Thanks everyone who tried to help, really appreciated.

I had already tried the permissions and disc but well i did the old 'if at first you don't succeed try try again' since the permissions and disc repair seemed to be the popular choice and the off and on and the extensions off.... nothing. Looked like I was going to be very glad i spent the time cleaning everything up and doing that backup.

Time for the better motto ...' if at first you don't succeed try something different' and quite prepared to go the whole way started the installation and there was the answer. I couldn't upgrade cos i already had 10.3.8 and the discs are 10.3.4 but to my surprise i still had two options.... wipe everything and start afresh or have the system folder set aside and a new one created. I took the set aside option and even remembered this time to do a custom install and avoid the foreign bits and in no time at all i was back up and running everything working fine. Bit the bullet and loaded the 10.3.7 upgrade i have on disc.... still not game to go to the 10.3.8 incase that was the problem but i'm sure i'll give it a go later today.

???? what do i do with the 'previous system' folder...trash it?

Yvonne

On 24/03/2005, at 4:08 PM, Shay Telfer wrote:

I have just upgraded from 10.2.8 to 10.3.4 then downloaded the 10.3.8 updater. I am working on it to send this email which at least tells me some things are ok. I have the dock showing so can use most that was in my dock [address book wont work] and with 10.2.8 I was using alias menu so once i bring up anything in the dock I get top tool bar with the alias pull down menus and can open those applications etc

BUT I have no finder and finder, the finder icon in dock does not work and anything else that was on the desktop has vanished too...........how can I get my finder back and desktop stuff without having to do a clean install?

I did do a full backup yesterday just to be on the safe side but wold rather not have to go down that track.

Try restarting the machine, I find that sometimes the finder just locks up.

Also, run Disk Utility and do a Repair Privileges.

Try booting with the shift key held down to disable any 3rd party kernel extensions. If this works then you'll need to work out which extensions to remove, as one's obviously causing some problems.

Good luck,
Shay
--
=========================== Shay Telfer ================================
 Perth, Western Australia   Technomancer  Join Team Sungroper in the
 Opinions for hire              [POQ]     2005 World Solar Challenge
 http://public.xdi.org/=Shay    fnord     <http://sungroper.asn.au/>

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