I have a Server 2008 R2 virtual machine that is constantly restarting into safe mode. No prompts are given during the boot process, and if I force "Start windows normally" I still end up in safe mode.
I'm about to restore the server from a backup, but is there anything I can try first?
Check msconfig to see if there's anything set in the boot options. Chances are there's a flag that's been set in there, as this then forms part of the "Normal" start-up routine. My server ended up having this flag set:
Not sure how or why the flag got checked, but un-checking it and rebooting the server made everything come back online correctly.