MacBook Pro will not start up - apple logo and spinnining wheel

*The problem:*
I have a MacBook Pro bought in October 2009 and have had no problems with it up until now. When I went to turn my Macbook on the other day all I got was the initial grey screen with the apple logo and a spinning wheel. The wheel keeps spinning and never loads up my Mac. The battery is charged, I've not just downloaded/installed new soft/hardware, and I'm using the adaptor that came with the MacBook Pro when I purchased it.
*Stuff I've tried so far:*
I've read the forums/manual and have tried the following:
1. Reset the SMC - no effect
2. Reset the PRAM - no effect
3. Opened the MacBook Pro in safe mode - gets two thirds the way through the loading screen and then sops i.e. no effect
4. Done a hardware test - reported no problems
5. Started up my Mac with the original install DVD inserted into the CD drive, and performed a repair in disc utility - says there is a fault in the volume information and then repairs it at the end. Then I run it again and it says there's a fault in the volume information. It doesn't happen how many times I run the repair, it never fixes it.
6. Tried to reinstall the original disc but it cannot find the hard drive.
7. Tried to reboot but it cannot find the hard drive.
Next:
The only thing I have not yet tried is reformatting the drive. I have not tried this yet as I foolishly did not make a time machine (I didn't have an external hard drive) and I've not backed up my work for several months.
I have two questions:
1. Before I reformat, is there any way I can get documents off the system? I expect the answer is no but I wanted to check first.
2. Is the reformat fails for whatever reason, what is likely to happen next? I intend to book a genius appointment but wondered if people had had a similar experience in the past? How long did re-servicing take? The Mac is still under the three year warranty but I am likely to have to pay anything?
Many thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: Stephen Bate

Hello!
Good news: Today I visited the next apple partner and took my macbook with me. He checked my mac with the software "DiskWarrior" which reported three problems which could be solved with this software. Afterwards we tried to restart the macbook - no effort.
He told me, that in a probability of 90% it would be a software problem and it could be solved with re-installing the mac os X software with inserting the original disc, pushing the button "C" shortly after pushing the power-button and simply reinstalling the OS X.
It worked and as it seems no data got lost.
The mac partner dude told me that this software problem can be caused by shutting down the mac one time too much with pushing down the powerbutton more than 5 seconds when everythings freezes...
As I write from my macbook again, I proudly announce that I'm back on mac.
I used windows while having these problems; it sucked
Sincerely, aftermathentertainment
PS: What have I learnt from this: Use TimeMachine!

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Roderick Guerry wrote:
The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?
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Roderick Guerry wrote:
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