XP install loop while in Safe Mode

[BatFrog]

I had my computer in Safe Mode (won't go into lengthly reasons for
that), and decided to run the xp install disk for repairs. So I boot
from the xp install cdrom and all goes normally and I choose the
repair option. It takes a few minutes loading a bunch of files and
then says, " must reboot now to finish". So the computer re-boots
automatically, but now it comes up with a screen ""Windows xp setup
cannot run under Safemode. Setup will restart now"

At this point the machine re-boots and it goes straight to the "cannot
run under Safemode" error message again. This repeats endlessly.

I need to get out of safemode or get the XP Setup program to stop
running. But no sucess.
I ran NTFS4DOS and can see that my boot.ini has the safemode flag
set, but I can't see how to edit the file, since every time I run edit
and try to save the file, the computer crashes.
Guess the old "edit" program is not compatable with NTSF??

This is a bad bug with XP Setup. It should detect that you are in
safemode in the first place and not allow this to happen.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Tom W.

 

[Brian A.]

I had my computer in Safe Mode (won't go into lengthly reasons for
that), and decided to run the xp install disk for repairs. So I boot
from the xp install cdrom and all goes normally and I choose the
repair option. It takes a few minutes loading a bunch of files and
then says, " must reboot now to finish". So the computer re-boots
automatically, but now it comes up with a screen ""Windows xp setup
cannot run under Safemode. Setup will restart now"

At this point the machine re-boots and it goes straight to the "cannot
run under Safemode" error message again. This repeats endlessly.

I need to get out of safemode or get the XP Setup program to stop
running. But no sucess.
I ran NTFS4DOS and can see that my boot.ini has the safemode flag
set, but I can't see how to edit the file, since every time I run edit
and try to save the file, the computer crashes.
Guess the old "edit" program is not compatable with NTSF??

This is a bad bug with XP Setup. It should detect that you are in
safemode in the first place and not allow this to happen.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Tom W.

You can't repartition or reformat a disk (drive/volume/partition), or install to a
disk (drive/volume/partition) that's in use, hence the reason you can not run the
repair install from Safe Mode.

Boot up with the XP disk in the drive.
When you see the prompt "Press Any Key To Boot From Disk", Press any key immediately.
You should now be able to run the Repair Install:
How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

I don't know if System Restoring will help to get back to square one, but worth a
shot:
How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/

If you still have problems then run the Recovery Console to edit the boot.ini:
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314058

How to enable an administrator to log on automatically in Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312149

How to install the Windows Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;216417

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654

How to remove Windows Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555032


--


Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[BatFrog]

Brian,

Thanks for the help. I was able to get out of the endless loop by
running the Repair Console and
using "bootcfg /rebuild" to write a new boot.ini that excluded the
safemode option.

Once that was done, the machine came up and immediately proceeded to
complete the
original Repair Install which had starrted all the trouble.

Again, XP Setup has no warning and fully allows you to *start* an
install or repair install while
in safemode. The trouble happens when the install attempts to re-boot
to finish the install. At that
point you get the error "XP setup cannot run under safemode, and will
re-start now".

Once you are in this loop, you can't turn off safemode, and you cannot
exit the XP install program.

You can , in fact, boot from the set-up disk again and run the
install or repair from scratch, but it will
again fall into the same loop. Also, you can boot the set-up disk and
start the install and then request
to abort the install with F3, but the machine still re-boots and trys
to finish the original install sequence.

So the only way out that I could see was to go in from the repair
console (or something like NTFS4DOS) and
edit boot.ini.

In researching this, I see a good number of folks over the past few
years have fallen into this rabbit hole, and
looks like most of them have given up and reformatted the hard drive
as the only way out!

Thanks again and best regards,
Tom W.

 

[Brian A.]

Glad to hear you have resolved the loop, fortunately for me I've never been in that
situation yet.

--


Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Windows Desktop User Experience }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Bob I]

You can edit it in NotePad, it is just a plain text file.