When troubleshooting, performing maintenance, or otherwise starting up your Mac OSX computer in an abnormal fashion, there are a few keyboard shortcuts that you may or may not know about that can help you. Below is a list of them with an explanation of what they do: X = Force Mac OS X startup Option = Brings up a screen with startup volume choices (slow process, may take a while) Option+Command+Shift+Delete = Bypass primary startup volume and seek a different startup volume (such as a CD or external disk) C = Start up from a CD that has a system folder N = Attempt to start up from a compatible network server (NetBoot) T = Start up in FireWire Target Disk mode (very handy for plugging your Mac into another as an external hard drive) Shift = start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items and non-essential kernel extension files (Mac OS X 10.2 and later) Command+V = Start up in Verbose mode. Command+S = Start up in Single-User mode Command+Option+p+r = Zap PRAM. Hold down ...