# stuck in "repair" loop, can't boot to repair disc or install disc...



## steely74 (Apr 3, 2008)

I have a client who was haing issues with firefox. yesterday he attempted a system restore on his Lenovo k410 (win 8 64bit) desktop (without my blessing). it then got stuck in the infamous windows repair loop. the lenovo screen starts then it says attempting repairs, screen goes black and then it briefly flashes "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collect info, and then we'll restart for you".

Well I assumed (and google told me) I need to enter advanced startup options. the problem is nothing I do will get me there!

I've tried to boot to a retail iso just to do a repair install. I've also tried to boot to win 8 repair media created on my win 8 machine (both x64). when attempting to boot with either one the win 8 blue square "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collect info, and then we'll restart for you" and then it gets stuck. it then returns to the original screen, rinse and repeat.

and no luck getting into safemode!

I've found many folks with the similar issues and the only answers revolve around getting into advanced start up options. obviously I can't do it via windows and again I'm unable to boot properly from repair disc (cd or usb) or retail iso.

once at the clients house I was able to hit f2 to get to lenovo's one key rescue. I did not start it because I had not yet backed their data up. I booted to ubuntu and got the data off. now I am unable to even get to the f2 options!

I booted to hirens and ran the short test in seatools (haven't done long test yet). short test and smart were fine. gonna run long test later. 

I plan to run memtest later though I doubt that is the cause. 

any ideas/thoughts??


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Run *Seatools *long test. Remove all but one stick of RAM and run *Memtest* on each stick of RAM separately. If you get any errors (Red) that stick is bad and needs to be replaced. Tell us how you get along.


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## steely74 (Apr 3, 2008)

looks like it's the hard drive. took it out and put it in my dock on MY pc so I could get a better look at the smart values. well the drive didn't even show and caused MY pc to bsod pointing to ntsf. gonna run seatools for dos long test now.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Looks like this drive needs to be replaced.


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## steely74 (Apr 3, 2008)

long test checked out ok as did memtest. 

I came to the conclusion that the partition or file system got damaged beyond repair. for giggles I created an image of the drive from a boot disc just to see if it would work. I loaded the image to a new drive and had the same issues (no real surprise there). I then pulled the new drive out and put it in my dock and the same issues on my pc! system would hang, freeze, drive wouldn't open and then a bsod. the lenovo has to have the boot drive as GPT and made 6 partitions. guessing one got messed up bad. no idea why I couldn't at least boot to repair or install disc to do a repair! 

I ran a few malware scans from bootable disc expecting to find a rootkit but no dice (yes there are now rootkits that infect UEFI). I ended up installing Win 7 from a retail disc as they didn't want to wait on the recovery disc from lenovo.


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