Help for FLOWER POWER imac!!!!?!!!!

It sounds like there is enough free hard drive space available, too. That being the case, don't worry about cleaning out files.

If you start up from the OS X install CD and click on the menu bar, you should be able to run Disk FirstAid on the partition that OS X is installed on by single clicking on that partition to highlight it.

Be careful not to erase the drive while doing so. Warnings will pop up before you do anything harmful, but be careful not to just click OK on anything without reading it carefully. (I speak from experience after having to explain to my boss why I deleted something from the company database recently...)

I checked her user folder and it is 6.71 GB. Mine is only 2.96 GB. I know after trying to download something from applewebsite (ipod related) and changing her account name and password) os x stopped working. Anything here that you might think is the problem.

If you can, try to create a new user profile with her new user name and password to see if that works. You would do that from within System Preferences in OS X by clicking the '+' symbol.

You may want to try doing an Archive Install. Be careful not to erase the hard drive, since you don't have a backup of the files. A word of warning is in order here, though. Even doing an Archive Install can be risky without having a backup. Doing anything without having a backup is risky.

An Archive Install requires at least 3GB of free hard drive space. More information on it is here.

found disk repair and just did disk repair. It said Hd disk has been repaired. Should I try restarting in os x or should I also just go in and do restore. I'm afraid if I get out and it won't start in os x that I won't be able to get in with the cd again. What do you think? I think I'm getting closer to solving the problem.

You don't want to erase anything by mistake, especially since it's your daughter's iMac, so be very careful. You're doing well, though. You've eliminated a lot of possible problems, and are getting closer.

It takes a long time to boot OS X from a CD, compared to OS 9.

If you still have problems with OS X, try creating a new user account. Especially since the problem happened right after changing the account name and password. It's a good idea to have an extra user account set up for times like these. Then you could boot into the other account if something went wrong with the main one.