Dual-boot - how to boot into Safe Mode of non-starting OS?

[glnz]

Dual-boot 7+10 - how to boot into Safe Mode of non-starting 7?

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My Dell Optiplex 7010 MT is dual-boot Win 10 Pro 64-bit and Win 7 Pro 64-bit, and the default boot is set to the Win 10. As I've posted elsewhere, I can no longer get the 7 to start - it gets to the four glowing flags and gets stuck there forever. I've tried lots of things that haven't worked.

But the 10 starts OK.

I want to find a way to get the PC to reboot into SAFE MODE of the Win 7 - maybe that will help. Or something similar, like MSCONFIG'S "Safe boot" or "Diagnostic startup" or "Selective startup" for the Win 7, but how can I do that when I can only run MSCONFIG from the Win 10?.

Questions -

1. While in Win 10, is there a way to set msconfig so the next boot will be Win 7's safe mode or "Diagnostic startup" or "Selective startup"? But only once, NOT as a default boot!! (If I mistakenly set 7 as the default boot, I'll never be able to start my PC again!)
2. While in Win 10, is there a way to use EasyBCD to add a third boot entry that is Win 7's safe mode? (EasyBCD alrrady shows both my Win 10, which is the default, and my Win 7. So could I add a Win 7 safe mode?)
3. While in Win 10, is there a way to set the startup parameters for Win 7 so that it does NOT use Fast Mode?
4. Anything else like this?

Thanks.

 

[BamaInArk]

I have a dual boot Win7/Win10 that has the same issue. However in my case Win7 won't even boot in Safe Mode. From within Win10 you can change the Default operating system to boot to. Right Click on the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the system tray and select "System." Now look over to the right side of this dialog screen and select "Advanced system settings" From this dialog choose "Settings" under Startup and Recovery. At the top of the next dialog is System Startup. Under Default operating system you can select the OS you wish to default to on the next boot. From here you can also adjust the "Time to display list of operating systems:" I set mine to 10 seconds from the default of 30 seconds to allow unattended bootup to occur faster.

Also you can change the boot OS during a normal bootup if you're there to catch it during a normal boot cycle when the screen pops up showing the available OSs during boot.

 

[glnz]

BamainArk - thanks for your fast reply, but I still need to emphasize a point:

I don't want to change my default OS. If I change the default OS to Win 7, which won't start, I'll never be able to get back to my working Win 10.
While in Win 10, I would like to set my machine to boot once into Win 7 Safe Mode. That way, if it fails again, my hard power down-wait-power up will get me back to my 10.

Out of curiosity, where does the "startup and Recovery" window let me pick Win 7 SAFE MODE? I don;t see that. What do you see?

FYI - Normally, in EasyBCD, I set the select OS Timeout timer to 0 or even "Skip the boot menu" so I don;t have to make a choice every time. If I set it back to 30 second, then on the reboot I see the usual choice (big white boxes against a blue background) to pick either Win 10 or Win 7. But I have never seen a choice to pick Win 7 SAFE MODE. Is it there somewhere and I've missed it? I need exact steps how to find it.

Thanks.

 

[BamaInArk]

If you're multi-booting OSs you should have a menu screen popup during the boot sequence and it should hold for a set amount of time on the screen where you "Choose an operating system" Here you will see the option to boot to Win10 or Win7. If you leave it alone it will boot to the default OS however at this screen you can choose which one you want. So if Win7 is selected as the default OS you have an opportunity to to change it back from Win7 to Win10 here.

Also with Win7 you have to use the F8 function key to give you the option to boot to get to the Advance Boot Option menu which from there you can choose Safe Mode, etc.

 

[glnz]

I managed to get into Win 7 Safe Mode, using a combination of Msconfig and EasyBCD, but it did not help. It hangs at the end of its list of loaded drivers. See the pic below. I've run it many times now.

What I really need is a screen at the beginning of Win 7 with "Last Known Good Configuration". How to get it?

I will try again your suggestion to hit F8, but when I select the "Win 7" box (white box on blue background), it usually just starts - no opportunity to hit F8. Thoughts?

Finally, I have been unable to get my PC to boot from a USB stick with a version of the Win 7 installation on it - I want to try "Repair". But such attempt to boot from the USB only throws an error message that my hardware has changed with reference to an EFI file.

Very frustrating.

 

[SIW2]

bcdedit /set {identifier} lastknowngood on

a simpler way is to change to the grownup boot menu

bcdedit /set {current} bootmenupolicy legacy

 

[glnz]

SIW2 - please see my reply to you in my other thread at
How repair Win 7 that doesn't start but keep files ??

Please scroll down to see the part I just added.

Thanks.