[Stasha]

Hi there. I need to start my windows XP pro in Safe Mode, to fix an infection that has disabled it. You gotta love recursion!

The problem: on boot, I can choose to "start in safe mode" (with cmd prmpt etc or not) but when I do, a bunch of drivers load and then my machine reboots. I can "start windows normally" but I can't start in safe mode.

Please don't tell me to run msconfig and check /safeboot under Boot.ini. The problem is not that I can't start Safe Mode, it's that I can't complete it. So forcing /safeboot would just cause my machine to reboot endlessly. Not that it wouldn't be fun. Except I really need to finish some homework 'till next Tuesday.

Also, my floppy drive is busted. So I can't use remedies that come in floppy disks. But if you know of one, tell me anyway.

Btw, I accessed the windows recovery console and ran bootcfg and fixboot but nothing changed. I don't dare touch fixmbr because it gives me a warning that I have a weird mbr.

So, what do I do? Any ideas? Thanks in advance for your time

 

[jilldaniels]

If you turn off your computer and continually press the F8 key when restarting
you should start up in safe mode.

 

[Stasha]

Re: Safe mode disabled due to W32.Bagle infection

Thank you for the answer. The f8 (or f5) key doesn't do anything. My safe mode has been disabled by the Win.32.Bagle trojan, that keeps deleting it everytime I add it back.

What I needed to do was to fix the registry offline but I haven't done this before and I couldn't figure it out.

In the end, I repaired my windows installation from Dos and started in safe mode right away, without going through normal mode first, so as not to give the trojan time to edit my registry. Kind of not too elegant, but anyway I can't root out the infection even from safe mode, so I'm formattin my drive clean.

 

[fcojmejia]

I had the exact same problem. Foolishly, though, i forced it into starting in safe mode via msconfig /safeboot... and ended up with my computer rebooting endlessly.

Do I understand correctly that you booted from the CD, and ran a repair installation?

i guess i could try to do that, if my personal files don't get deleted in the process

 

[Basementgeek]

Danger, Danger - never use the safe boot option..It can get you into a loop that you can not get out of..............

BG