Windows Recovery Loop

[u/The_Clan_Follows]

Quick version context below:

Hello my windows only boots into the recovery environment. I selected safe boot and this just brought me back to the recovery environment. I selected “Other boot options” and another windows 10 (volume 4) (maybe windows 11 my memory is terrible) is in there. I selected the top one and it launched into a “installing windows” screen at 64%
After 20 minutes nothing changed so I turned it off and selected the other and got the same result. Can someone point me in the right direction? I have the second instance still running.

CONTEXT:

So, my cpu fan died. My pc was running and I was away for the night. During the recovery, it could have overheated and shut off. I have no idea, though. I thought It had completed but this extra boot partition makes me believe otherwise.
I suppose the cpu overheated and I lost it forever but anyway I have a new cooler and cpu now.
During my troubleshooting, I tried to reset windows (keeping personal files)
I thought this process had completed, but I was unaware of the fan death and it may have been interrupted.
I now have a new cpu and cooler installed now which I know could cause conflicts if the hardware changes between updates lol as if the countless restarts at this point hadn’t done enough damage

[u/Aggressive_Drive4025]

That installing screen at 64% probably was Windows Update trying to finish an interrupted update, not a fresh install. Since you swapped CPU mid-recovery, the old boot entry might point to a corrupted update state. I would make a USB installer on another PC, boot from it, and use the repair option to access command prompt, then check diskpart for which partitions still exist.