MBP won't boot - Grey Apple Screen, Spinning Wheel, then Shut Down

Help please
For no apparent reason, my otherwise well-working MBP (2007 model) simply won't log in to OSX (leopard). I try to boot it up, and I get the grey screen with the Apple logo, the spinning progress wheel, and then after about 4 minutes, it just powers off.
Thoughts?

adammabry wrote:
I ran verify because the option to run repair was not available.
And just to make sure, you booted from the install disc? (Repair Disk is never available when booted on the boot volume of the HD.)
Here's a follow up... This mac wasn't doing it's airport backups properly,
I'm not quite sure what that means, maybe Time Machine? Time Capsule?
so I don't have a recent back up of the files. Would you suggest just sending the computer to a data recovery service?
Very expensive. Try FireWire Target Disk Mode first. If that doesn't work, I'd remove the HD, install it in an external enclosure (as low as $15) and see if it will boot the MBP or the data is accessible from another Mac.
Do you think I can just pop a new HD in it and it'll work fine under a full reinstall?
Doing my previous suggestions first may help to answer that. If there's absolutely nothing wrong with the HD, then that isn't the issue. If there is something wrong with it, likely a new HD is the fix.

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MBP won't boot - Grey Apple Screen, Spinning Wheel, then Shut Down

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