[Resolved] Stuck In Safe Mode

Hello, This is my first time posting & I am basically computer illiterate, so I really need someone with lots of patience.
My computer was having start up problems, it would get to the windows 98 startup screen & would go no further I finally got past that ( don't know how I did) (and still don't know what made me think I could even fix it)so went into the troubleshooter did the step by step thing, in which I was put into the safe mode & now no matter what I do I can't get out. Saw some other post on this problem but didn't understand what to do. Any help appreciated (since it is actually my husband's computer & he will kill me) (LOL)

 

Hi vpin.

Go to:

http://www.piersontech.com/07-CleanHardDrive.htm

While in safe mode, follow the steps to delete the files. You'll want to restart the PC when you're done. See if it will now let you boot in normal mode.

If not, hit the F8 key the moment you see "starting windows..." and boot to MS DOS if it will let you.

At any c:\ prompt in DOS, type:

scandisk

and hit enter. See if it will run a scandisk for you. I would personally choose to delete any files it asks you about but you may choose to write them to floppy.

If you run a successful scandisk, then hit ctrl-alt-del to restart it and see if it will now boot normally.

I'll be in and out and around most of the day. Let me know what happens.

Oh! And welcome to TSG! Let me know if there's anything you don't understand. Don't do it if you're not sure of my instructions.

 

Dreamboat, thank you for the fast reply, I went to the piersontech & did as said but it did not help. I tried your suggestion & figured out that I had to use ctrl. key instead of F8 but it would not boot to MS DOS, I tried several times thinking that I was not hitting the Ctrl key soon enough, needless to say the computer is still in safe mode. Can you give me any other ideas?

 

Did you delete all the files?

Try running scandisk in safe mode. Just hit start-->run and type:

scandisk

It's a little quicker if you're a typist.

 

I deleted everything except "RO Copier" it said it was a program, figured I'd already screwed things up enough without deleting a program that my husband needs. I did run scandisk per the piersontech

 

Hi vpin,

Try this, one never knows...

Choose Start > Settings > Folder Options.
Click the View tab in the Folder Options dialog box.
Click Show All Files and click OK.

Now go to Start/run, and type Notepad /msdos.sys (there's a space after 'notepad'!)

Take a look at what it says there.

Is there a line 'BootMenuDefault=4', change the '4' into a '1'

If you see an entry 'Bootgui', its value should be '=1' also.

Go to File/Save, and close Msdos.sys. If the properties are set to 'read only', you won't be able to save your changes, and in that case you should uncheck that box.

Good luck,

 

If you found RO copier as a result of looking for the *.tmp,~*.* files, or if you found it in the TEMP folder, it's safe to delete it. It's probably a leftover installation file, and not the program itself. If it were the program, it would not start with ~, and it would not reside in the Windows/Temp folder.

 

Is this the troubleshooter you used?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q188867

Have you tried using msconfig to bypass startup files?

One thing to do is to access the boot menu, using the cntl key as you did, and select Normal mode from the menu. Sometimes this sets things right.

 

Rolling Rob,
Found some info of yours, when someone else had posted a safe mode question, just wanted to let you know that I did the
scanreg/restore to put the registry back to a prior date & I am now in normal mode again, the only thing is that when starting windows 98 it goes to the dialog box where I have to choose to start in normal mode, but I can live with that. (hope this makes sense to you).

Thanks for your help, Vpin

 

Vpin that's great. I think you can put the kabosh on the boot menu (I actually have mine configured to pause with a 10 second delay every boot up).

To make it easy, do this. From start run msconfig and click on the "Advanced" tab. There you will see a check box for "enable startup menu". It will probably be checked, and all you have to do is uncheck it.

 

Rolling Rob,

Yeah !! it worked, thank you so much, you really saved my skin, take care & have a Wonderful Holiday season.

Vpin

 

This thread contains a link to Pierson Tech and suggests following the advise on that site about cleaning unnecessary files from your HD. I happened to see it while perusing the forum, went to the site, printed the instructions and followed them to clean up my drive.

In step 4 it tells you to empty the Recycle Bin, and chides those who might be "chicken" about doing it that you shouldn't be, because "...you don't need any of the files in there."

WRONG!!! Thank goodness I'm chicken! I tried virtually all of my programs before deleting anything from the Bin, and good thing I did. In step 1., Pierson has you delete all files found with "*.tmp,~*.*,*.chk". It just so happens that PaperPort (scanner software) stores all of it's folders and files with filenames that start with "~". So when I opened Paperport to look at some files, NOTHING...absolutely NOTHING...was there. It then occurred to me that when using Explorer, those files all had a "~" in front of them. I restored them, and now have all my (several hundred) files back.

Caveat emptor, folks. DO NOT empty your Recycle Bin after doing Pierson's clean up UNTIL you try looking up all your important working files and running your programs.

 

Thanks, Don. You are only the second person out of thousands who have had ramifications from it. I will, however, change the directions because I really intend for NO ONE to have problems.

 

Didn't realize "Pierson" was you. The real problem in this whole thing is ScanSoft who writes the PaperPort software. No applications software should be written to store files using names starting with "~". Their software is also buggy, and the tech support is non-existent. I won't be buying any ScanSoft products again anytime soon.