Mac OS-X Tiger won't start!

This problem just came up today. I tried starting it up and everything goes normally.
the loading bar that says "Mac OSX starting" works fine.
The mouse pointer appears as normal.
The dock will not appear. The menu bar at the top will not appear. No desktop icons will appear. My dekstop's background image will not appear.

There has to be another way to start a program other than graphically. Please help. I have homework due.


Thank you in advance.

durruti said:

I'd try to boot up in "Safe mode"
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455

If you get in, run Disk Utility and Repair....then reboot.

Click to expand...

I did get in -using the boot disk- and I'm trying to repair the disk.