.

When I start my Windows from a virtual hard disk, all drives are interchanged as well.

In the repair menu/screen, you can hit Shift+F10 on your keyboard to get a command prompt.

Use the following commands to determine your hard disks:

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: My-PC

DISKPART> list volume

Since I don't know the exact problem, here are some solution guesses that may help. From that command prompt you can manually repair your system with:

Repair system files:

sfc /scannow

rebuilding the BCD

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Scanning your disk for problems:

chkdsk D: /f

where D: refers to your system partition.

MrMAG

Posted 2014-04-15T13:17:17.973

Reputation: 201

This is a really, really great tip. I will try it out tonight. – Alexandru – 2014-04-15T14:55:13.293

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I think that from this, I can also check the automated repair logs using the "more" and "type" commands to read the file: http://www.windows-commandline.com/read-file-from-command-line/

– Alexandru – 2014-04-15T15:02:51.260

1You should be albe to use that shortcut, else you simply boot up with a USB-Stick that contains the Win installation instead. And yes you're right, the "more"-command is perfect for viewing files in cmd, but I'm pretty sure you can open any textfile with notepad by just open the file from the console. Like this x:\Sources> D:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt – MrMAG – 2014-04-15T16:33:20.827

It looks like my primary hard drive has failed. – Alexandru – 2014-04-16T00:53:05.093

Asked: 2014-04-15T13:17:17.973

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Active: 2015-01-31T15:34:12.340