Gym Rat,

Start the computer in the safe mode.

Start, all programs accessories, right click command prompt, left click run as administrator. Type

chkdsk /r          (space between the k and /)

Hit enter. Answer with a Y, then type exit, then restart the computer. This take a while to run, so please be patient.

Start the computer in the Safe mode.

Hit the Windows Key and the R keys at the same time. Type

msconfig

Hit enter, click on boot. Uncheck the safe boot box.

Restart your computer.

Rick

Hi Gym Rat,

Did you run any scans or install anything that might have caused this problem?

If you would prefer not to use Rick's manual method, and would like to use an automated tool, Super Anti-Spyware's free Boot Safe Utility might help. More information:  http://www.superantispyware.com/supportfaqdisplay.html?faq=75

It's a free download http://www.superadblocker.com/bootsafe.html

Regardless of which method you use, good luck!

Bugbatter - This condition seems to be common without an obvious cause. Is it something to do with the way the boot system works? Would a BIOS update be a good idea?

Quote from "Admin" over at SuperAntiSpyware, the Boot Safe people, dated 4 January 2011 :

BootSafe isn't updated to support Windows 7 as of yet.

PudgyOne - The majority of the scary stories from people responding to the msconfig solution centre around not being able to undo the changes (despite msconfig saying it has) and every re-boot going into safe mode.

A solution to that problem has been posted as :

Deleting or renaming C:\boot.ini

or delving into bcdedit

Gym Rat,

I haven't gotten into the boot.ini file before.

I would try a system restore point before this happened. If you have a good system restore point, everything should go back to normal.

Try tapping F8 repeatedly at startup. Select repair my computer, try startup repair and see if the options there will allow you to start the computer normally.

You can also try running the full diagnostics and report back any error messages. How to Run the Dell™ Diagnostics Utility

Rick

Gym Rat,

Sorry, I thought we used BootSafe last weekend with Vista, so I figured it might work on Win 7.

The problem with forcing Safemode by using msconfig to change the boot.in is that if you only allow Safemode, and you still cannot get into Safemode, you are not going to get into normal Windows either.  You could end up in a boot loop.You would have to use Recovery Console to redo the boot.in file to fix that problem. It's up to you. Try Rick's suggestion to use System Restore.

I don't believe Dell Community permits diagnostic logs to be posted in the forums anymore. As an alternative, I can send you to a forum where they can run a couple of tools to repair the Safemode boot keys. One of them looks for and restores backups, so it can restore non-default entries as well. We used to do that on Dell's Malware Removal forum, but that has closed. If you decide to take that route, my suggestion is to post in the Malware Removal Forum at SpywareHammer and have the staff trained in malware removal walk you through the fix. Help is free, but you will need to register there.

Success!

Just to prove that if you search through the answers you’ll eventually come to the right one.

I’d already tried a variety of keys after F8 didn’t do the trick – Esc, F11 etc. – I hadn’t tried F5 though and that’s the one for me. F5 gets me to the boot manager screen with the options of going straight to Windows 7 or using the diagnostic tool but also the extra options accessed using F8. F8 then gets me to the usual options including Safe Mode. Job done.

If memory serves, F5 was the magic key for a previous version of Windows. Maybe the added step of the RAID setup during boot makes F5 the answer now?

Thanks everyone.

That's great news! Glad that you found the answer. :emotion-21: