Can't get past gray start up screen after failed software update

Uh-oh. I think I'm in trouble now.
This afternoon I was trying to do a software update on my iBook. After about an hour and a half, there hadn't been any progress, so I figured it had frozen, and forced it to quit. When I tried to start it back up again, it comes up to the gray start up screen, and then just sits there and spins. Here's what I've tried so far:
Safe mode- doesn't work, just sits at gray screen
Using option key- shows my HD, I select it, sits at gray screen
Using OSX installer disk- I'm able to get to disc utility this way. SMART status says verified, ran repair disk and it found no errors. Tried to run repair permissions and it just sat there for about 3 hours with the bar spinning blue and white, but not actually filling up. It wouldn't allow me to stop repair permissions, so I had to force it to stop. I thought about reinstalling, but I don't have enough space on my HD.
So, that's where I am at this point. Now I find out how I've managed to mess things up so completely, and cross my fingers that someone will please, please, please have an answer. Thanks!

Kristen Stanton wrote:
I tried to backup my iBook HD using target disc mode, but it wouldn't work. The target computer (G4 running 10.4) would come up to the blue screen with the FireWire logo bouncing around, and would go no further.
I think the problem there is that you need to boot the iBook with the T key held down, not the G4(10.4). What this does is mounts your iBook's drive on the G4. The bouncing FireWire logo should be on your iBook, not your G4. This means that you connect the two machines, hold down the T key on the problem computer to mount the volumes onto the working computer.
There shouldn't be a compatibility problem because it mounts it as an external hard drive (not necessarily a boot volume.)
Will the disc come out of the iBook when there is no longer a FireWire cable connecting to both computers?
Let me know...
D.

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