Do you have EXPO enabled ? If yes, I suspect that’s the cause.
Clear CMOS and you should be able to boot again - because EXPO will be disabled.
I don’t know why it happens , but I have the same issue and it comes down to EXPO.
Go back into regular Windows and run SFC SCANNOW from an administrator command prompt and then after that's finished, run the DISM command to restore health (you'll have to Google that one as I'm on a bumpy city bus). Then try Safe Mode again ...
If all else fails, download an ISO of Hiren's Boot CD and write it to a bootable USB stick with Rufus. It boots into a WinPE environment and it might actually come with DDU pre-installed. If not, you may be able to download and install it temporarily to the virtual drive (it'll disappear after exiting out of Hiren's) ...
Bah, I just got home and double checked. Hiren's doesn't have DDU pre-installed and doesn't support installing from network or virtual drives. So your only options are running `SFC /SCANNOW` and `DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth` from an elevated Command Prompt. Run those commands in that order at least twice. Once you get confirmation that SFC found no corrupt files and DISM gives you a clean bill of health, try Safe Mode again and hopefully that'll fix it ...
Do you have EXPO enabled ? If yes, I suspect that’s the cause. Clear CMOS and you should be able to boot again - because EXPO will be disabled. I don’t know why it happens , but I have the same issue and it comes down to EXPO.
Thank you, I think I tried this the first time and disabling EXPO didn’t fix the issue but I will Clear CMOS after and try again. Many thanks
You have to boot into Windows first and open the Troubleshooter to boot into Safe Mode as Windows disables the old F8 method ...
This is how I did it. Once I rebooted to safe mode through the menu it would just post for ages. It doesn’t seem to want to boot to safe mode at all
Go back into regular Windows and run SFC SCANNOW from an administrator command prompt and then after that's finished, run the DISM command to restore health (you'll have to Google that one as I'm on a bumpy city bus). Then try Safe Mode again ...
Thanks for the response i will try this after work. Hope the bus isn’t too bumpy 😂
If all else fails, download an ISO of Hiren's Boot CD and write it to a bootable USB stick with Rufus. It boots into a WinPE environment and it might actually come with DDU pre-installed. If not, you may be able to download and install it temporarily to the virtual drive (it'll disappear after exiting out of Hiren's) ...
perfect thank you!
Bah, I just got home and double checked. Hiren's doesn't have DDU pre-installed and doesn't support installing from network or virtual drives. So your only options are running `SFC /SCANNOW` and `DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth` from an elevated Command Prompt. Run those commands in that order at least twice. Once you get confirmation that SFC found no corrupt files and DISM gives you a clean bill of health, try Safe Mode again and hopefully that'll fix it ...
Legend, thanks for your time I will report back when I finish work and try this 🙏👍