I have a PGP encrypted Macbook Pro (running Lion 10.7.1). I had 
previously decrypted the disk and uninstalled PGP before upgrading from 
Snow Leopard to Lion and then installing a newer Lion-compatible PGP 
(replacing a version that would not have worked with Lion) and 
re-encrypting the disk.

I don't use this machine very much, and hadn't had it on in a while. 
Today I turned it on and let it install a bunch of updates for the OS 
and various software, e.g. Java. It downloaded the updates and chugged 
through installing them, the progress bar got to 100%, and then there 
were some messages about writing files etc. Then I got a white screen 
with a spinning wheel, and in place of an Apple logo, there was (is) a 
circle with a line through it (see attached picture). I left for class 
and came back a couple of hours later to find it still in this 
condition. I powered it off and back on, and the Apple logo came up 
briefly, before reverting back to the international symbol for You Have 
Bricked Your Machine above the still spinning wheel.

Questions --

1. Is it completely toasted? (This is more of a rhetorical question.)

2. Now what? Take it to the Depot, from whence it came?

3. What caused this? Did I accept an update that I wasn't supposed to 
and/or was I supposed to install a newer PGP first?

4. Fortunately this not my main computer, and does not have anything of 
importance on it (I have it mostly for learning about Macs, and I 
suppose bricking the thing is part of the learning process). But what is 
a typical user of a PGP encrypted Mac supposed to do about updates? 
Don't ever do them without checking with your IT support person first??

-- 
Helen Read
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Mathematics&  Statistics
University of Vermont