Help! Boot problems

[yippy]

Ok ok, so the title is a little deceiving. I can boot my computer, however, I cannot easily change the boot drive.

When I boot the computer holding the option key it starts showing the possible boot volumes but before the mouse changes from a watch to a pointer the computer freezes and you can't move the mouse. I let it sit like this for a few minutes before hard restarting the computer. This has happened several times. Any ideas?

The computer is a FW800 Single 1Ghz w/768mb ram and 4 hard drives, 60Gb, 30Gb, 3Gb, and 2Gb.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Let it sit for a good long while. It is actually loading all possible forms of startup. It can take a while. And I mean a LONG while.

Press and hold X to start up into OS X (one time thing). Helpful hint.

 

[yippy]

I have done it before on other computers and the mouse never froze before, it always moved, that is why I am concerned.