4 Free Solutions: Startup Repair Windows 7 Not Working

“My Windows 7 Startup Repair not working”

“Hi, my laptop cannot enter into Windows 7 after a Windows critical update, it always ends up in a black screen Launch Startup Repair (recommended) & Start Windows Normally. Choosing Normally will go back to that black screen. Choosing Startup Repair did not work either and an error message saying “Startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically” appeared. The startup repair has always been able to fix the problem. This time I'm not so lucky. Why is the Startup Repair not working? It is possible to solve it? How?”

Why does Startup Repair not work in Windows 10/8/7?

When the hard drive file system, boot partition or BCD setting is damaged due to disk write errors, power outages or virus attacks, this problem will be triggered in Windows 10/8/7. Besides receiving the hint “Startup repair cannot repair this computer automatically”, there are chances that you will be stuck into Startup Repair loop in Windows 7/8/10.

What can I do if Windows Startup Repair doesn't work?

If the Windows 7/8/10 system Startup Repair does not work and cannot repair boot problems automatically, we can try the following solutions one by one. But you must have a Windows 7 installation disc at first.

▌Solution 1. Run CHKDSK.exe on the boot partition

To run CHKDSK.exe tool when Windows fails to boot, you need to do:

1. Insert your Windows 7 installation disc into the CD tray, and boot Windows from it.

2. Press any key when “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” appears.

3. Click “Repair your computer” and wait for Startup Repair to scan your computer, then select your OS from the given list.

4. In the System Recovery Options window, select “Command Prompt”.

5. Once the command prompt window is launched, enter the command “chkdsk /f /r c：” and press “Enter” to check your boot partition for errors. (c is the letter of your Windows installation drive)

Then, CHKDSK will start to scan your drive for problems and fix them if found.

▌Solution 2. Disable Automatic Restart

Disabling Automatic Restart can allow you to get complete error message accompanying the Blue Screen of Death, which are quite useful for solving the boot error. To do this, refer to the instruction below:

1. Restart your Windows 7 computer. Wait for the BIOS to complete the POST.

2. Quickly begin tapping ESC, F2,F8 or F12 constantly until you see the boot options.

3. Choose “Disable automatic restart on system failure”.

4. Press Enter and wait for your PC to boot.

▌Solution 3. Run the sfc /scannow command

Besides running “chkdsk /f /r c：” command, you can also run the sfc command (System File Checker) to scan system files and repair corrupted files in Command Prompt window. When you open Command Prompt window like you do in the first solution, run the following command.

“sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows”

Finally, when the process is completed, you can restart your computer.

▌Solution 4. Run bootrec to manually rebuild BCD

Launch Command Prompt from System Recovery Options, input the following commands and press “Enter” after each to repair damaged BCD files and boot sectors.

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /rebuildbcd

Best workaround to Windows 7 Startup Repair not working

As you can see, most solutions to “Startup Repair Windows 7 not working” require the use of original Windows installation CD, and a certain computer background is required to type those instructions, this is more difficult for ordinary users. Fortunately, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard instead. This freeware is a great alternative or workaround when Windows Startup Repair did not work.

With this versatile software, you can create a bootable media and enter the WinPE mode to check boot partition or rebuild MBR for repairing computer boot issues. Now free download it and see how it works.

First of all, you need to connect an empty USB drive (over 8GB) to a working computer, install and launch this software to Make bootable Media (it will contain the pre-installed AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard).

│Method 1. Rebuild MBR

1. Plug the USB to your Windows 7 computer with boot problems, power up it and enter BIOS to make the bootable USB as the first boot device, then restart computer to enter Windows PE mode.

2. Once logged in, the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard will load and start automatically. Right-click the system disk and choose Rebuild MBR.

3. Choose a proper MBR type for your Windows operating system and click “OK”.

4. Back to the main interface, click “Apply” and then “Proceed” to commit the pending operation.

│Method 2. Scan boot partition for errors

1. On the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant, right click the partition and select “Check Partition”.

2. Select the first way to check partition and fix errors in this partition and click “OK”.

3. Wait for the process to be done.

In addition to repairing Windows 10/8/7 boot issues, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard can also do the following tasks:
1. Disk surface test to check whether your hard drive has bad sectors;
2. Clone disk: clone system hard drive from MBR disk to MBR disk, or clone data disk between MBR and GPT disks;
3. Clone partition to another hard drive;
4. Wipe hard drive or a partition safely and completely;
5. Move partition to another location on the disk;
6. Merge unallocated space to an existing partition or merge two adjacent partitions;
7. Format partition to Ext4/3/2 under Windows environment.

Final words

From what has been discussed above, this article introduces you to four methods to solve "Startup Repair Windows 7 not working". At the same time, an excellent alternative is also introduced. As mentioned before, if you have a Windows installation disc and have a computer foundation, then the first four methods are sufficient. If you are an ordinary person, then AOMEI Partition Assistant may be the most suitable for you.  To deal with Server boot problems, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is available to help you.