[MacPino]

Since yesterday I'm experiencing a very weird problem on my MacBook.

I demonstrated bootcamp to a friend, so I restarted into Windows, which worked fine. After some fiddling around I rebooted into MacOS X. It restarts, goes to the desktop (very briefly, maybe 5 seconds), then logs itself out again (the spinning circle shows for some time). After about 30 seconds, it will reach my desktop again, for a few seconds.

I think there might be a problem with some process still trying to logout, but I don't have any means to check this.

What I already did:
*zapped the PRam
*repaired permissions

I cannot do an archive and install, the disk is almost full. I don't have another Mac handy easily to backup. The hardware is (probably) completely o.k.: I'm writing this from my Windows bootcamp partition, which works fine.

Does anybody know a solution to this problem, or have any ideas?

[kick52]

you may want to get rid of some of that stuff on your HD.

if it is too full, OS X can pickup some weird problems.

[OreoCookie]

Backups are essential, regardless of the OS or what kind of user you are. You should back up your data regularly.

(1) Repair permissions using Disk Utility with the OS X install disc.

(2) I would try to create a new user and then tell us whether you still have the same problem with the new user. If you have only one user, there is little else you can do but delete your windows partition and reinstall OS X. (Unless you can get a hold of another Mac, etc.)

[MacPino]

kick52: the disk is full, but not that full. I've got about 3gb left free, that should be enough for os X to still work decently.

OreoCookie: (permissions were repaired with the startup disk) Is there a way to remove the Windows partition and reclaming that space for os X without harming the data on the os X partition? The partition is only there for bragging rights anyway, so I don't mind. For the record: I do make backups, the last one is a few weeks old, so it's not that big of a deal. I just think there might be an easier way than formatting the whole bunch.

alternatively, is it possible to make a new user without access to the "normal" MacOS X environment, e.g. with the install disk or in single user mode (which works)?

[OreoCookie]

Disk Utility should be able to reformat your windows partition. I have never tried this (because I have never tried to install Windows on my ProBook), but you can delete partitions selectively and create new filesystems on them.

But then, you'd have two OS X partitions.

In the mid term, I would get an external harddrive. About a month ago, I got an external FireWire hd case (which included all cables already!) and a 400 GB Samsung drive for 110-120 Euros. It's a good investment.