Wally

Thank you for your pointer, which was a little cryptic until I inserted the (missing) 'Inside Macintosh:' for myself, and pulled the relevant volume off the shelf. What I gather is that I am suffering from a persistent alias to Quantum 250MB, jealously guarded in some location by AppleShare. If I can induce Alias Manager to help me to assassinate Quantum 250MB I may get somewhere, but, if I cannot do so, it's back to scorched earth and reinstall, as forecast.

My thanks to all three of you above for your advice.

de