My comp won't start beyond...

Hello,
I'm new and in need of help. Any at all would be grately appreciated! Here's my situation:
My computer was left on downloading something last night but the power cord was bumped out without my catching it. Around midnight I noticed it, plugged it back in, brought the screen back up, quit the application that was open and tried to open Safari. Safari wouldn't open, I tried the force quit option to relaunch the finder but it froze. So I pulled the power cord out and and unlocked the battery. When I turned the comp over to unlock the battery it made a really weird noise, like the fan hit the side or top or something, not sure. Then when I turned it back on, it would not start up beyond the white "apple" screen with the small grey timer on the bottom.
Does anyone know what to do here?? Thanx a bunch for any advice.

Try using Disk Utility to repair your startup disk (hard drive) as shown in Dr.Smokes Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption. Those unplugging's can cause directory corruption.
Here's Apple doc.#106464 on startup issues, but try that repair first!
Cheers!
DALE

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