Help! Safe Mode Loop - Cannot Login

[Guest]

Hi, folks!

I need your help before 9:00 a.m. CT Friday (22 Dec 06), if you can provide
it. Here's my situation...

My work laptop is stuck in a cycle where it boots into "regular" Safe Mode
ONLY.

Here's how it started...

Everything was running fine. I wanted to do an effecient defrag, which
helps if you boot into Safe Mode. So, I launched msconfig.exe and checked
the /safeboot option in the boot.ini tab.

When it re-booted, I was faced with a logon screen with only the username
and password being available, no domain name under options. I tried my
domain credentials (with and without specifying domainname\username in the
username box), but they weren't recognized (thought they may have been
cached). I tried what I thought were the local administrator creds, but they
weren't recognized either.

Then, I booted with F8 to try some other Safe Mode options, but they all
booted to regular Safe Mode and went to the same login screen. GRRR! I
figured that since I was never able to successfully login that I could select
the Last Known Good Configuration option. No go. Same behavior.

The same behavior also occurs with both the docked and undocked profiles.

I ran through all of this with Level I and II help desk folks. All were
baffled...with the final decision being that I needed to re-image the drive.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I feel confident that if I can change the boot mode to log back into the
domain, that I can reset the /safeboot option in msconfig.

So, now I'm left with only hacking options, in order of increasing complexity:

Option #1 - Find an ISO or create my own file set to build a boot CD and see
if I can edit the boot.ini file to boot into Normal (or other) Mode.

Option #2 - Find an ISO or create my own file set to build a boot CD and see
if I can hack or edit the local administrator's password.

Option #3 - Find an ISO or create my own file set to build a boot CD and see
if I can edit the registry, hoping to find where msconfig might be holding
onto the Safe Mode switch.

With all that said, do you have a CD file set, or an ISO for one that does
any or all of this (for SP2, of course)? If not, does my IT brethren have
any advice on the matter? FYI ... I've downloaded the Ultimate Boot Disk
file set, but I'm stuck with not yet knowing how to make a bootable CD to
include those utilities. The only instructions are for unix variants.
*sigh* I CAN BUILD A BOOT USB DRIVE IF THAT'S EASIER.


Thanks,

Bob

P.S. Feel free to I.M. me at any of the following if you feel it would be
quicker to run through things:

Yahoo IM - gr8itguy
MSN Messenger - webguybob at hotmail.com
AIM - dfwwebdude

 

[John]

My work laptop is stuck in a cycle where it boots into "regular" Safe Mode
ONLY.

Windows XP defaults to Safe Mode at every startup
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/safeboot.htm

 

[Guest]

John,

Please re-read the post. I am aware of the solution that you indicated, but
I am unable to even login to GET to the desktop in order to make that
particular change.

Kind regards,

Bob

 

[John]

Please re-read the post. I am aware of the solution that you indicated, but
I am unable to even login to GET to the desktop in order to make that
particular change.

Sorry Bob, here is I am confronted with, trying to read your post. Have
you tried the repair options, I have the info if needed.

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...browse_thread/thread/15baf14be79be840/?hl=en#

 

[John]

Hope this helps other people.

Thanks Bob.

 

[johnbaylor1000]

Problem: Windows XP stuck in safe mode and cannot login or dont know
the Administrator password

I've seen a few posts on this subject and no really good solutions.
This happened to me and I was able to resolve it after about 6 hours of
searching and trying various options. I messed up when I was trying to
run chkdsk in safe mode and using msconfig I selected the /safeboot
option under boot.ini. As a result, on the reboot, Windows would only
boot in safe mode and my user account and password were not accepted.
Because this is a corporate laptop, I did not have access to the
Administrator password. Also, my filesystem is NTFS which complicates
matters.

In googling for answers, the most recommended solution was resetting
the Administrator password. I was reluctant to do this and wasnt
willing to risk damaging the system. Here is the solution I came up
with. I think there is another solution that will also work. I have
listed both here. You will need access to a 2nd computer with either a
floppy drive or a CDROM writer. Solution #1 worked for me, but no
guarantees.

Solution #1 (This is what worked for me, assumes you know a little
about DOS commands)
- Boot your computer (with either Floppy or CDROM) using a program
called NTFS4DOS
- NTFS4DOS will mount the c:\ drive that contains boot.ini
- You will have to edit this file to remove the "/safeboot:minimal"
from the boot.ini file
- The trick is that the EDIT command for DOS does not come with
NTFS4DOS
- So you have to find it. In my case, the edit command was in
c:\windows\system32
- The exact command I used to edit was --> c:\windows\system32\edit
c:\boot.ini
- The DOS edit command is a simple editor. Use the ALT key to get to
the menus
- In edit, remove "/safeboot:minimal" from the last line, keep
everything else the same
- Save the file and then exit (I think turning off computer is also OK)
- Then reboot

Some details on the NTFS4DOS program:
- This is completely free and you can find it by google
- I found my copy from
http://www.freewarefiles.com/program_9_90_11100.html
- NTFS4DOS must be converted to a bootable floppy or CDROM
- The NTFS4DOS program will create a floppy for you, I needed a CDROM
- Fortunately my 2nd laptop had a floppy drive and a writable CDROM
- So I created a bootable floppy, then ran NTFS4DOS to create a
bootable floppy
- Then using my CDROM software to create a bootable CDROM from the
bootable floppy
- If you dont have a floppy drive, try getting to NTFS4DOS via
ultimatebootcd.com
- You can also burn the NTFS4DOS image from the image/ dir from the
ultimate boot cd

Solution #2 (I tried this initially, my situation was special, read on)
- Another way to do this if you know UNIX is to boot Linux from the
CDROM
- Then you mount your hard drive as RW and modify the boot.ini file
- My special situation was that my hard drive was marked as dirty
- As a result, Linux would not mount my hard drive (would only mount as
read only)
- If your drive is not marked dirty, then I "think" this solution will
also work
- Get a password reset boot disk. You wont actually need to reset the
password.
- These password reset boot disks come with Linux so that you can mount
and edit files
- Example password reset boot disk is:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
- You can also find this at ultimatebootcd.com
- Boot the computer with the CDROM, follow thru the mounting of the
hard drive
- I think this is thru step 1 and 2
- All you have done up to now is to mount your hard drive, no password
reset is needed
- Now swith to another Linux terminal (with ALT F2 or ALT F3)
- This will bring up the UNIX prompt
- cd /disk (where /disk is the mounted hard drive) and then edit with
vi the boot.ini file
- Remove "/saveboot:minimal" from the last line, keep everything else
the same
- Save the file and then umount /disk
- Go back to the first terminal (ALT F1) and quit the password reset
program
- Shutdown the computer (I think turning off is also OK), then reboot

Note: in order to get your computer to boot off of a CDROM, you may
have to hit F2, F12, or F8 right after power on. This will typically
get you to a screen where you can select booting from CDROM. You can
also google to see how to create a bootable USB flash drive and then
using that to boot with NTFS4DOS.

Good Luck!

John Baylor
Dallas TX