Question : Problem: Can't run fsck -yf in single-user mode - what next

Running OS 10.4.x on an eMac.  Was getting slow downs, etc.  After one restart, got a chaotic looking desktop (like a monitor issue?). After forced restart, got the endless clock under the Apple logo on gray screen.  A restart in single-user mode yielded the following:

using 1310 buffer headers and 1310 cluster IO buffer headers
USB caused wake event (EHCI)
FireWire (OHCI Apple ID 31 built-in now active, GUID 00d93ff feadac12; max speed s400
Security auditing service present
BSM auditing present
disabled
rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 46834300-7BDE-3AF3-BD90-E7661C7B6D78
Waiting on IOProviderClassy>IOResources>IOResourceMatchring ID="2">book-uuid-mediaring>t>
Got boot device = IOService:/MacRISC2PE/pci@f4000000/AppleMacRiscPCI/ata-6@D/AppleKauaiATA/ATADeviceNub@0/IOATABlockStorageDriver/IOATABlockStorageDevice/IOBlockStorageDriver/ST380011A Media/IOApplePartitionScheme/Untitled@3
BSD root: disk0s3, major 14, minor 2
jnl:replay_journal: from: 7267328 to: 2543104 (joffset 0x8601000)
disk0s3: I/O error.
jnl: do_jnl_lo: strategey err 0x5
jnl: replay_journal: Could not read block list header block @ 0x7eca00!
jnl: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs: early jnl init: failed to open/created the journal (retval 0).
disk0s3: I/O error.
disk0s3: I/O error.
disk0s3: I/O error.

[cannot input anything - cursor is static]
What now?  Can't get disk tray to open. Don't own DiskWarrior.

Answer : Problem: Can't run fsck -yf in single-user mode - what next

You should definitely try to get the data off your drive using firewire target disk mode if your drive is not too badly damaged to mount in FTD.

Diskwarrior might well rescue your drive since the S.M.A.R.T. status does not suggest a hardware failure.

On the other hand, for the price of DW, you could probably replace the drive in the eMac altogether with a newer and bigger one, put the old drive into an external USB case, install OS X on the new drive, then use migration assistant to restore the data and settings from the old drive.