wingsangel, if I haven't solved your issue you might want to rescind the SOLVED you gave me. LOL It was nice to see it there but ... I think if you click on options up and to the right a little you can take the SOLVED away.
If you have not installed any program that gives you a similarity of the START button on your windows 8 then that can not be a place to start the search. However, those programs do have settings sometimes that give you the option to skip the Metro Start Screen.
For now as a stop gap, you should be able to see the Metro Start by placing your cursor in the extreme bottom left hand corner and a small box will pop up that looks like a minature Start Screen with the tiles. When you see it then CLICK and the Start Screen should appear with all your tiles.
There is a more radical way by using options at Recovery Manager. I hate to say it's late here on the East Coast and I might have to wait until tomorrow as it takes a little time to refresh my own mind and make sure I direct you correctly. Hopefully someone jumps in with more knowledge and advice before then. But I will come back and check tomorrow. In the meantime try what I stated in the previous paragraph.
Try to remove the SOLVED you gave me. It was nice while it lasted ! ":-D haha~ jack