I had a 2003 SBS box using BE 2011 with a 2TB USB drive attached for backups. The box is a total loss but the USB drive with the backups is fine.
I rebuilt the server with CD's and applied all patches and service packs. Installed Recovery 2011.
H...
The Active Directory services were corrupt on the original server which is why I was trying to run Recovery in safe mode to repair the Sytem State.
The solution for me was to take a blank system and boot it on the recovery CD, then do a full system...