MacBook won't boot because of permissions!?!?

Hi,
I managed to really mess up my MacBook... And when I try to boot it now it sits on the boot screen with the apple logo and the spinning wheel...
I have tried most things to reboot except for using the install disk (my drive won't read most DVDs for some reason ).
When booting into safe mode with the shiftctrv it runs through a whole long list of files it skips because of suspect permissions then says "hit rate below threshold".
Is there any way to fix this from single user mode?

You can run a "verify permissions" from single user mode, as long as it does take you to a terminal.
diskutil repairpermissions /
will do the same as the Disk Utility function.

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Thanks for the reply but it isn't a hard drive issue. I have tested the hard drive in an external enclosure and it's working fine. I even put in another hard drive i have and it wont boot that either. I'm thinking its a logic board issue. Any one know best place to get logic board replacement near london for cheap

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ndelc wrote:
When I looked at the permissions for the HD in FW Target Disk mode, it was set to:
System: Read/Write
Admin: Read/Write
Everyone: Read Only
This is not your problem unless you have changed the r/w for special accounts elsewhere.
I have the same on my HD. But it's the individual files that are important.
Nothing there indicates that it should be locking her account out.
How do you create a new admin account from the Leopard DVD? It wouldn't allow me to do much of anything except Disk Utility.
I have not done it so I don't know, but there is a way to create a new administrator account using the DVD. Search these forums because I know others have done it.
Would it be possible to attempt to change things back by booting into single user mode? If so, what do I need to do?
I am not sure you can even boot into the Single User mode, or do you mean the Super User mode?
You have taken write privs away from everyone so I believe only a Super User can fix it. I am not even sure the Sudo will work in your case.
Thanks for your help!
If you find out how to access your drive from the Leopard DVD, you need to invoke SU privileges and undo whatever it was you did.
Were you using Time Machine? That would make fixing it a piece of cake. Just revert to the last backup before you made these changes.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

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I backed up all the user files and then wiped and restored the OS and Applications and user files. I couldn't tell if there were user files missing as it wasn't my computer but at least it got fixed! DiskWarrior has now joined my arsenal of fix-it apps.

MacBook won't boot because of permissions!?!?

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