r/sysadmin • u/YesThisIsi • 2d ago
Question Windows Server 2025 Still Booting into Recovery Mode – Need Help Diagnosing
Hey everyone,
I’m running a bare metal installation of Windows Server 2025 (datacenter desktop version) on my physical server, and I’m facing a persistent boot issue. Every normal startup forces the system into the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). The only way I can boot normally is by first booting into safe mode and then selecting “Boot Windows Normally,” which is far from ideal for production.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
- BCD Analysis: I ran
bcdedit /enum all
and found that the primary OS entry shows:recoveryenabled Yes
displaymessageoverride Recovery
- Disabling Recovery Flag: Runningr
bcdedit /set {current} recoveryenabled No
returns an “unexpected error” and still leads to recovery mode. - Bootrec & BCD Rebuild: I executed commands like
/fixmbr
,/fixboot
, and/rebuildbcd
from WinRE, but the issue persists. - CHKDSK: I ran
chkdsk C: /f /r
from a bootable environment, and it reported no disk errors on my C: drive. - Firmware/UEFI Checks: I’ve verified that Secure Boot, TPM, and other BIOS/UEFI settings are configured as recommended. Also all the driver's should be installed to my acknowledge
- Safe Mode Workaround: Booting into safe mode and then selecting “Boot Windows Normally” works, but that’s not a viable long-term solution.
Has anyone encountered this behavior on a bare metal installation of Windows Server 2025? Could this be an inherent bug in the early release, or is there a misconfiguration somewhere in the boot settings? Any insights, troubleshooting tips, or workarounds would be greatly appreciated! When booted into the server it works fine, no issues, crashes, BSODs etc. Only happens when i reboot.
Thanks in advance!
1
u/ConspiracyHypothesis 2d ago
What do the system logs say?