MacBook won't start up, can't get to desktop

My MacBook 2.16 Intel Core Duo running 10.5.6 will no longer start up. All I get is the Apple logo with the spinning gearwheel, and that's as far as it gets. The wheel spins forever, so I just have to shut the computer off.
If I put the 10.5 installer disk into the disk drive, and start up holding down the C key, the computer will start up into the installer disk, and its Disk Utility can see and identify my hard drive (about 100 GB in size), but the Repair Disk and Verify Disk buttons are grayed out. If I quit Disk Utility and choose Startup Disk, my internal hard drive is not shown as a possible startup disk.
I would like to be able to start up to my desktop and take off some files on the hard drive that were not backed up, but I can't get to the desktop.
Can anyone give me any ideas what might be wrong, or how I might be able to get to my desktop?

Thanks much, Carolyn! I had forgotten about Safe Mode and all that, but I have Pogue's book, "Mac OS X Leopard Edition," and it explained how to do it. So I booted the computer into Safe Mode and did the fsck -y business, with the result that the computer went through a long routine of self-checking and repairing, and when it was done, everything was back to normal, and the Mac now starts up normally again! As soon as I got the desktop, I quickly backed up everything valuable onto an external drive, which I should have done before this happened, but I tend to forget. I need to get Time Machine going, I guess.
Well, I don't know what cause this problem, but whatever it was, it's fixed, and thanks again for the help!
Tom

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