Are Diagnostic Startup and Safe Mode Identical?

I use XP/Home. I've checked the MS (and other) web sites a dozen times, I can't find a categorical statement that says Diagnostic Startup (under msconfig) and Safe Mode (F8) are identical or not. There always appears to be some weasel-wording. Does anybody know for sure?

 

Hi chrisw,

Hard to tell with "Diagnostic ". I can't see any difference, at least from the descriptions.

I do know that the Diagnostic startup will wipe out your System Restore points - so keep that in mind.

Regards - Charles

 

Chas....but you'd think they'd call it Safe Mode if it really was the same, wouldn't you? Or at least explain it someplace...

 

They are not the same.

It is near impossible to find specific information anywhere but from what I have observed, Diagnostic is about half way between normal and safe modes.

I hate to have to tweak things so I have added a line to my boot.ini file so I'm offered the option of normal or safe mode boot for a few seconds when the PC powers up.

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Normal" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS= "Safe Mode" /fastdetect /safeboot /sos /bootlog

so I see the options for about 5 seconds before it defaults to normal mode and also set to give me a detailed boot log when I go for safe.

You could try that and compare what is running and how the PC behaves in diagnostic and in safe modes.