Re: Help! Safe Mode Loop - Cannot Login
- From: johnbaylor1000@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 28 Dec 2006 17:43:29 -0800
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
.
- References:
- Help! Safe Mode Loop - Cannot Login
- From: WebGuyBob
- Help! Safe Mode Loop - Cannot Login
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