how to enter safe mode in Win XP?

J

how to enter safe mode in Win XP?
I am not able to, by pressing F8 during booting.

V.Prem Kumar

I dont understand by:"I am not able to, by pressing F8 during booting. ". DO u get any error message or something?

Open "C:\BOOT.INI" file in notepad, it should be similar like following:

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Copy the last line saying "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" and paste it at last of file (i.e., make a copy of last line):

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Now add:

Code:

/SAFEBOOT:MINIMAL /BOOTLOG /SOS

at last of the last line in following manner:

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional Safe Mode" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /SAFEBOOT:MINIMAL /BOOTLOG /SOS

Now when u'll reboot, u'll get an extra option for Safe mode also

J

aravind_n20 said:
I dont understand by:"I am not able to, by pressing F8 during booting. ". DO u get any error message or something?

I meant that by pressing F8, I get only two options ie., to boot from HDD and from Optcal Drive and not for Safe Mode. No error message.

And Vishal Gupta, is there any easier option? And I am using XP Home
SP II with all updates.

V.Prem Kumar.

Start -> Run, type msconfig

Goto BOOT.INI tab and select the line, saying:

Code:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

or something like that and enable:

Code:

/SAFEBOOT
/BOOTLOG
/SOS

options!

PS: As I said earlier, now when u'll select windows XP in the boot loader it'll boot into Safe mode. So its better that before applying above procedure, u also copy the line saying "windows xp professional....." in BOOT.INI file and make changes on that line so u'll be able to boot in both normal as well as safe mode

A

janitha said:
aravind_n20 said:

I dont understand by:"I am not able to, by pressing F8 during booting. ". DO u get any error message or something?

Click to expand...

I meant that by pressing F8, I get only two options ie., to boot from HDD and from Optcal Drive and not for Safe Mode. No error message.

And Vishal Gupta, is there any easier option? And I am using XP Home
SP II with all updates.

V.Prem Kumar.

You do not have any problem.
What you are doing wrong is that you are pressing the F8 key too soon.
Most modern motherboards supports pressing F8 for choosing boot device during post.
Press F8 after the post and just at the time windows starts loading to get the windows boot options menu.

J

[/quote]

You do not have any problem.
What you are doing wrong is that you are pressing the F8 key too soon.
Most modern motherboards supports pressing F8 for choosing boot device during post.
Press F8 after the post and just at the time windows starts loading to get the windows boot options menu.[/quote]

I feel what I meant is still not clear. I do get boot options ie. HDD and Optical but no option for Safe Mode.

V.Prem Kumar

S

^^ After getting the boot option (HDD/Optical), select HDD and press F8 again. You will now get option for Safe mode, etc.

Arun

J

sakumar79 said:
^^ After getting the boot option (HDD/Optical), select HDD and press F8 again. You will now get option for Safe mode, etc.

Arun

Thank you, and it was very easy and the complicated and risky registry editing suggested by Vishal Gupta was not needed.

Actually I wanted toe enter Safe Mode to scan for Spyware etc., as suggested by many in the forum.

V.Prem Kumar

A

So there was no problem at all...

J

amitsaudy said:
So there was no problem at all...

Not like that, but as sakumar79 suggested, I had to press F8 twice.

V.Prem Kumar