Typically when I've seen this in Tiger, the issue has been either a
corrupt Finder plist or a corrupt loginwindow plist.
To resolve the issue, you'l have to either boot in Single User Mode
(SUM) or boot to some other drive.
Using the SUM method, power on the computer and hold down Command-S at
startup. This should boot you into your unix command line.
Tap the return key a couple of times to make sure you are at the input
prompt.
All commands will be given in brackets, do not type the brackets.
type [mount -uw /] - this command tells the system to mount your hard
drive as a readable/writable volume.
type [cd /Volumes] - change to the root->Volumes directory.
type [ls -la] - this lists the available volumes. Your hard drive
name should be listed here.
type [cd yourharddrivename] where yourharddrivename is, of course,
your hard drive name. If there are spaces, you may need to insert a
forward slash and space for that. So if the hard drive was named
Macintosh HD, the drive name would be Macintosh\ HD.
type [cd Users] moves us into the users folder of your hard drive.
type [ls -la] lists the possible user accounts on your system. Find
the one associated with your login; in this case for example, we'll
say the login is shawn
type [cd shawn]
type [cd Library] moves you into the library folder of shawn's home
directory.
type [cd Preferences] moves you into the preferences folder.
type [ls -la *finder*] This lists anything in the preferences with
"finder" in the name. you should come up with:
com.apple.finder.plist
type [mv com.apple.finder.plist com.apple.finder.old] renames the
plist file, disabling it.
type [ls -la *login*] should result in:
loginwindow.plist
com.apple.loginwindow.plist (if you don't get both, don't worry about
it. Just change the one that does show up.)
type [mv loginwindow.plist loginwindow.old]
type [mv com.apple.loginwindow.plist com.apple.loginwindow.old]
type reboot
with any luck, the progress bar should finish on boot, and let you
access your desktop.
As a side note, if you have an external drive you can boot to, the
commands above can all be done through the GUI. Simply rename the
files listed above (or move them to the trash without emptying the
trash) and reboot.
The OS is looking for these specific preference files by name, so if
they can't be found, because they aren't where they're supposed to be
or have been renamed, the OS will make a brand new file with the
correct name.
Hope this helps!
Bryan
On Sep 21, 2009, at 6:54 PM, Shawn Todd wrote:
To whom ever gets this, I've been scouring the web trying to solve
the problem as described by Dan who posted on your site a while ago.
I'm have the same problem and wonder if Dan or anyone else found a
solution.
Thanks
S. Todd
Dan's original post:
I have an older "lampshade" iMac that was recently upgraded to the
most recent system (presumably the latest Tiger) via Apple's Software
Update program and now it won't start up. It gets all the way to the
end of the blue progress bar at the "Starting Mac OS X" screen and
hangs. I've run Disk Warrior and Tech Tool and both found some volume
directory stuff to repair ... but it still hangs at the same place.
Any suggestions, or am I reduced to reinstalling the system (and all
it's updates)?
Dan
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