Noticed that all the files on my 10.9.5 partition had a "...fetching" owner entry in the get info dialog box. So, I decided to delete that. Not a good idea, especially since Adobe has killed off the activation servers for CS4. So, I'm now stuck with an unuseable copy of Photoshop that I bought a few years ago and had been using with no problems until now. On a whim, I decided to try booting off my old Mac Pro's hard drive, which I have in an external USB case. Strangely enough, it booted all the way and was functional - last time I tried this was with my old mid-2010 MBP, and wound up having it freeze up solid as soon as the desktop appeared. Anyway, with the computer booted off that hard drive, I opened up the copy of Photoshop CS4 that I'd installed on that drive. Worked perfectly.

So, my question is, to get Photoshop working again, should I just clone the external drive to my current 10.9.5 partition, or is there a way to locate the necessary files from that drive and copy them to the current internal drive partition and regain access to Photoshop? The other option would be to nuke the CS4 install and downgrade to the non-activation server version of CS3 that's on the 'garden. Use that on this computer, and use CS4 on the Mac Pro that will be joining the collection in a few weeks.