Unable to Open /var/db/BootCaches/PreheatedUser/Merged.playlist

Running Mavericks and Disc Utility and fsck report no errors.

Safe Boot reports Unable to open /var/db/BootCaches/PreheatedUser/Merged.playlist.

Found a tutorial (or three) recommending to enter Single User mode to:

fsck -fy
mount -uw /
rm -rf /etc/launchd.conf
reboot

However /etc/launchd.conf doesn't appear to exist.

Additionally I'm starting Safe Boot in verbose mode (⇧ + ⌘ + v while starting) it says it's logging to /dev/console but I'm not sure how to access the data say by having it written to a file I could later read or pipe to mail or printer.

At the moment the computer, even in Safe Boot, gets stuck somewhere between loading the desktop image, status bar at the top and showing the apps at the bottom of the screen.