Blue screen and spinning wheel at startup

I had permission problems (locked time machine drive) so I did a full time machine restore.
Did the restart after the restore.
Machine won't reboot.
I get 'bong', apple logo on grey screen as per normal.
Then blue screen and spinning wheel for approx 7 seconds
Then blue screen and black pointer for approx 2 seconds
The blue screen spinning wheel / black pointer repeats.
Also can't start up from Snow Leopard DVD.
I get exactly the same scenario.
I have held down the power key at got the tone.
Still won't start.
HELP!!!!!
It's an Imac (white one) 1.8Gig Dual with 1.5 gig of ram.
Running Snow leopard.
I can see my disc over the ethernet; it is still there as it was sharing with my other machine.
Not sure if this helps me at all?
Cheers

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer.  Proceed with reinstalling OS X.  Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files.  After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.
If you cannot boot from your installer DVD on the iMac, then you can try connecting to your other computer via Firewire cable and use Target Disk Mode to boot and install from the other computer - Transferring files between two computers using FireWire

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