My hard disk is full and I can't get to safe mode

I turned on my iMac (20in 2008 model) and after the apple logo appears, I get a gray screen that says "process 1 exec of sbin/launched failed". I'm pretty sure it's because my hard disk is full. I tried booting up in safe mode, but my wireless keyboard battery died. I put in new batteries, but I need to get to the desktop to reconnect the keyboard. I tried using a usb wired keyboard, but it doesn't power up until I'm on the desktop screen. I don't know what else to do. I need a keyboard to boot to safe mode, but I need to be fully booted to work the keyboard. Any advice would help.

Boot the computer from your OS X installer DVD.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
      logo appears.
5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Clean Install of Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue
         button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
         After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
         and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
         (Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
         username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
         Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
         install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
         Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.

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This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
Start the notebook in Safe Mode and let Windows fully load. Hold down the Windows key and press R. In to the Run box type msconfig and hit enter. In the following window, click the Start up tab, remove the tick next to each start up item and then click Apply to make the change. Restart the notebook and see if it now boots normally. If it does, re-enable one start up item at a time, click Apply and reboot to check if it still runs ok. Keep doing this until you encounter the problem and you will know the last program you set to start is causing the issue.
Regards,
DP-K
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Occam's Razor nearly always applies when troubleshooting technology issues!
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Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
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b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.

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