Can't get past grey screen with apple spinning wheel, had a loading bar for a few seconds?

HElp, can not open my Mac. Stuck on grey screen with apple and spinning wheel?
PReviously opened fine but I could not remember my password try a number of passwords.  I now know my password but when I turned it off and back on got this screen?

THe command R took me to a dark scree with Mac OS X Utilities with 4 choices
REstore From Time Machine Back Up
REinstall Mac OS X
GEt Help Online
DIsk Utility
HElp

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    Apple Discussions!
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    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301724-en How to identify your iMac
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh355.html Getting information about your computer
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    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300341 How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005)
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  • Macbook won't boot past grey screen with Apple logo and spinning wheel.

    For some reason, after about 1 year and 10 months of owning my Macbook, it decided this morning not to load past the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinning cog/wheel.
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  • Powerbook won;t go past grey screen with apple logo on start up

    Hi
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    Bummer
    These services will cost you, but can almost certainly get the data back.
    Vital Data Recovery provides professional data recovery services for hard drive/disk, CD/DVD, flash memory/digital photo, laptop/notebook, Macintosh data recovery.
    http://www.vitaldata.ca
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  • Computer won't load past grey screen with Apple logo, even with OS Disc

    I turn on my computer and only gets to the grey screen with the Apple logo and idling circle. After a while, it loads a small box telling me to restart, time and time again, no matter how many times I restart. I've tried holding "shift" to go into safe mode, it won't let me.
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    I've spent over a week trying to figure this out and about to give up... hoping that someone will reach out and try to help me resolve this. I'm seeing a lot of people with this problem, most go unsolved.
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    Before proceeding further you should secure your data.  You are close to losing it and the instructions below will make a copy of it without having to boot the operating system.  The good news is it appears your system disk is reasonably healthy so this procedure should work.  You will need an external drive which you will erase as part of this procedure.
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