System Boot Problems

[death_tap]

Having trouble booting into the system. All I get is the grey screen and the wheel spinning around underneath the Apple logo. It just goes round and round and round. Does not do anything.

Things I have tried:

1. Tried booting into safe mode by pressing the SHIFT button - no avail
2. Tried booting into single user mode and running fsck -fy - no avail
3. Ran fsck -fy then booted to su mode, got a wierd error regarding conflicting printers. I think this is the issue?
4. Mounted the directory and tried to move old preferences over from *.plist file - no avail
5. Did the same thing above for the login screen in case that was the issue - no avail

Any suggestions as to what else I can try? The only other option I can see now is to reboot using a CD, then running Disk Utility.

I will do this, but was wondering if there was another solution.

MacBook Pro, 15".
Tiger 10.4.11

 

[Egidio]

The only other option I can see now is to reboot using a CD, then running Disk Utility.

That is what I would recommend. Verify disk and also repair permissions when you do that.

Have you thought about what could have been causing this behavior? Did you install anything recently? RAM? Updates?

 

[death_tap]

That is what I would recommend. Verify disk and also repair permissions when you do that.

Have you thought about what could have been causing this behavior? Did you install anything recently? RAM? Updates?

There is a program called VectorWorks 2008. I tried to get rid of every instance of the program, what I didn't know is that it's preferences got linked to other files that require booting.

The process is long and boring, and I don't want to get into it. Let's just say I'm frustrated. I should keep an extra Mac OSX DVD at the office.