Summary: This blog explores the different methods you can use to resolve the error “Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.” You can also try an efficient data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery Professional to restore any data lost due to this issue.
Windows users generally use the “Startup Repair” functionality of Windows when their computer fails to boot properly. However, while using the functionality, users might encounter an error message “Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.” The error is displayed on Windows 7 and other old generation of Windows OS. In Windows 10 systems, the error is shown as “Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC.”
Your hard drive might get damaged due to disk write errors, virus attacks, power outages, etc. As a result, the drive may not start up at one go, and you may need to use the Startup Repair functionality. However, the system might return the error “Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC/Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically.”
Let us look at various methods to resolve this error.
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The error might occur due to bad sectors on your hard drive. Running chkdsk might repair the disk error. The steps are listed below:
1. Restart your PC and press F8 when the Windows logo appears.
2. The Advanced Boot Options window will appear. Here, select Repair your Computer.
3. Click Command prompt from the available options.
4. Next, enter the below command:
chkdsk C: /f /r
Bootrec is a tool provided by Microsoft, designed to fix boot issues on your Windows system. Follow the below steps to use bootrec.exe utility:
1. Restart your PC and press F8 when the Windows logo appears.
2. The Advanced Boot Options window will appear. Here, select Repair your Computer.
3. Click Command prompt from the available options.
4. Next, enter the below command:
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
This tool is designed to repair corrupted/damaged Windows system files. Please find the steps to use File checker tool below:
1. Restart your PC and press F8 when the Windows logo appears.
2. The Advanced Boot Options windows will appear. Here, select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
3. In the command prompt, enter:
sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows
4. Restart your PC.
If the above-listed steps don’t work, then it is recommended to restore your PC to an earlier time. This is known as System Restore where your PC reverts to a previous time period. This means that you would lose all data and applications created and downloaded after that period.
This is why we recommend to recover your data first with an efficient data recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional, which can recover data from any loss scenario.
As your PC is unable to boot, for restoring data, you would need to use a bootable data recovery media such as a USB stick. Please note that the USB storage must be at least 1GB.
Read this article for a step-by-step method to recover data from an unbootable PC or watch the video tutorial below
To fix the error message “Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically”, you can apply the fixes as described in the above post. If the fixes don’t work, then it’s better to restore the computer to an earlier time. Before that, you must restore your valuable data with a professional data recovery software like Stellar Data Recovery Professional. This way, your data remains intact. Data recovery software is an indispensable tool as it safeguards your data against system errors (like the one described above), virus attacks, hardware crashes, etc.
Subhjeet Vimal is a Senior Content Writer at Stellar® and a Hubspot Certified Content Marketer. He likes to keep himself curious and updated with the developments in the Tech world. He writes about Data Erasure, Data Recovery and other DIY Technologies.
