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Can't enter safe mode.

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TR134

Technical User
Jan 15, 2003
3
US
Can't enter safe mode. Duel booting windows ME on first hard drive and XP Pro on second hard drive.Used partition magic 8 to set up drives and partitions.I did have option for safe mode once,but I had to reformat C: drive and now my only choice, when I boot to C: in the start up menu is #1 which boots me into C:I really need to use safe mode, my usb ports are not working and also my IEEE fire wire card dosen't work either in C: drive.Everthing works fine in XP. What a difference in OS.
 
Do you mean the F8 and Ctrl keys don't work? Are you using XP's boot loader as a menu? (bit confused, as you say you reformatted C: which normally knocks out the XP boot sector). If you were using a normal ME boot sector, I'd suggest editing msdos.sys - adding the line bootsafe=1 to the options section (
 
Thanks for the reply.
That is correct, have no F8 or Crtl function. It will automatically boot to XP. Again you are right, when I had to reformat C:, I did lose the boot options + Usb ports and Fire wire Pci card. I believe they will be ok if I can get into safe mode and check the device manager to see if there are ghost (I have read this does happen).

Everything was working fine until I had to wipe, format,and install Win Me again.Can you direct me to the correct boot sector,from what I have told you?
Adding the line "bootsafe=1" is this for Win ME.

Thanks:
 
TR134,

I'm still a bit confused. When you've got an ME/XP dual boot, and you reformat C: and reinstall ME, you'd normally loose the ability to boot XP - it would boot straight into ME (you'd need to reinstall XP or rebuild the bootsect.dos file which the XP boot loader needs to boot ME & repair the XP boot sector to get the dual boot back). But you are booting straight into XP. Has the XP drive got its own boot sector (files ntldr, ntdetect.com & boot.ini in its root)? What's your boot sequence in the bios (ie, are you booting from the first or second hard drive)? Just realised - you've got Partition Magic - are you using Boot Magic as a Boot manager?

Could you give a bit more detail of how you got to where you are. And can you actually boot into both ME & XP currently - its just safe mode you can't manage? If so (and you're using Boot magic), I think the msdos.sys edit I suggested should work to get you into safe mode - but I'm not convinced you'll solve your problem there.
 
PQ boot says reboot to primmary partition is drive (0) and that is ME, XP is (1). I can boot to either drive when I start up. Primary drive is ME. I do get this option at start up. From there I'm trying to get into safe mode in C:,I see safe mode option when I arrow up yo it and hit enter, it goes to "choices #1", that's the only option there. If I hit enter, it boots me to ME.

Yes, it's just safe mode I'm trying to execute.I'm hoping I can get my USB ports and IEEE card working, if it is a ghost thing. As of now I have no hardware working in C: drive ( printer, scanner, etc.If this isn't the problem, I will have to wipe everthing out and star over on both drives so I've read lately.
 
Well - try adding that line to msdos.sys ([Options]) - its supposed to make it boot straight into safe mode, so if it works you'll need to edit it out or set it to 0 (zero) afterwards.
BTW, I thought you'd just reinstalled ME?
 
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