acedickson said:
Unfortunately, I have neither. I'll have to go buy a copy of OS X then. What are the chances of repairing without the losing data and settings? I've got the important stuff backed up, but I'd like not to start from scratch.
I should have just guessed that you have neither because I see you have switched recently. Fortunately you won't have to start from scratch. If you reinstall your OS you can have everything that is on your computer now available to you.
Don't you already have OS X on hand?
If so here are the steps to reinstall the OS.
1. Put the OS X Install Disk 1 in the disk drive (be sure to hold down the eject button while rebooting the computer).
2. Shut off the computer after the disk is in the drive.
3. Boot up to the install disk by holding down the "C" key on your keyboard.
4. Follow the instructions in the first couple install steps and then stop when it asks you what drive you want to install OS X on. Select your computer's hard drive that should have a red exclamation mark on it.
5. Now look to the lower corner of the screen and click on the customize button.
6. Be sure to select the archive and install option.
7. Continue with the install process and you are finished!
All of your data will be backed up to your hard drive in the "Previous Systems" folder. You can access all of your files from your previous system back on your newly installed system because all of your files that were on your system prior to the point of the reinstall will be in the "Previous Systems" folder. You will be able to transfer everything but the kernel in place of your newly installed files. For example if you want your old documents they will be in the folder: /Previous Systems/Users/"Your Old Home Directory's Name"/Documents/. Just transfer them this folder on your hard drive: /Users/"Your New Home Directory's Name"/Documents/.
It is as easy as that for all of your files. If you want to, you can download the TinkerTool application (don't get in confused with the TinkerTool System application) from
http://www.versiontracker.com/ which will give you access to invisible files. To restore your system you can replace any of the files you want, but be sure to not replace any files related to your kernel so that you won't have to reinstall OS X again.
It would be a lot faster however if you had a firewire hard drive. You'd be able to put a clean version of OS X on it and just transfer a clean kernel file (from the new OS X version on your firewire hard drive) in place of your bad one on your computer's hard drive. If you'd like to do that instead, I can take you through that process.
If you don't understand certain things I mentioned above just ask me and I can clarify them better. Hopefully this will help you.
