Apple Knowledge Base: Trouble installing Leopard, trouble starting up afterwards

Two recently updated Apple Knowledge Base articles warn of leftover files from the past which, if still present when you upgrade to Leopard, can cause an inability to start up properly:

• If the Finder doesn't fully load, the problem may be the Divxnetworks.prev file in your /Library/Application Support folder. The article provides instructions for removing it.

• Old Apogee FireWire audio drivers can prevent the computer from starting up. The problem resides in an extension file called AppleFWAudio.kext. The article explains how to remove it.

Another article covers a case we've heard of from readers where a Leopard installation goes awry and after that the only option offered by the installer is to perform an Erase and Install, which would involve loss of your data unless you've a backup on another partition. The article offers three explanations: you might have a TechTool Pro eDrive on that volume, which can be removed; there may be problems with the disk at the file system level, which can perhaps be fixed with Disk Utility; or the partition type might be incorrect (in which case you're going to be erasing the disk anyway).

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