Solved "Time to display recovery options when needed" is grayed out.

[ZyanWu]

"Time to display recovery options when needed" is grayed out.

How can I make it tickable (un-gray it out) again?

I believe this also hinders my ability to press F8 during boot to switch to safe mode/normal startup.

Image:

 

[Maguscreed]

That is odd, have you been playing with running services at all?
You may have killed something that feature needs to function.
I tried playing around with a few obvious ones but couldn't reproduce your problem here.

 

[ZyanWu]

Running serivces, no. None that I know of.
The only relevant information I can think of is that I installed and uninstalled Ubuntu sometime ago (using the Windows installer).

Hmm... Let me try something and I'll get back to you.

LE: EasyBCD Report:
There is one entry in the Windows bootloader.

Default: Windows 7
Timeout: Skipped
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello ZyanWu, welcome to Seven Forums.


Here's another option, as soon as you power on the PC start continually tapping the k/b space bar and don't stop, that should force the Windows boot manager where you can select the F8 option and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

click to enlarge

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[ZyanWu]

Thanks Bare Foot Kid for the new tip but getting to that menu isn't my problem. There are plenty of workarounds for booting into safe mode which I know (like using msconfig or just setting a low timeout on the boot menu, from where I can mash the F8 key and select my boot options).

The only thing I can't figure out and I need you guys to help me is why is the "Time to display recovery options when needed" grayed out as seen in my 1st post. Any ideas?

 

[ZyanWu]

Problem solved:

(If your user has administrator privileges, another reason for your symptoms is that the system is unable to find or open C:\Windows\bootstat.dat. Check that the file exists, the system has read/write permissions, and it is not NTFS compressed. If the problem persists, rename the file to Bootstat.old and restart the computer.)

The file C:\Windows\bootstat.dat was (somehow) renamed to C:\Windows\bootstEt.dat.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Good to see you found a solution and thanks for the update.