Why do I have to Safe Boot?

So I did 2 fresh installs and 3 backups from Time Machine. I am constantly getting the prohibitory icon after shutting down. I am so afraid to shut down bc of this. I am so frustrated with this issue, it's unbelievable. I going to take it to the Apple Store as soon as I get enough gas in my car because California knows how to break you when you always have to pay tolls. 45 miles is the closest A.S.
Does anyone know what can be going wrong? It would be worth it to find a solution to this before I drive those dreadful miles.

I did 2 fresh installs and 3 backups from Time Machine

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3 Back ups or 3 restores?

getting the prohibitory icon after shutting down

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How about a pic of the icon

oops...yeah 3 restores

this is the icon that shows up everytime I try to boot up...it's constant like a migraine

You say that you did 2 fresh installs, and 3 backups from time machine, but don't suggest that you tested it before restoring from time machine!
I think you need to do a clean install..... zeroing out your hard drive, and then test it before you do any restoring.
Before you do that, you could set up a new admin user account, log out of the old and boot into the new to test things out!

I have seen some reports of this perhaps being caused by a bad or missing driver. Try disconnecting any external devices. If the Mac boots try downloading and installing the most recent combo updater for your OS.

If you find that you still need to safe boot do you have another machine that you could use to download the combo updater? The reports I have seen suggest that reinstall of 10.6 fixed the problem but i would try the combo updater first.

+1 for my friend's suggestion above

just finished a fresh install...will let you guys know when I wake p in the afternoon..real tired...

After you've got this sorted out and for others reading this:

This right here is one fine example of where a SuperDuper! back up pays for itself in spades.

You've installed some app that is now causing a kernel panic on boot or refusing to allow the machine to boot - boot to the backup, browse to the log on the internal drive and quite often you can find the offending application and remove what is causing the issue or just restore the machine from the external drive. I've done a restore of just over 100GB in under an hour.

Please bobtomay..... can we get a sticky thread on the importance of backups, especially clones, and as to the many instances that it would have been a lifesaver, or at least a reason as to not head to the medicine cabinet for pain relief?

6string,

+1 for such a sticky.
As long as the sticky does not only talk about ' tools ', it should talk about having a backup strategy and what the criteria are for setting up a backup strategy.

Cheers ... McBie

6string said:

Please bobtomay..... can we get a sticky thread on the importance of backups, especially clones, and as to the many instances that it would have been a lifesaver, or at least a reason as to not head to the medicine cabinet for pain relief?

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it would be very stupid to inform me of backups...i have backups of before & after installs...I could go back to a backup when I first got my external hd...this problem just started the other day and no matter what I do it does it...last night i did a zero out and a fresh install again. only thing I restored was my bookmarks, my music, pictures and documents.

so far no problem but I'm not putting my hopes up

bobtomay said:

After you've got this sorted out and for others reading this:

This right here is one fine example of where a SuperDuper! back up pays for itself in spades.

You've installed some app that is now causing a kernel panic on boot or refusing to allow the machine to boot - boot to the backup, browse to the log on the internal drive and quite often you can find the offending application and remove what is causing the issue or just restore the machine from the external drive. I've done a restore of just over 100GB in under an hour.

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hey bob how can I browse to the log...

or better yet...i found this in console

3/29/10 2:45:28 AM com.apple.service_helper[89] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.backupd-auto
3/29/10 2:45:28 AM com.apple.service_helper[89] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.backupd-wake
3/29/10 2:45:28 AM com.apple.service_helper[89] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.backupd-attach

would this have anything to do with it

p3ezi(moto) said:

it would be very stupid to inform me of backups...i have backups of before & after installs...I could go back to a backup when I first got my external hd...this problem just started the other day and no matter what I do it does it...last night i did a zero out and a fresh install again. only thing I restored was my bookmarks, my music, pictures and documents.

so far no problem but I'm not putting my hopes up

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I was highlighting the importance......... and your situation would not be what it is now if you didn't have a backup!
Having a CCC or SuperDuper Clone would have had you rectifying the situation almost immediately!

i don't believe it's the backups though 6...well since the 10.6.3 update I haven't had one issue...

Well if it works after the clean install (including zeroing out the drive) and you restored from your backup and the problem comes back, then you know it is a corrupt backup. Otherwise, it just may have been corrupted files on your internal hard drive.
As long as things are running good at the moment, this would be a good time to get a fresh backup of your system.... And I still recommend a clone, as it is so fast for transfering data, and being bootable, is great when it comes to troubleshooting corrupt files or failing or failed HD, as well as replacing a HD.

And you found it, the console logs can often point to the issue. One of the things to try in situations like this is, as you found, re-install the combo update once the regular troubleshooting steps haven't helped.

bobtomay said:

And you found it, the console logs can often point to the issue. One of the things to try in situations like this is, as you found, re-install the combo update once the regular troubleshooting steps haven't helped.

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thanks bob and 6 you were real helpful

Considering that update came out yesterday, I doubt that that was the miracle cure that solved your issues. I think it's more likely that something in your system files became corrupted, Time Machine backed it up, and then when you restored from TM after your fresh install, it restored those same system files. You did the right thing by only restoring certain file types. Knock on wood, your issue is resolved!

DarkestRitual said:

Considering that update came out yesterday, I doubt that that was the miracle cure that solved your issues. I think it's more likely that something in your system files became corrupted, Time Machine backed it up, and then when you restored from TM after your fresh install, it restored those same system files. You did the right thing by only restoring certain file types. Knock on wood, your issue is resolved!

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yeah I'm taking precautions. The update did just arrive yesterday and sorry to say but yesterday and today were the only days I didn't have to safe boot.