iMac 24" Mac OSX 10.6 wont boot

[MacUser8234]

I am having a problem with my iMac not booting. It gets stuck on the gray screen, apple logo and spinning gear. I have done most of the basic troubleshootin...Safe Boot, Reseting NVRAM/PRAM, running Disk Utilities from OSX Leopard install DVD, removed all connections (only running mouse/KB), ALL to no success!! Repair disk utility confirms HD is OK no issues, permission repairs gives the following error: "/System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent" - has been modified and will not be repaired.
I also get "ACL found but not expected - Repaired "Users/Shared"
After a reboot it just hangs on the gray screen. Any help??? Am I at a total loss??
I have also ran the Safe Boot in Verbose mode and I get the following messages after it halts....see image attached. Sorry for the blurry image..taken from cell phone..

Thanks for any input!

Oh I forgot to mention how I got into this mess in the 1st place....I was installing an update from Apple 10.6.xx something rather, whatever the last update was earlier this week from Apple for the OS 10.6 Just like any other time Ive updated, downloaded and then did the restart....this time the machine hanged up on the reboot with the "colorful" spinning wheel (about 30 min) before I forced the shutdown. It all went to hell from there....

 

[rkaufmann87]

Run Apple Hardware Test in extended mode to see if anything fails.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

Roger

 

[MacUser8234]

Ran AHT and found No Issues. I still think its a S/W problem rather than a H/W. Any other suggestions, anyone??

Is my last resort a re-install? How will this affect my data files (Documents/Downloads folder) more specific? I dont mine the install as long as my personal data is still there once I do the upgrade install.

thanks!

 

[old-wiz]

Ran AHT and found No Issues. I still think its a S/W problem rather than a H/W. Any other suggestions, anyone??

Is my last resort a re-install? How will this affect my data files (Documents/Downloads folder) more specific? I dont mine the install as long as my personal data is still there once I do the upgrade install.

thanks!

You would still be smart to have an external backup of your data files, regardless of how you plan to re-install.

 

[MacUser8234]

It would be smart, but its over a year old from Time Machine. Anyway to copy only certain folder from TM without doing a complete restore?

Other suggestions?

 

[MacUser8234]

Well I guess I just got tired of procrastinating and installed OS X 10.6 again. All my setting, data, applications and same pwd were in tact!!

All up and running in less than 45 min