Dell inspiron will not boot in safe mode . goes round in loop . if you put an xp setup disk in it still goes to loop

try to boot in "Last good known configuration settings" by restarting your pc and then press F8 before windows appear and then select the boot option i mention above. if this not work since you said that it can't boot to safe mode, your other option is to repair the windows or else reformat it. when you repair the windows you must have windows xp home edition cd installer, you load it to your cd/dvd rom and then restart your pc and press F2 or DEL button before windows appear in order to go to setup bios settings. in bios settings, you choose boot order setup and setup first priority to cd/dvd and press F10 by saving the changes and then press any key when you see the prompt so that it can boot up to windows xp home cd installer and then follow screen instruction that you arrive to windows repair option.

Sounds like you may have a corrupt driver or incompatible software trying to launch at boot. Or, at worst, malware thats totally screwing it up. If you have access to another PC, download Service Pack 2 for Vista. Boot your PC into safe mode, and try to install SP2 from safe mode.

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An UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME is a failure to read the operating system. You will need to boot to an XP CD via external Optical Drive and run CHKDSK /R to try to the resolve the error.

It is possible that the HDD or Solid State Drive (SSD) is failing and will need replacement.

I'd suggest first removing your memory modules and reinsert one at a time.

But, I think your operating system is compromised, due to Spyware, etc.

Since your system won't boot in Safe Mode, your only other option is to repair or reinstall your operating system.

Hope this helps.

If the screen goes dark after BIOS, there is a software conflict - either a driver or screen resolution was set incorrectly. a couple of ideas to solve:
boot from disk, or another hard drive - if this works, it confirms the software conflict - which would mean having to re-install the OS.

You might want to try going into setup and setting your boot drive options to DVD drive as your 1st, HD as 2nd and Floppy as 3rd. Put your windows disk in the DVD before boot and run the program from DVD.

Try going into safe mode if you can by pressing the F8 key when you first turn on the laptop.

If you get into safe mode then go into the system configuration utility underneath the system tools folder. Click on the startup tab and then click on the button that says disable all. This will keep programs from loading when windows boots up. Reboot the computer and see if you can get into windows normally. If you can then you know its a program thats causing the problem. If you still can't get into windows normally then you'll have to wipe out the drive and restore your computer back to factory default.

You also will have to do this if you can't get into safe mode as well.

Remove the hard drive, then see if you can boot to the XP CD. If you can, then the Hard DIsk Drive has most likely failed. Reseat the HDD and try booting to CD again. If problem comes back, try a new hard drive.

First you need to make sure that there are no other removable devices plug on the system, like usb, external hard drives, then if that will work try to go to the bios, press f2 when you see the dell logo, and go to the system setup, go to the boot device configuration and make sure that removable device is not the first boot device, if it is the first one choose hard disk and then second boot device ad cd rom/dvd rom and then disable the 3rd boot and the fourth boot device. Make sure to save the changes. And restart the system again. Once the computer is back and running try to go to support.dell.com and check the bios, download if there is a bios update for the system.

Try "Safe Mode" (holding F8 key on boot and selecting "Save Mode"), then run diagnostics and an up to date (virus definitions) Anti-Virus full scan.
If Safe Mode is not accessible then you may want to consider a format and clean install by booting to your Windows (?) CD.