Panther startup problem

Recently installed Panther with noi problems. Yesterday I ran Norton Systemworks Disk Doctor and Speed Disk. I now get a black screen with this message in the upper left corner:

/etc/master.password: Not a directory
/etc/master.password: Not a directory
-sh:/etc/: Not a directory
-sh: 2.05b#

Have attempted Disk utility from the startup disk to repair permissions with no success. Sure would hate to have to rebuild the drive. BTW, the drive is partitioned with OS 9.2 on #2 and shared files on #3. The computer now boots to OS 9.2. I have to press the option key to even get it go to the drive that contains Panther.

Would be very grateful for any advice.

psymon

Personally, I would advise re-installing mac Os x. it seems that in my experiences, there may be a problem w/ the system folder files or something. I am not an expert in how it starts up and what could lead to this problem, but usually with startup problems I have encountered, re-installing the OS did the trick

-christophermac

Thank you
That indeed was the solution and was not that much trouble to do either.