Restoring Access to Safe Mode

[Meltorefas]

OS Specifics: Windows XP Professional SP2


Ok, here are my problems.

1: Pressing F8 (repeatedly) during reboot does not launch boot menu.  Nor does holding it down during reboot.
2: The BOOT.INI tab in MSCONFIG is misssing.  The boot.ini file on my hard drive appears to be fine.  Attempts to restore BOOT.INI tab have so far failed.
3: My computer is a laptop, and thus has no floppy drive.  The CD drive is currently broken, so I cannot use the XP CD to access the recovery console and attempt to rebuild my boot.ini (just in case that is the problem).

So... with all this... I just cannot get to safe mode.  I have tried downloading recovery console ISOs to install the recovery console locally, but none of the ISOs I have found contain winnt32.exe.  I haven't been able to find what I need anywhere on the 'net so far either, been looking for hours.  If anyone can help me here, I would greatly appreciate it.

[programming_pat]

is there any particular reason that you need to access SAFE MODE?

[Meltorefas]

At this exact moment?  No.  But surely you can see that being able to access safe mode in general is rather important, yes?  ^^

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I found this on Google.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/bootini.htm

It looks interesting...

[programming_pat]

would it be possible for you to get hold of a usb cd-rom drive and boot from that? (providing that your computer's BIOS is new enough.

[Meltorefas]

I found this on Google.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/bootini.htm

It looks interesting...

First thing I tried, sadly.  : /   Thanks though.

[Meltorefas]

would it be possible for you to get hold of a usb cd-rom drive and boot from that? (providing that your computer's BIOS is new enough.

Well, I would like to not have to spend the money on that if I can avoid it.  If there w as something really important I needed to do in safe mode *right now* that'd be different, of course.  ^^  But, at this point I am just trying to correct the actual problem, as opposed to working around it.  Thanks though!

[patio]

Go to Start/Run and type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter...
Have your XP CD handy as it will ask for it.
Let it run to completion and remove the XP CD and re-boot...

[Meltorefas]

Go to Start/Run and type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter...
Have your XP CD handy as it will ask for it.
Let it run to completion and remove the XP CD and re-boot...

Erm, apparently you missed the part where I don't have a working CD drive.  ^^;