Verbose start up mode

Question

After visiting the genius youngsters at apple, my 27" iMac running 10.8.5  will still not start up after they told me to erase my drive and reinstall the OS.
( long story as to why they told me to do that, which made no since )
Now I'm left to figuring out on my own.
Can not get past the the grey start up screen.
Have tried all the tricks and key options, to no avail.  I can boot up in (option key) in recovery mode, however it gives me a choice of disk, or recovery disk.
If I go to disk, it stays frozen on the grey screen and will not go to finder.
If I go to recovery, I'm able to access disk utilities  and use, (says all is good with disk) but when I leave that and go to start up disk, it again freezes.
Anything that goes to the finder( never makes it there), and it freezes.
I've reinstalled the OS 4 times with the same issue each time.
However, there are a couple of things I have noticed during the processes.
When I verify permissions, it tells me that,
"Group differs on library/preferences/com.apple.alf.plist, should be 80, group is 0"
Permissions differ on "system/library/framework/core graphics.framework/resources"
Permissions differ on "system/library/framework/core graphics.framework/core graphics"
Permissions differ on "system/library/framework/core graphics.framework/versions/current"
Not sure if that points to a hardware failure or not.
Also I noticed when I start up in verbose mode ( cmd-shift-V) that I get  1 line in the start up process that concerns me. ( all the text displays, just 1 line that raises a ?)
It says " boot cache control: unable to open /var/db/bootcaches/preheateduser/merged.playlist: 2 no such file or directory
Any thoughts anyone?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
  1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
  2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
  3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
  4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.