Unable to get into Windows Safe Mode.
Question
Unable to get into Windows Safe Mode.
Cause
This issue is caused by one of the below.
- User is not entering Safe Mode properly.
- Windows is seriously corrupted and is unable to load into Safe Mode.
- Hardware issue.
Answer
Make sure you're entering Safe Mode properly; many times the Safe Mode can be easily missed if done improperly.
If you're entering Safe Mode properly; however, when attempting to load Windows, Safe Mode encounters errors, restarts, or never loads, it's likely your computer is encountering either a major corruption with Windows or you have a hardware issue that is preventing the computer from loading.
If you have recently added any new hardware to the computer we first suggest you remove that new hardware to make sure it is not the cause of your issue.
If no new hardware has been added to the computer or removing the hardware does not resolve the issue, it is possible that either Windows is corrupt or pre-existing hardware in the computer has become bad. We suggest to resolve or locate the cause of this issue that you erase the computer hard disk drive and reinstall Windows.
If during the reinstallation you encounter errors with copying files, or errors formatting your hard disk drive, it's very likely that your hard disk drive is failing or is already bad. If Windows was able to successfully reinstall, it was likely Windows was corrupted and reinstalling everything has corrected your issue.
Final note: Although you could reinstall Windows over the top of your pre-existing copy, we highly recommend you erase the hard disk drive and start over. Not only will this help test your hard disk drive, this will also remove any potential program or malware from the computer that caused this issue.
Additional information
- See the Safe Mode definition for further information and related links.