Laptop Stuck In Safe Mode

[bartender100]

I have a laptop that comes up to the safe mode screen when turned on. Regardless of which option I select, it starts bringing up the black windows XP screen then shuts down and goes back to the safe mode screen. No options work. If I try to start when pressing F8, I get the same result.

Unable to boot from original program CD

If anyone has had this problem or can help it would be very useful

[waldwolf]

bartender100 - There are a number of things which could cause the problem you see, such as improperly installed updates, virus's/spyware, hard drive sector defects, etc., etc.

As you apparently can load into Safe Mode, suggest you try the Restore to an earlier date when everything worked OK.

A bit technical, but more info on XP Restore here.

waldwolf

[bartender100]

Thanks for the reply waldwolf,I only get as far as the safe mode screen,and its options,none of which take me any further,not actually into safe mode,so I can't restore

[Guest Reimar]

An other option you may have is to re-install Windows using the Repair funciton.

To do so, you'll need the CD where you istalled Windows from. Boot from the CD, ignore the first screen with option to repair, accept the EULA and hit the Repair buttom which should come up after the EULA screen.

If that didn't work, you have really serious problems.

As Waldwolf wrote, there are more possible problems while one can be the hard disk. If the MBR (Master Boot Record) is edited and something wrong with it or one of the FAT copies have a problem, Windows may start up in Safe Mode but not normal.

There is a software named HDD Regenerator which will format the HDD without effect to any Data. This software is able to fix most HDD problems while the most problems not Hard- but Software (Magnetism).

Unfortunatly this software isn't freeware and I can't place it on my server for download.

But to first try to repair.

[bartender100]

An other option you may have is to re-install Windows using the Repair funciton.

To do so, you'll need the CD where you istalled Windows from. Boot from the CD, ignore the first screen with option to repair, accept the EULA and hit the Repair buttom which should come up after the EULA screen.

If that didn't work, you have really serious problems.

As Waldwolf wrote, there are more possible problems while one can be the hard disk. If the MBR (Master Boot Record) is edited and something wrong with it or one of the FAT copies have a problem, Windows may start up in Safe Mode but not normal.

There is a software named HDD Regenerator which will format the HDD without effect to any Data. This software is able to fix most HDD problems while the most problems not Hard- but Software (Magnetism).

Unfortunatly this software isn't freeware and I can't place it on my server for download.

But to first try to repair.

Ok,thank you for the advise Reimar,think im going to have to take it somewhere

[waldwolf]

bartender100 - If you have the original system reinstall CD, you should be able to do a reinstall/repair of WindowsXP (provided the hard drive (HDD) itself is not defective).

You will need to go into the BIOS SETUP and set it to boot first to the CD/DVD drive (and not the HDD). Computer makes vary on how get into the BIOS SETUP. At startup, this information is usually "flashed" on the screen immediately after the opening makers logo. If you can't see this info, check your Owners Manual or the manufacturers website for details. An example would be: "When the opening screen appears, hold down the Delete key" (or ESC key, or F8 key, or ?? key, etc.) until BIOS screen appears.

When you see the BIOS bootup settings, write down the settings on a piece of paper. Now reset BIOS to boot 1st. to your CD/DVD drive, then insert your REINSTALL CD into the drive and reboot the computer.

You should see options to Reformat & Install Windows or Install Windows WITHOUT Reformatting. Choose the latter. This should reinstall Windows, while saving your original programs, data and settings. Following the reinstall, go back into the BIOS SETUP and reset bootup to the original settings(s) you wrote down.

If startup problem remains, and your drive contains critical data, suggest you talk either to the manufacturer's support people, a trusted service shop or locate/buy a copy of Steve Gibson's "SpinRite" software which will check and most likely get the HDD working again. (Details on this software can be found at http://www.grc.com ).

If data recovery is not a concern, then go back and reset BIOS SETUP to boot to CD/DVD, run the Windows setup CD again, but this time select REFORMAT & INSTALL WINDOWS. (Note: All programs and previous data/settings will be lost, but at this point we are just attempting to return the computer to its original out-of-box status.) Once more, after format/reinstall is completed, reboot and reset BIOS to original settings, and reboot again.

If problem remains, most likely you have a serious HDD problem or some other motherboard/hardware problem, which will require specialized technical equipment/support personnel to repair.

waldwolf

Edited May 5, 2007 by waldwolf

[think_too_mut]

I have a laptop that comes up to the safe mode screen when turned on. Regardless of which option I select, it starts bringing up the black windows XP screen then shuts down and goes back to the safe mode screen. No options work. If I try to start when pressing F8, I get the same result.

Unable to boot from original program CD

If anyone has had this problem or can help it would be very useful

I still have to see a PC going into the safe mode on it's own.

You might have gotten something nasty from the net, hardly anyone here (or elsewhere) can help you about that.

[Guest Reimar]

bartender100 - If you have the original system reinstall CD, you should be able to do a reinstall/repair of WindowsXP (provided the hard drive (HDD) itself is not defective).

You will need to go into the BIOS SETUP and set it to boot first to the CD/DVD drive (and not the HDD). Computer makes vary on how get into the BIOS SETUP. At startup, this information is usually "flashed" on the screen immediately after the opening makers logo. If you can't see this info, check your Owners Manual or the manufacturers website for details. An example would be: "When the opening screen appears, hold down the Delete key" (or ESC key, or F8 key, or ?? key, etc.) until BIOS screen appears.

When you see the BIOS bootup settings, write down the settings on a piece of paper. Now reset BIOS to boot 1st. to your CD/DVD drive, then insert your REINSTALL CD into the drive and reboot the computer.

