Having a problem, no idea how to fix or categorize

Question

I had just installed the Tiger upgrade today, 10.4.3. After doing so and my Mac told me to reboot, it gave me the spinning wheel and woulnd't reboot. I manually shut down the Mac and turned it back on. The computer gave me the spinning wheel again at the login and wouldn't go any further. I turned off and on again. I finally was able to login and get to my desktop, but the spinning wheel appears and I have no access to anything. I was able to logon under a second account and that worked fine the first time I used it. I could access all my apps on that account. However, after going from there, logging off, and back to my regular account, the spinning wheel appeared again. A second attempt to go back to the alternate logon was fruitless as well. I have no clue what the issue is or how it might be fixed.

Answer 1

Prosser J,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
The first start after an OS update can take significantly longer than usual as the computer finishes updating prebinding / optimizing the system. Interrupting the computer at this stage runs a very real risk of damaging critical System files or the Finder itself.
As a first step, try booting from your OS X Install Disc to open Disk Utility from the Installer menu, then running Repair Disk on the hard drive. Take note of any errors reported. If errors are reported and noted as fixed, repeat Repaur Disk until it returns a clean bill of health or reports unrepairable errors --- it's common for one error to mask others, so always repeat repairs until all clear. You may want to refer to Using Disk Utility and fsck.
You can also tryHow to Start Up in Safe Mode (be aware you'll need to keep the shift key down until you actually see a message about starting up in safe mode; it's not like PCs where you can tap F2 once ot twice at startup to drop into BIOS).
Post back with the results form Repair Disk.