No starting up in safe mode

[jclaytona]

Windows on screen started blinking. Shut down computer and started up. Ent immediately to start up selection page, usually seen only after pushing f8. Make a selection and it acts as if it is starting up and goes back to start up selection. Screen. Can't o any further. Using iPad for this. Please help.

[screen317]

Hi and welcome to Malwarebytes.

When did this start happening??

Do you have your Windows CD?

The Kaspersky Rescue Disk is a bootable CD based version of Kaspersky Antivirus.

The download is in ISO format.

If you are not sure how to burn an image, please read How to write a CD/DVD image or ISO. If you need a FREE utility to burn the ISO image, download and use ImgBurn.

Download the Kaspersky Rescue Disk:

http://rescuedisk.kaspersky-labs.com/rescuedisk/updatable/ .

• Burn the Kaspersky Rescue Disk ISO image to CD.
  
• Insert the Kaspersky Rescue Disk CD into your CD/DVD drive and boot the computer (you may need to change the boot sequence in your system's BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive).
  
• Follow the instructions in the initial text screen to press Enter to start Kaspersky AntiVirus.
  
• Select your language (or wait a few seconds for the default English to load).
  
• Your screen may go blank for several minutes while the program loads.
  
• After the Kaspersky Rescue Disk loads, the database will be updated (if you have network connectivity)
  • Click the Update tab to view the update progress.
    
  • When the update has completed, click the Scan tab.

  [*]Place a checkmark in all the available drives to scan the entire system.

  [*]Click the "Security level" option, and select options.

  • Make sure "All Files" is selected
    
  • Under "Scan of compound files" ensure all options are selected and click the OK button.

  [*]Click the "On threat detection" option

  • Select "Do not prompt", "Disinfect", and "Delete if disinfection fails".

  [*]Click the "Start scan" button.

  [*]When the scan has completed, click the Reports button.

  • Click the Save button, and select your System drive (normally your C: drive)
    
  • In the "File name" box, name the file krd-log and click the Save button.
    
  • Click Close to close the Reports window.

  [*]Click the Exit button to close the Rescue Disk program and confirm.

  In the lower left of the screen, left-click the red K button, select Logout, and confirm.

  [*]The computer will shut down.

  [*]Restart the computer and reboot normally.

  [*]Please post the log (krd-log.txt) in your next reply.

[jclaytona]

Hi and thanks but it didn't work. I did everything as you wrote it with minor variations on how to select the options, maybe it was the updated version. The only other thing was clicking on the red k in the lower left and selecting "logout" . It didn't exist, the red k was there but when I left clicked it, it just opened up the scan box again, so I selected exit and then hit the button all the way to the left and selected shutdown. When I rebooted it went straight to the selecting safe mode page. I selected each option, one at a time and every time it started to boot up and just returned to the safe mode selection page. Do you possibly, hopefully have another suggestion? Thank you.

[screen317]

Hi,

I think your hard drive is corrupted at this point.

Can you access Safe Mode with Command Prompt? If you can, run this command:

chkdsk /r

Press Enter. See if it sees any problems with the hard drive.

[jclaytona]

I can't get to the command prompt, it just keeps rebooting and going back to the safe mode page. What do you suppose, the hard drive is bad?

Thanks James

[screen317]

Hi,

Yes I believe the hard drive is beyond repair at this point.

You can use Linux to recover your data, but you'll need a new hard drive to reinstall Windows on.

We are going to try to salvage your data using PuppyLinux. You will need a blank CD or flash drive, as well as software to burn .iso images, such as FreeISOBurner or BurnCDCC.

Download PuppyLinux from here and save it to your Desktop.

Open FreeISOBurner. Configure it as follows:

1) Click Open and navigate to puppy-4.2-k2.6.25.16-seamonkey.iso on your Desktop.

2) Change the Drive to reflect the drive letter of your CD or USB drive.

3) Change the Burn Speed to as slow as possible (4x or lower preferred).

4) Click Burn

When it finishes, eject the CD and put it in the computer that will not boot.

If not already done so, configure that computer to boot from CD or USB first. To do so, restart your computer. Carefully read what appears on the screen to see which key need to be pressed to enter Setup.

From there, navigate using the keyboard to the Boot section, then use the Page Up and Page Down keys to move the CDROM or USB option first. Afterward, press F10 to save and exit setup. When the computer restarts, it will boot from your CD or USB drive instead of the damaged hard drive, and you will be presented with PuppyLinux.

It will say Linux will boot automatically in 8 seconds. Let it. It will proceed to "boot the kernel." You will be presented with a number of options. Select the default option for everything and you will see an interface with several icons on it.

Click (only once) on mount and the Pmount Puppy Drive Mounter menu will open. Click MOUNT next to the hard drive that contains your Windows installation. Also mount any removable media you have inserted to transfer your data to.

A window will open titled /mnt/sda1 (or something similar).

You will now have access to all of your files in a familiar folder format. Right-click anything you wish to salvage, place your mouse over Dir '[foldername]', click Copy..., then click on the window containing your removable media. Right click empty space, and select Dir '[foldername]' then Paste...

When finished, click menu on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, and click Shutdown.

[screen317]

Are you still with us? This topic will be closed in a few days if we do not hear back from you.

[jclaytona]

i'm still here. I started the removal process ran out of space and got busy with work. Waiting to get my wifes things off next, she has some stuff saved already, then decide to get a hard drive or new computer. Thanks for your help so far. I will get back just as soon as I finish removing the goods off the hard drive.

Thanks, Jame

[screen317]

Great, thanks for letting me know.

[screen317]

Are you still with us? This topic will be closed in a few days if we do not hear back from you.

[Maurice Naggar]

Due to the lack of feedback this topic is closed to prevent others from posting here. If you need this topic reopened, please send a Private Message to any one of the moderating team members. Please include a link to this thread with your request. This applies only to the originator of this thread.

Other members who need assistance please start your own topic in a new thread. Thanks!