Windows only starts in safe mode

Hi,

sorry for the delay...

Kaktussoft: well it depends, sometimes it doesn't find anything and sometimes it finds something and tries to repair (what takes 15-20 minutes) and finally says it wasn't able to.

Greg: the status is quite the same now... I really doubt it has to do with the MBR since it can start in safe mode, but for having tried what I could, I see no other solution than to reinstall all from scratch... (what I won't do before 1 or 2 weeks)


That being said, I face another problem: I have no installation CD, and if there is a recovery partition, I am yet not able to use it to restore the initial configuration.

Tutorials I saw on internet (along with what is written in the manual) say that if I press F9 during boot I should have a menu with an option "Windows Setup [EMS Enabled]" but I don't have this option in the menu whatever I try (the only option is something like "Windows recovery", which brings to the startup repair).
Pressing F8 after F9, I can have a list of possible actions (launch the startup repair, start in safe mode, start with last good known configuration, etc.), but nothing close to reinstall.

Is it the right place where I should ask this?

Either way, have I no other choice than buying a DVD while I do own a license?

If no Factory Recovery is on F8 menu and F9 will not boot into Recovery then your Recovery partition is likely not functional. However you can try one other thing: Mark it Active and reboot to see if it starts or responds to F9 key: Partition - Mark as Active

Do this as a last resort before clean reinstalling with the installer provided below using the tool also linked to write to USB stick or burn to DVD.
Win7 Home Premium x64 SP1 English Official ISO download
Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool

Then follow these steps to get a perfect Factory OEM clean reinstall, deleting all partitions as shown: Reinstalling Windows 7

Thank you.

By the way, do you know a link to an ISO with a French version? (or is it possible to reinstall windows in French from the iso file you linked?)

did you use config and maybe put a check mark in boot in safe mode. If you did go there and remove the check mark.Bob

Thanks.

I used Kaktussoft method, and it worked. I have been able to activate the version with my license key.

One more question: I have a partition with Ubuntu which I can't access. I would like to try to add the linux entry to windows boot menu. In this tutorial - Dual Boot Ubuntu Windows 7 - grub is used as far as I understand.

I retried what Kaktussoft shew me some time ago (re-creating the linux.bin file and copying it to the root of the C driver), but when I select Linux in the bootmenu, I just get a black screen. Do you have any idea about it?

Ok, this method worked, thanks!