How to Fix Windows 11 "Preparing Automatic Repair" Loop: BCD Rebuild & SrtTrail.txt Guide (2026)

The Anatomy of the Windows 11 Automatic Repair Boot Trap

Encountering the message "Preparing Automatic Repair" followed by a blue diagnostic screen declaring "Your PC did not start correctly" or "Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC" is one of the most critical boot failures in Windows 11. Instead of progressing to the desktop, clicking Restart simply restarts the machine and plunges the operating system right back into the identical repair screen, creating an infinite reboot loop.

This behavior is designed as a safety mechanism: when the Windows Boot Manager detects that the kernel failed to complete two or three successive initialization sequences, it redirects execution to the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). However, when the underlying root cause is a damaged EFI bootloader, a corrupted Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, or a missing driver referenced in the startup registry hive, the automated Startup Repair tool lacks the diagnostic intelligence to fix the problem autonomously.

Rather than formatting your drive or restoring factory settings, you can diagnose the exact failure point and manually rebuild your boot architecture using the WinRE Command Prompt.

Step 1: Accessing the Advanced Command Prompt

To begin repairing the boot pipeline, you must enter the elevated Windows Recovery Environment command console:

1. On the blue Automatic Repair screen, click Advanced options.
2. Select Troubleshoot from the menu.
3. Click Advanced options again, and select Command Prompt.

If your computer boots immediately into a black screen without reaching the WinRE menu, trigger it manually: power on the machine, hold the physical power button down for 5 seconds as soon as the manufacturer logo appears to cut power, and repeat this cycle three times. Windows will launch WinRE automatically on the fourth startup.

Step 2: Read the SrtTrail.txt Error Log to Find the Offending File

The automated repair utility always logs the precise reason it failed. Instead of guessing, read the diagnostic log directly from disk:

Scroll through the output. Look for lines ending with Result: Failed. Error code = 0x0 or references to specific driver binaries such as nvlddmkm.sys, amdsac.sys, or a corrupted registry hive like System32\config\system. If a third-party driver is explicitly named, you can rename or delete that specific driver file directly from the recovery console to allow Windows to complete its boot sequence.

Step 3: Run CHKDSK and Offline System File Checker

Sudden shutdowns or power losses often mark the NTFS volume as "dirty", which triggers an automatic repair loop on subsequent startups. Clear this flag and repair corrupted filesystem metadata:

Allow the disk check to complete all stages. Next, execute the System File Checker targeting your offline Windows directory. Note that inside WinRE, drive letters may shift; confirm your Windows installation drive letter using dir C: or dir D: first:

This command verifies critical protected boot files, replacing any corrupted kernel components (such as winload.efi or ntoskrnl.exe) with validated copies from the local image repository.

Step 4: Manually Rebuild the EFI Boot Configuration Data (BCD)

Modern Windows 11 systems boot exclusively via UEFI using GPT disk partitioning. If the BCD store located inside the hidden FAT32 EFI System Partition (ESP) becomes corrupted, Windows enters an unrecoverable boot loop. Rebuild the BCD cleanly:

If bootrec /fixboot displays an "Access is denied" message, assign a drive letter to the hidden EFI partition and rewrite the boot sector cleanly using diskpart:

The bcdboot command copies fresh UEFI boot files from your Windows directory directly into the EFI partition and re-initializes the BCD store with correct volume GUIDs, resolving over 90% of bootloader initialization failures.

Step 5: Disable the Automatic Repair Loop via BCDEDIT

In many cases, the operating system is capable of booting normally, but Windows remains trapped in an automated recovery cycle triggered by a benign driver warning. You can force Windows to bypass the automated recovery screen entirely:

Once you execute these commands and reboot, Windows will bypass the automated repair loop. If a genuine critical error persists, the machine will display an explicit Blue Screen of Death stop code (such as INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE or CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED), providing the exact error string required to apply a targeted hardware or driver fix.

Step 6: Restore Registry Hives from Automatic Backups

If your startup failure stems from a corrupted registry hive (such as a system crash occurring during a registry write), restoring backup hives will restore bootability:

After executing these repairs, type exit in Command Prompt and click Continue (Exit and continue to Windows 11). Your operating system will boot cleanly into the desktop environment.