Windows 7 not booting in safe mode or command prompt
Not sure what the problem is but every mode I try booting in gets a black screen and the brightness of the screen is dimmer however I do get a mouse pointer that I can move around freely. I have an assumption that its a video error and REGUCURE probley
messed something up while I was trying to repair broken registry. Currently in Kuwait by the way and both safe mode and command prompt is the same way the only thing i seem to be able to use is the F2 setup screen which does not seem to help at all eaither
resetted the settings to default but no progress. Wish I could find a way to fix this without taking cash from my pocket or sending it to a place to reset it to factory settings.
RegCure probably did mess up something. Registry cleaners are snake oil at best and at worst they can damage MS programs like Office and the operating system itself. You do not want to be going into Setup (BIOS) to restore your computer to factory condition
in any case. If you need to back up your data you can do this without going into Windows (see below). Do this and then restore to factory condition.
1. Pull the drive and put it in a USB drive enclosure or use a USB drive adapter. Attach this to a computer running a working install of XP/Vista/Windows7. Use the working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard drive and then burn the
data to cd or dvd. I prefer not to do this if I know the drive is infected because there is a chance of infecting the host system. In these cases, I use #2 below.
2. You can boot the target computer with a Linux live CD such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is general information on using Knoppix for this:
You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a CD/DVD burner OR a USB thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external USB hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS)*. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable CD. If you
are doing this in an older operating system (XP or Vista), you'll need third-party burning software like Nero, Roxio, or the free ImgBurn (Windows 7 can burn .isos natively). Burn as an image, not as data. Then boot with the CD you created and Knoppix will
be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the USB thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note that the default
mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use the K3b program.
*My understanding is that you can now write to an NTFS partition from Linux. If you wish to do this, Google for instructions about using the NTFS driver.
Most laptops and many OEM (HP, Sony, etc.) desktop computers come with a factory restore image on a special partition on the hard drive. The factory restore process is normally invoked by pressing a Function key (like F11) at computer startup. There will be
a message as to which Function key to press on the screen when you first start your computer. You can also refer to your computer manual, or the computer mftr.'s website, or contact its tech support to see how to restore your computer to factory condition
since each computer mftr. does it differently - sometimes even between models.
These machines also usually have a utility with which to create physical recovery discs in case the hard drive needs to be replaced or the factory restore image is somehow damaged. If you did not create the physical recovery discs and/or damaged the recovery
image, contact the computer mftr.'s tech support to order a recovery disc set. This is normally very inexpensive, around $20-25.
MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
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