Stuck at gray Apple screen... mount point problem?

I'm trying to fix a MacBook for someone-- apparently it crashed in iMovie-- I assume the owner did a hard shut down by holding the power button, and now it won't get past the gray apple/spinning-gear screen. I tried starting up from an install CD, but I don't think it's the right version of OS X and it says it cannot be installed on the computer.
So I ran Disk First Aid on the drive-- it said nothing was wrong with the disk, but it did repair a few permissions. Still, nothing. I cleared the PRAM-- no luck. Took out the battery and put it back in, and still, nothing.
I did notice, though, that Disk Utility shows the HD to be named "VC"-- maybe it was renamed by the owner-- but the mount point is /Volumes/VC-- on my own working MacBook, the HD mount point is simply /.
Is that relevant to the problem? Can anyone think of anything else to try before I get the original OS install disk and see if I can archive/reinstall?
Thanks!

What booting with the shift key depressed does is start you Mac in the safe mode.
Read http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US for more details on it.
Allan

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