Old MacBook Pro won't boot - my options?

This is slightly ironic. I've got a new Retina MacBook Pro on order - it's probably somewhere in the pipeine right now. So I wake up this morning, with a very full, busy day at work and critical stuff to get done, go to startup my old (very old) MacBook Pro so I can check email. Press the power button. The usual click followed by that odd electromechanical sound that preceeds the startup chimes (zzzzt-zzzzt-whummm), and - no startup chimes. Silence. Hmm. Press the power button again. Silence. Uh-oh, it's never done that before. Repeat, same results. Gentle taps have no effect. Unplug the old magsafe charger, remove the battery, wait 60 seconds, put back battery, plug in charger, try again. Same results. Oh, *#^!.
No amount of fiddling seems to have any effect. It's just not booting. It's not powering up. It's quite inert. I've tried holding down the power key for plenty long (30 seconds), with and without the battery, plugged in to the charger and not.
Oddly, the bottoom of the thing is hot - it's hot in the (left/right) center, towards the back. Not sure if that's just the battery charger heating up or something else. I disconnect the charger, remove the battery, and let it sit. Reconnecting the charger, but leaving the battery out, I just tried pressing the power key - it still didn't start, but the FAN just came on (and pretty loud). Hmm. Pressing and holding the power key shuts down the fan. Hmm. This is different. Pressing the power key now causes the fan to start up loud and run. No sign of a boot sequence and the screen is dark - no life. Fan runs loud and keeps running.
This is an old 15" MacBook Pro 2.66, probably from the Eartly 2008 vintage (not 100% sure but that's about right). Too bad - if it had only lasted another week (or if my new Retina MPB had gotten here last week). Sigh.
OK, so what are my options here? If I can't make it boot, I'd at least want to salvage the contents of the HD. It's got Firewire, and my trusty Mac Pro also has Firewire - I assume that I can not access the laptop's disk using TargetDisk mode without booting it first - right?
Can I yank the HD and just connect it? Do I need an enclosure/power supply?
Any sugestions welcomed. Thanks.

As luck would have it, I have a powered SATA/ESATA/IDE USB drive dock right here. If I can pull the HD and get it to mount, that would be OK.
I have not opened up the soft underbelly of an old MacBook Pro before. Any tips to get at the hard drive?
Flipping it over on its back, I see a row of 4 small phillips-head screws along the bottom rear edge, plus 4 odd (torx?) fasteners in the corners. Which to undo? Is the HD fairly accessible, or is there a complex sequence required to get at it and remove it?
Thanks.

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Exacty what happens when you try to boot up from the disc that came with your computer? Are you holding down the c key? Have you tried holding down the "option key?" Are you able to run the Hardware Test - Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test
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If the Mac starts up normally, shut it down again and then plug in one of the peripherals (keyboard or mouse first) and start up your computer again. If it does so successfully repeat the process, adding one peripheral at a time until your Mac acts up. At that point, disconnect the last peripheral you added, reboot your Mac and search the peripheral vendor's website for an updated driver.
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Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
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Macbook pro won't boot - how do I retrieve emails?

Hey guys
I've got a common problem that my Macbook pro won't boot. Sometimes I get stuck on the grey screen with spinning wheel, sometimes on the blue screen with spinning wheel
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Please read this whole message before doing anything.
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This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
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Macbook Pro won't boot into safe mode or via bootable USB key

Hi,
Am running OSX Lion latest version on my Macbook Pro 4,1 and can't get the thing to boot from any source. Always get's stuck at the grey screen with apple logo. Have tried all the following...
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On every one (except verbose) it just get's stuck on the grey screen with spinning timer thingie.
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I have a Time Machine backup but it's a bit older than I thought and very much want to get my newer photos off it before rebuilding - not that Time Machine would work in current state anyway.
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ds store wrote:
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Thanks for the info - I removed the HD and data is all ok on there so very happy about that. Before I wipe the data (all backed up now) I thought I would try booting the mac without any harddrive installed - using a OSX Lion bootable USB. However, still can't get past the grey apple screen and circle icon whirling away. I know the USB works ok, as tried it in my 2011 Macbook Pro and it boots absolutely fine.
I am happy to wipe the HD now and start again, but seeing as the DVD Drive is broken I'll probably need a USB drive boot to install OSX onto the wiped HD anyway. I'm a bit lost as to what to try now.

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Old MacBook Pro won't boot - my options?

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