In order to start up the brushless DC motor (BLDCM) without reverse rotation and smoothly switch the running state of the motor, a novel startup and smoothly switching method for a sensodess BLDCM is presented. Based on the saturation effect of the stator iron, six short voltage pulses are applied to determine the initial rotor position and the rotor can be found within 60°. After that, a series of short and long voltage pulses are used to accelerate the motor and the variation of the response current is utilized to detect the rotor position dynamically. When the motor reaches a certain speed at which the back-electromotive force (EMF) method can be applied, all the power devices are turned off and the running state of the motor is smoothly switched at the moment determined by the relationship between the terminal voltage waveform and the commutation phases. The experimental results verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed method.