STILL LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION

Question

This is my second try  at finding a solution. First though  an apology to fruhulda who  responded to my question this morning. Sorry I did not reply, but I was unable to find a way to start another message and have been unable to reload that page now. But I believe she asked what kind of equipment I am using, (The answer: iMac 4,1 . . . Intel Core Duo Processor  . . .OSx.4. and AppleWorks 6 (which came with my computer).
I also am now totally out of ideas for restoring  Appleworks (which really isn't even my favorite word processing  software). I prefer Word and InDesign for serious docs, but usually click on AppleWorks because it is so simple and convenient for  most quick  documents).
It had been working fine until yesterday morning when it suddenly refused to  start.Initially, I thought  I might have too many  open documents, so spent several hours  trying to complete and close as many Photoshop  projects as possible. Also checked my overall  storage capacity and  confirmed that probaby was not the problem either.
I then went on a hunt for all the  AW preference  files I could find . . .  and deleted com.apple.appleworks.plist in the preference folder  and all three files except the "button bars" in Library/Preferences/AppleWorks folder.Then following, Roger (W's) advice, Ideleted the contents of the 3 subfolders inside the 3 folders in the AppleWorks User Data. Actually did that so many times, I lsoy track of what I was doing, but  luckily had saved all those  deleted files inside the trash folder, without dumping it, thinking  that if necessary, I could always go back and  put them where I started. But by then, I was so confused and frustrated, I was no longer certain of where I found them, so just  put them in a new folder with n unrelated name and kid them away on my desktop, for now.
After that (or maybe along the way, I also  reloaded  AW multiple times from the original Apple disks; but that didn't work either. Considered  running Disk First Aid, but the disk I pulled out must have been from an earlier Mac, because it didn't work with the current system.
It feels like I've hit a brick wall, because I've run out of ideas. Have considered uninstalling and then reinstalling Appleworks, but am wondering if that might  worsen things (if possible).
The only shred of luck I've had all day after almost  pulling out every hair on my head) was managing to unlock the files I needed immediately (using Eext Edit and  Word. It's only Saturday, but it's already starting to feel like the "Lost Weekend." Can't remember  the last time I ran into  problem as frustrating as this one, btu  am guessing probably a couple of years. But I'm still hoping to solve it, so I can at least learn something from the experience.

Answer 1

Hi again, Peggy . . .
Hope you don’t think my delay in responding is a due to lack of appreciation of your efforts. Actually, it’s because of my difficulty in posting my responses. But with each delay I’ve also had an opportunity to re-examine all my  Mac disks and trace the history of Apple Works on my current  computer.
More importantly, it also enabled me to refresh my memory of the sequence of iMacs I’ve owned  in the past decade. With each new purchase, I’ve usually tried to keep the most recent Mac running on a local network — mainly in order to access original documents created with older software (such as Pagemaker) for clients.
Until I ran into the current problem with AW, I had completely forgotten  that my primary CPU in 2006 also was an iMac and that the cost of replacing its CD tray (which had failed unexpectedly) was my excuse for purchasing  my current dual processor Mac/intel, fortuitously just being introduced at that time.
in the switchover, I used firewire to transfer as many folders and individual documents as possible from the network—only realziing afterward that some were incompatible with the new operating system.
Sorting thru the various software iMac installation disks yesterday, I also realized that AW came from a set of iMac disks created in 2001 (so probably belonging to the cpu described above) . . . which included both OS 9;2 and 10.04 and a separate disk containing a bundle of third party applications. Although both the disk and its icon only refer to it as AppleWorks 6, File Information does identify it as AppleWorks 6.2 (i.e., not 6.2.4).
Aside from that discrepancy, the contents of the AW folders on my computer match all the constituent  parts on your screenshot. Also, while  it is not version 6.2.4 (the minimum requirement for running on Tiger and all later  oprating systems) it had been working trouble-free on my iMac since 2006, until it froze in its tracks  during the past weekend.
I have lost track of how many times I meticulously have followed the steps for removing  all the preference files; but AW still does not  boot up.
I also ran Disk First Aid, which found a pretty long list of errors when verifying permissions. But since they ALL applied only to my  printer (XEROX Phaser 8560) which never has operational problems, I chose to ignore theme.
Disk Utility stopped verifying iMac itself, because ” the underlying task reported failure on exit.”
The truncated report showed:
Verifying volume “iMac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Illegal name
Illegal name
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking multi-linked files.
og hierarchy.”,0)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Checking volume information.
me free block count”,0)
(It should be 14688976 instead of 14688971)
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume iMac needs to be repaired.
Although it recommended repair, the repair disk  option was dimmed.
In general, problems like this one don't bother me. In fact, in some ways I enjoy the challenge, because  ultimately there's usually a lesson to be learned. But in this case, I'm starting to wonder if it's worth the time and effort, since I've always considered AppleWorks  just a convenience . . . not a feature-rich work horse, like  MS Word . ..or  InDesign, which is fully compatible with other Adobe apps.  
) was my excuse for purchasing  my current dual processor Mac/intel,which fortuitously was just being introduced at that time.
in the switchover, I used firewire to transfer as many folders and individual documents as possible fromthe network—only realziing afterward that some were incompatible with the new operating system.
Sorting thru the  various software iMac installation disks yesterday, I also realized that AW came from a set of disks  created in 2001, which included both OS 9;2 and  10.04 and a  separate disk containing a bundle of third party applications. Although both the disk and its icon only refer to it as AppleWorks 6, File Information does identify it as AppleWorks 6.2
Aside from that discrepancy, the contents of he AW folders on my computer match all the constituent  parts on your screenshot. Also, while  it is not version 6.2.4 (the minimum requirement to run on Tiger and all later  oprating systems) it had been  working trouble-free on my iMac since 2006 until it froze   in its tracks  during the past weekend.
I have lost track of how many times I’ve followed meticulously  the steps for removing  all the preference files; but AW still does not  boot up.
I also ran Disk First Aid, which found  a pretty long list of errors when verifying permissions. But since they ALL applied only to my  printer (XEROX Phaser 8560) which never has operational problems, I chose to ignore theme.
Disk Utility stopped verifying “iMac” because “.” the underlying task reported failure on exit.”
The truncated report showed:
Verifying volume “iMac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Illegal name
Illegal name
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking multi-linked files.
og hierarchy.”,0)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
Checking volume information.
me free block count”,0)
(It should be 14688976 instead of 14688971)
Volume Header needs minor repair
The volume iMac needs to be repaired.
although it recommended repair, the repair disk  option was dimmed.