[sthenic]

OK before I begin I am an idiot, I updated my version of OS X (10.1.3) with the old 10.0.4 update. I was surprised the system let me but now it hangs on immediate start up with a fatal crash message. Is there any way of avoiding a complete reinstall and retaining existing files.

Help...quick!

[pdjr]

There is. You need to boot into single-user mode. To do this, simply restart your computer while holding Command+S (aka Apple+S).

This will make the machine go into a character mode, so don't freak out and think that DOS is back.

At the system prompt, type in the following line:
fsck -y

This will get the computer to do some file checking. When it's done, the prompt may say something to the effect of "file system changed/modified."

If you see the "changed" line, type in the same line:
fsck -y

Once the computer gets past this without saying that something was changed or modified, type in the following line:
reboot

With any luck, this will solve your propblems. Anoter option would be to boot from the installation CD and run Disk First Aid.

Good luck.

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: pdjr ]

[sthenic]

Originally posted by pdjr:
<STRONG>There is. You need to boot into single-user mode. To do this, simply restart your computer while holding Command+S (aka Apple+S).

This will make the machine go into a character mode, so don't freak out and think that DOS is back.

At the system prompt, type in the following line:
fsck -y

This will get the computer to do some file checking. When it's done, the prompt may say something to the effect of "file system changed/modified."

If you see the "changed" line, type in the same line:
fsck -y

Once the computer gets past this without saying that something was changed or modified, type in the following line:
reboot

With any luck, this will solve your propblems. Anoter option would be to boot from the installation CD and run Disk First Aid.

Good luck.

[ 04-19-2002: Message edited by: pdjr ]</STRONG>

Thanks pdjr but no joy. While trying to get access to single user mode I still get the same message about hanging, then the screen freezes. I have run disk first aid in 9.2 and run Norton Disk Doctor deframenting the drive. I have also tried to reinstall OS X but it fails saying that it can't delete a folder and then gives me the option of restarting. Should I wipe the OS X system folder while in 9.2 and reinstall?

[msuper69]

Time to reinstall.

I would have thought the installer would have caught what you were attempting and chastised you for such a faux pas.

Oh well. Boot to OS 9 and backup your user directory first.

Good luck.

[K++]

His method wouldnt have worked anyway, this is a system problem, not a hard drive problem. Your system files are now incompatible with each other, fsck can do nothing for you so a reinstall is necessary.

[Xeo]

It's amazing. I was close to doing that too. I re-installed completely last night after moving to a different HD and had to update. Saw the 10.0.4 Combo update and read "10.1.4 combo" so I thought it was good to go. Then, since I hadn't seen it anywhere, and the size was about 30 MB too small, I checked around Apple's site before installing. At this point, I still hadn't caught the "oh" in there. Finally, after starting up the intaller and reading the README, I read "This updates 10.0, 10.0.1, 10.0.2, and 10.0.3. That's when it finally clicked. Heh. I'm glad I didn't. I guess I know the outcome now.

[sthenic]

OK, I have finally got my machine running 10.1.4 again. I had run 9.2 and then trashed the system folder. Even then I had some trouble with my original install disk, it went right through the process of installing the OS when right at the end it stopped saying that the folder could not be deleted. I kept having the same error but it booted into OS X anyway.

From there I went throught he usual slew of updates until eventually arriving back at 10.1.4. My bug with this situation is that I was allowed to update with an earlier version of the OS anyway, this coupled with the errors I was getting on the reinstall leads me to think that these updates are not as well thought out as their Classic equivalents. With Classic updates I never had a problem with any of the updates during the install and it always recognised compatible updates.

Finally can anyone tell me whre my iTunes library info is located, I have had to reinstall iTunes and lost its reference. I can access the old system folder in 9.2 trash, all other user specific info seems to retained.

Hey Apple bring on 10.2 and cut back on these damn tiny update steps, it is not user friendly. It is unreasonable to expect a Mac user who simply wants a credible computing experience to be chasing up these small steps. It is reasonable the for likes of the Mac faithful like ourselves here.

I look forward to the update that makes this OS totally kick ass, I'll be waiting a while I fear. Speed, speed and more speed, I have 700 plus megs of RAM, why must I wait for that bloody spinning disc to stop, some java heavy web sites leave me sitting there for 6 minutes or more!!!!