I can't boot my MBP or reinstall snow leopard

Question

I have an old 2005 MBP (non unibody) using snow leopard. I urgently need to get it running again since it stopped booting up last feb 2012 and I haven't used it since as I'm using a desktop now. When I turn it on I get no chime and the screen goes grey with an alternating apple logo, and a no entry sign, and occasionally a folder with a question mark on it. When I insert snow leopard and reboot it allows me to select language, and the home screen comes up with the option to reinstall the OS. I have also been to the utilities>disk utilities and tried verifying and then repairing the HD. When verifying it says my drive appears to be ok, and when repairing it appears to have not fixed anything. I've then quitter DU and gone back to try re-installing snow leopard and although the progress bar estimates 30mins or so it takes hours, then gets to about 3/4 done and comes up with a failure message saying..
Install Failed
Mac OSX could not be installed on your computer
The installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail.
Contact the manufacturer for assistance
Click restart to restart your computer and try installing again
I did have the installer log window open whilst trying this and the last line before the install failure message contains loads of stuff which means nothin to me but contained within this text is this "an error occurred while extracting files from the package " lexmark_laserdrivers.pkg". Underlying error=(error domain=BOMcopierfatalerror code=28....(loads more text after this..)
Any help would be appreciated!!
Thanks

Answer 1

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/.