You should see options to Reformat & Install Windows or Install Windows WITHOUT Reformatting. Choose the latter. This should reinstall Windows, while saving your original programs, data and settings. Following the reinstall, go back into the BIOS SETUP and reset bootup to the original settings(s) you wrote down.

Wrong! If you re-install windows at this point. it will install a new windows in a different Directory like c:\wind001 or so without to keep you programs and driver running! To keep your programs and data running under a new Windows installation, you need to use the Repair function which should appear after the EULA (End User License Agreement) Screen where you have to press F8 for to accept.

If startup problem remains, and your drive contains critical data, suggest you talk either to the manufacturer's support people, a trusted service shop or locate/buy a copy of Steve Gibson's "SpinRite" software which will check and most likely get the HDD working again. (Details on this software can be found at http://www.grc.com ).

Spinrite is a very good program, but from my experiences over a lot years, the best programs for Re-Format without the loosing of Data is HDD Regenerator. It doesn't matter which format the drive has, it will works with all kind of Drive formats. Spinrite doesn't!

If data recovery is not a concern, then go back and reset BIOS SETUP to boot to CD/DVD, run the Windows setup CD again, but this time select REFORMAT & INSTALL WINDOWS. (Note: All programs and previous data/settings will be lost, but at this point we are just attempting to return the computer to its original out-of-box status.) Once more, after format/reinstall is completed, reboot and reset BIOS to original settings, and reboot again.

If problem remains, most likely you have a serious HDD problem or some other motherboard/hardware problem, which will require specialized technical equipment/support personnel to repair.

waldwolf

I would suggest to use HDD Regenerator anyway to "re-Format" your HDD. In ~70% of all HDD problems I have with Computer of our costumers the use of HDD Regenerator was succesfully while Spinrite has done just below 40%. But thats experiences I have in my company, which is also dealing with computers, over a period from more than 20 years.

Cheers

Edited May 5, 2007 by Reimar

[think_too_mut]

What are we talking about? The guy might have been to a porn site that has wrecked his PC.

Who knows?

Restore...restore ...from what?

[bartender100]

I have a laptop that comes up to the safe mode screen when turned on. Regardless of which option I select, it starts bringing up the black windows XP screen then shuts down and goes back to the safe mode screen. No options work. If I try to start when pressing F8, I get the same result.

Unable to boot from original program CD

If anyone has had this problem or can help it would be very useful

I still have to see a PC going into the safe mode on it's own.

You might have gotten something nasty from the net, hardly anyone here (or elsewhere) can help you about that.

It was not going into safe mode on its own.

Anyway thanks to everyone who offered help and took time to post ,I downloaded HDD Regenerator on another PC and when i ran it on mine it did the trick,it found bad sectors and repaired them,the laptop rebooted perfectly afterwards .

[waldwolf]

Install/Reinstall procedures vary greatly, depending on whether your using a Microsoft OS disk or one "hacked" by one of the hundred's of computer manufacturers. When all else fails, just follow the manufacturers instructions.

As regards Spinrite vs. HDD Regenerator, my experience (as well as that of most all professionals) is no other software matches Spinrite. It is perfect...........No. But nothing in this world truly is.

I'm not interested in starting a pis-ing contest, but here are a few comments other professionals have stated, on the record. (Named withheld to protect the guilty.)

HDD Regenerator does NOT recover or even attempt to recover any data from failed sectors but simply forces a drive controller re-map an already failed sector address to one of the spare sectors so the next access to that LBA sector transparently maps to the new physical sector.

In fact in most cases one can use scandisk to identify which files are affected by bad sectors and where possible obtain clean originals to restore from afterwards and simply delete all the damaged files so that the bad sectors reside in free space on the drive, then use any of those windows based free space wiping tools to forcably write to all the sectors as fast as possible. That alone will perform everything HDD Regenerator will do and do it within windows using UDMA speeds too!

None of this is comparable to what SpinRite is designed to do.

I have yet to find any software other than SpinRite that will attempt to and in many cases recover every byte of a cluster that contains a failed sector. The best the others do is recover the surrounding sectors in the cluster by replacing the bad sector with a blank fresh remapped one.

TK

Having experienced this technology and its development as a R&D Scientist over the last 35 years, (the stories I could tell) I would advise you for whatever it is worth to consult with Steve Gibson. He is technically very correct. We have used his product since 1991-1992 and have saved a great deal in time and money.

Our main interest in doing so was to use it to restore the low level format on our MFM, RLL, ERLL,and ARLL drives with all our data in place. This was quite an achievement in those days. The alternative was to backup the data and then run the BIOS managed Low Level format or use a utility like OnTrack or such other, and then run the FDISK dos utility to partition and then run the High Level DOS FORMAT utility on each partition, then restore our DATA and Applications software.

As you might guess it was a very time consuming and tedious process. With the advent of SPINRITE we saved tremendously. Steve almost became a Patron Saint of the industry. Several of the Commercial GURU’S tried to copy him but soon gave up. One of the most notorious was the NORTON package by Symantec who has ruined almost every good application they ever touched. Some of the finest pieces of software written have disappeared down their black hole.

On the other hand Steve puts the light on the spot where it does the most good.

RS

As the old saying goes, "You pays your money and you take your choice".

waldwolf

[waldwolf]

bartender100 - Happy you were able to get everything up and running.

I would strongly suggest, if possible you have the HDD checked (preferably using Spinrite) as the earlier problem may be a sign the HDD is nearing the end of its useful life.

Remember to backup your critical data after each usage.

waldwolf

[endure]

I used to use Spinrite on MFM and RLL drives and it worked miracles. An amazing product.

[bartender100]

waldwolf

Thanks, doing it now.