<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Dec 19, 2006, at 3:46 PM, Roger Donaghy wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lucida Grande; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; ">Thanks to everyone who responded to my message this morning.<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Starting the machine in Firewire Target mode worked and I am able to access files.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Also, I called Applecare and the person I spoke to suggested booting off a CD containing the Apple Hardware Test. I haven't had a chance to do that because I'm still double checking to make sure that essential data on the machine is redundant.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>I'm not sure if the fact that I can access the hard drive's files through Target mode means that this problem is being caused by something other than a faulty hard drive.</DIV></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV><DIV>It sounds like there's some kind of directory damage on the drive, which may have damaged your Mac OS X installation. I would attempt booting into single user mode; if that works, follow the directions on the screen and run fsck to try to repair the damage. You can read about single user mode at <A href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106388">http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106388</A>.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Since target disk mode does work, you could also use it to mount a drive on a machine that can run DiskWarrior and repair the drive that way.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV> -- Al</DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lucida Grande; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lucida Grande; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Lucida Grande; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Lucida Grande">______________________________</FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Lucida Grande">Albert Willis</FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Lucida Grande">Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team</FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px">Client Support Services</P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Lucida Grande">Information Services and Technology</FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Lucida Grande">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Lucida Grande" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Lucida Grande"><A href="mailto:awillis@mit.edu">awillis@mit.edu</A></FONT></P><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>