sorry, i don't check this forum on a regular basis. your problem sounds similar to what happens on my imac. i have to unplug the firewire drive and then it finishes booting. i then plug it back in. works fine and will continue to reboot untill i boot in 9 and go back to osx. then i repeat procedure and move on. I believe i need to update the firmware on my maxtor but am putting this off since maxtor is such a pain to deal with.
at any rate, try unplugging and plugging and see what happens.
