Macbook wont go past grey screen with spinning cog below...HELP!

PLEASE, PLEASE....could someone advise urgently, was using machine ok, left it for a few mins & it went to sleep...then I couldn't log back in. Restarted and now can't get past this grey screen....have tried all recommendations...tried re install and says it can't. Tried the fsck...it say's "volume check failed". Tried the disk check...it said there was no problem. I am in Spain (Palma) and about to set off acrosss the Atlanntic to S.Maarten...my warranty expires in April and I am unlikely to be anywhere with a mac dealer or authorised service place in the next 6 months...my life is on this machine!! PLEASE HELP????

What happens if you boot from your system install disk and run Disk Utility? Does the utility see the drive and can you verify/repair the drive?
-Bmer
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I'm a new Apple customer - I bought a new 15" MacBook Pro during the Black Friday sale last week. Since purchase, I've installed the software I needed (Office, CS4) and have used it to browse the web and write emails.
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Hey guys, I received a 2010 Macbook last year as a gift (no warranty). It worked fine untill a few days ago. It wouldn't boot past the grey apple logo. I took it in to an Apple store and they said it was a bad HDD. Since I didn't have much stored on it, and I have everything backed up to my desktop, I got a new, larger capacity HDD and replaced it with no issues. I started the Macbook with the OSX Leopard install CD, but it didn't identify the HDD, and now it won't boot past the grey screen.
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House3917 wrote:
I started the Macbook with the OSX Leopard install CD...
Leopard is done for, call Apple via phone and order the 10.6.3 white retail disks and use those.
Use these install instrcutions for best operation and performance.
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

Ok.. macbook wont go past grey screen.

ok so i was normally using my macbook(despite its shutdowns, ive been using it with the shutdown problem for a while now..)
anyway, it all began with my USB ports// my macbook wouldn;t recognize anything.
then i tried playing a DVD.. my macbook asked me what i wanted to do wit the BLANK cd. (um, it wasnt blank!! it was a movie)
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i removed the installation CD and tried restarting. nothing. it stays on the start up screen...
help anybody? week 20 macbook.. going to call apple on friday, coz i get back to town on thursday night. someone tell me wat to do. plz..
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Okay, since booting to safe mode didn't seem to work try booting to the install disk one.
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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
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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.
I used it for a couple of hours beforehand, and it was working fine. Software Update prompted me of about about 4 or 5 updates; I can't remember exactly what was downloaded, but I think there was a Security Update and iTunes among them. I restarted, left it to install with no errors, but when I logged in, Safari and iTunes were running incredibly slowly. I also noticed that the volume keys weren't responding, as well as the power key to bring up the "Sleep, Restart, Shutdown, etc" dialog box. I forced shutdown, hoping a restart would solve my problem, and that's when my troubles started. I originally just left it, but after about an hour the wretched thing was still spinning.
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Macbook wont go past grey screen with spinning cog below...HELP!

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