Put the OS X CD in the drive and reboot holding down the 'c' key until you see the Apple. Follow the screen until you get to the option 'utilities'. Do the same permissions check except this time use the repair option also. Updates can play havoc with permissions.

Thanks again. Well, my daughter decided she wanted to start completely fresh,and just get rid of everything...so we just wiped it out and started over. (Hope that was the right thing to do.) What is the best method for backing up your files,so that maybe we do not go through anything like this again? As soon as we got her mac registered again,and everything,it popped up with the most recent updates,and those were successful. (shew). Are there any 'updates' to be leary of? I've read a lot of complaints from people saying that their computers have gone kind of nuts after updating...so just trying to stay ahead of the game here. Thank you for trying to help us! have a great day!

>What is the best method for backing up your files,so that maybe we do not go through
>anything like this again?
Well, there are various different ways of backing up your data; the 'best' one depends purely on the circumstances. However, if you are referring to a full system backup, Panther doesn't have one built-in. You can use something like the free Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your hard drive onto another hard disk (external hard drives come in handy for this).

>Are there any 'updates' to be leary of?
Nothing in particular, although it's a good practice to update your computer as soon as possible, to prevent a buildup of updates, which makes your software more prone to problems.