Serious OS problem

Harp

Harp

Raised by wolves
Mac OSX 10.4.7

I was installing the latest system updates when my system froze and I was forced to shut down manually (by holding the power button).

The restart now does not progress past the apple symbol with the little spinning bars below it.

I have run a hardware test (just incase) and also run Disk Utility from the OSX install disk (which repaired a TON of bad permissions and I even had to run it multiple times to fix them all) but still no progress in the startup.

I reeeaally don't want to have to reinstall the OS because I use the final cut studio and that takes hours to install - also I have a couple of word files that have not yet been backed up.

Is there a way that I can repair or reinstall the OS without having to erase everything? or maybe some way to finish the update that was cancelled before?

I have access to the terminal and a few other utilities via the install disk but that's about it.
 
If you can get ahold of another Mac, you could boot yours up in Firewire Disk Mode (by holding down the T key at startup). Then connect your Mac to the other Mac and install the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo update with your computer's hard drive as the installation target.
 
Would it be possible to install OSX on a scratch disk and then set that as the startup drive in order to finish the update? Pull a switcheroo?
 
Yes, it should be. The drive that you're not booting from will just show up as a secondary drive, then you can run the update on it.
 
Hmm, the OSX install disk is telling me that it can't be installed on a scratch because the system can't start up from the volume. Is there a way of tricking this?
 
Actually, if you booted up from the installer and then erased the scratch disk, you'll have to reboot before the installer will recognize the erased disk as a valid location for installation.
 
I feel your pain. Just a FYI, I run FCP all the time and to avoid this kind of problem (seems to happen me every 12 or so .X updates) I used Carbon Copy Cloner to back up my system drive to an external firewire drive. I run the backup once a month and before I run any Apple updates - any. Good luck to you!
 
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