Stuck in Safe Mode @ Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

Question

The other day I was working in my email on my inspiron 6000 when Symantecs popped up stating that I could have a potential virus threat and to follow the link to do the repair.  Sounded easy enough.  So it took me to the Symantec site to download th fix and gave instructions on how to run it.  First it said to save the file to my desktop.  Before running the program it said to disable System Restore and to enable Safe Mode thru the msconfig boot.ini which I did.  When rebooting in Safe Mode the link to run the file was not there so I opened the boot.ini again and choose Safe Mode Command Prompt, rebooted and when the cmd.exe window opened I did a direcory search and found and ran the file, which then stated that there was not virus found.  SO...cool just restart system in Normal Mode and done.  The only problem is now the system will not go back to normal mode and keeps booting to the Safe Mode Command Prompt with no  option of changing it.  I tried manually selecting Normal mode from F8.  I have tried F12 to boot to CD restore but for some reason it doesn't recognize my admin PW.  Went into CD and booted to XP and  choose recovery from there and it copied all the files and when rebooting it says setup is being processed, but now when it boots it still goes to safe mode and recovery states that Windows XP Setup cannot run inder Safemode. Setup will restart now...........is there a way out of this without losing all my info and doing a complete system reinstall?  or a way to at least save my data before the reinstall....????

dave8555 · Answer

From the command prompt try this: 'attrib -s C:\boot.ini' 'attrib -h C:\boot.ini' 'attrib -r C:\boot.ini' 'edit C:\boot.ini' Remove the command you used to get it to boot to safe mode. End result should be something like this [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='Windows XP Professional' /noexecute=optin /fastdetect You could also use recover console and run a bootcfg.

meaustin · Answer

Thanks for the advice but I am really stuck in Safe Mode at command prompt.  Actually not even getting to the DOS window any more. .  I have loaded recovery console but when system boots it still goes to safe mode at command promt and mesage popps up stating: Windows XP Setup cannot start in Safe Mode.  System will now re-boot.    There seems to be no way around this.  I have trieded to see if I can get to the XP re-insatll but now getting STOP ERROR when I select install from CD

dave8555 · Answer

You tried to use the recovery console on the Windows XP install cd and you could not access that?

Windows General

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