Windows 7 Safe Mode "Lost"

Elmer

Extraordinary Member
I've discovered this a.m. that I can't access Safe Mode through the normal F8.

I used to listen to the post beep and then press F8 once and I'd be straight in. Now pushing F8 once or repeatedly tapping F8 just carries on to the normal boot.

What have I changed recently? Well, I removed Windows Developer and uninstalled EasyBCD after deleting the Windows Developer boot option.

I can access Safe Mode through MSConfig., but just a bit worried that in an emergency I'll not be able to access Safe Mode. Maybe my F8 hot key has been re-set? If so, how do I repair. Never had a problem with hot keys before so no idea where to begin looking!!

On the off chance I loaded the repair disc and let it do a Start up repair. Took all of two seconds so I'm thinking it found nothing to repair.

Just an update! Took my beer goggles off and put reading glasses on. When using repair disc again, It's telling me my system is on partition E:, whereas when I boot up it's in C:. Wonder if this has anything to do with it.

TIA for any suggestions!
 
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Yea, tried those Lee.

Gonna pull the box out at some imminent stage and disconnect/reconnect drives, see if I can push them back into their correct disk number positions.
 
For us to know how (in what order) you did your install of the OSes might help.

Also, open an Administrative Command Prompt and type bcdedit. A snipping tool picture would be nice, if nothing personal is shown. What partition your install is now on and what options you have could be the problem.
 
Hi Salty, :)

Windows 7 installed first. Installed Windows 8 to separate partition. Removed Windows 8, system (Win 7) WAS on disc 2 not Disc 0 as originally.

Opened the case up, disconnected hard drives and then through a series of re-boots added them back in, in the right order. Windows 7 now is Disc 0 (Strangely through all these disc number swaps, Speedfan maintained its knowledge of the right disk numbers!).

Here's a bcdedit image:
Capture.PNG
 
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I will attach mine to compare, but it looks like you do not have the inherit option. Not sure it this is the basic cause, but what I suggest is to open an administrative command prompt and use this command to replace the BCD store:

bcdboot C:\Windows

Assuming C: is the OS partition. You can check the help entries for examples.
 

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No, just open an administrative command prompt.

I was thinking it might also be the options you show for the boot menu time and the Do not show boot menu, but replacing the BCD store will correct the entire thing.
 
Ok, safe mode back. Ran your command suggsetion and rebooted. Because the repair disc was in I thought why waste an opportunity! So I did bootrec.exe and: /rebuildbcd, /fixboot, /fixmbr.

Followed that up with a couple of re-boots and repair start up. So really none the wiser as of now! But at least its repaired!

Here's my new bcdedit screenie. Things have changed!

Capture.PNG

But many Thanks for your help n interest Saltgrass. Very much appreciated!
 
You're welcome. Many of the commands will not replace the BCD Store, but rebuild what is already there.

Anyway, I am probably going to remove the Developers install soon also--not much I can do with it except see how it works. Will probably wait for the public beta before I install Windows 8 again.
 
OK Thanks to you as well Kaos!!

I'm with you now Saltgrass. Waiting for a proper beta to try out.
 
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