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I can boot a x64win7Ult system only to SAFE MODE. How can I get it to boot normally ?

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Initially be sure you haven’t forgotten you decided (or accidentally managed somehow) to select safe mode in msconfig – that’s covered some way down at https://support.lenovo.com/gb/en/solutions/ht116905-how-to-enter-or-boot-to-safe-mode-in-windows-7-8-81-and-10

Then, assuming (as seems likely) that isn’t the problem, try normal mode at the F8 boot menu and see what happens (basically hit F8 as the machine starts Windows and select option 1, start normally.

If you’re lucky that might work and might “stick”. Most cases the machine will restart and might even produce the F8 menu without prompting. Either case get the F8 menu and use  “disable automatic restart on system failure” – it should produce a blue screen or some sort of indicator of the cause of the problem next time around.. write any boot time error messages down and post them.

Finally, if you were engaging in Windows updates (maybe unintentionally) before the reboot which preceded the problem, I have seen this where an update fails to complete though it was a symptom of a subtly damaged install. I was fortunately able to use dism to get back in control so I could back up a few things and note some pages from browser history, broadly as described at  https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/48d20da9-0535-462f-b177-f30f48992203/how-to-removing-a-pending-update-that-is-preventing-a-successful-boot?forum=w7itprogeneral

The problem I found was a failing drive so it was a case for replacing the drive and restoring the last backup and those few things created post backup. Unless there is something completely irreplaceable about your Windows installation, suggest take time to back up your files so you can start over if Windows gets too messy, before changing or fixing anything – it’s all to easy to make things worse.

Also it’s worth getting crystaldiskinfo – the portable version can even be used from the command prompt of the recovery section of the Windows media to attain a quick “traffic light” coded indicator of drive health from its interface upon test completion..

 

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Thank you very much for responding.

SAFE MODE is NOT result of a misstep – it is very much the ONLY  useful response I can get.

After I select ‘normal boot’ from the options where SAFE MODE appears. booting proceeds as far as the assembling of the Win7 logo over the ‘welcome’ logo; that is where progress stops; eventually that disappears and leaves the screen blank.

I am cloning the drive right now to a NEW SSD, to rule out drive imperfection as the cause.

When that finishes, I’ll try your other suggestions.

“back up your files” The only thing of value is the actual installation representing many hours of configuring (customization)  – some of which is ‘cancelled’ by SAFE MODE. There is NO data of significance.

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To work out what’s happening could need a dive into event viewer. That’s simpler if you copy the logs from \Windows\System32\winevt\Logs to another folder on the drive from the recovery command prompt from the F8 menu post the failure to boot properly. if you try to open them they should eventually load in event viewer in safe mode. Unfortunately the system.evt file you probably want to look at will take some time.

The sequence you describe rings to me of a failed (likely graphics card) driver update or ELAM section of a (likely long since removed) protection product (which will appear as a service, so alternatively using the enable boot logging and checking \Windows\ntbtlog.txt might indicate the removal tool required (That file is created once with the operation, and is removed next boot (successful or not) so you need to open (notepad should work) or copy that from the F8 menu also..)

At least completion of the clone would indicate no actual drive access problems, though a literal sector clone can replicate logical issues with the file system, so it might be worth using the following a scandisk, just to check Windows isn’t failing to detect it has a file system problem before it falls on its face.. if the volume is dirty be aware it will try to fix that at the next reboot…

fsutil dirty query c:

 

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I succeeded in cloning the drive to a new SSD, but the clone would also not boot normally – I take that to indicate it is not the physical drive that is the problem.

“if you were engaging in Windows updates” This clone DID boot normally, the first time I tried it, but not after that first time. I think that rules out any ‘update effect’.

I do not understand the advice relating to CrystalDiskInfo.

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Using CDI is instead of cloning to a new drive.

The “usual” reason for a normal boot failure is a faulty driver.
Did you update any drivers just before the issue?
Boot into safe mode and open Device Manager (Win R, devmgmt.msc). Are there any unhappy / missing devices?

cheers, Paul

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CDI is to asses the disk. As stated before, a new disk behaves no better than the ‘problem’ one.

Am I not justified in concluding that it is NOT a disk problem ?

Just before the issue. that drive had booted to completion – but it had been cloned through USB and the booting happened through USB. Later it would not boot either through USB or SATA, except to SAFE MODE. There was no deliberate driver update AT ALL.

I will do the Device Manager investigation and report back.

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Device Manager shows NO ‘unhappy’ drivers.

C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt shows many ‘did not load’ drivers, starting with nettun.inf

Disabling and uninstalling network drivers in Device Manager triggered the creation of new network driver entries but did not result in normal booting.

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Run “SFC /scannow” from an elevated Command Prompt to check Windows.
If that doesn’t work, try disabling things that are listed in your drivers did not load list, then enable one by one.

cheers, Paul

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SFC /scannow produced : Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

It will be a challenge to link the scores of not-loaded drivers to ‘things I can uninstall’

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Then a reinstall may be in order.  🙁

cheers, Paul

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With power off unplug all USB devices and absolutely everything not needed to boot into Windows normal mode. Unplug mouse and ethernet, etc. Then attempt to boot into normal mode.

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…unplug all USB devices and absolutely everything not needed to boot into Windows normal mode.  Unplug mouse and ethernet, etc. …

DO NOT unplug the keyboard. Many computers nowadays still may throw an error code if they don’t detect a keyboard plugged in during the boot process. The vast majority of keyboards, wired and wireless, use USB nowadays, so please keep this in mind.

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I thought I had told you that a sea-change has occurred. My interest in Win7 was only because it came from a PC box that fitted snugly in a special place. I thought it was too old to run Win10 but had been mislead by damage to a SATA lead that caused boot failure. Now that I know I can use that box with Win10, I’m no longer motivated to solve the problems with Win7 as I am NOT short of problems to solve. Thank you for all your contributions. I feel that the advice about Event Viewer in particular should come in handy in solving loss of mouse cursor on a different PC box running Win10.

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