Stuck at grey screen issue: with an Afghanistan twist

Question

First time post, so please go easy. I apologize for loading so much into the first post, but I believe it's better to give you all the information about my situation so I don't waste your time having to ask me questions about it, that I could have already provided.
Background: I bought my 17" MBP from a friend in late 2007 after he convinced me how superb it was in comparison to a PC. Since then I've been on a mission to convert everyone I can, as I personally view Windows as a self sustaining virus and will never use one for personal use again.
I'm in the Army, and my MBP has survived three long deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and has not once ever had any kind of problems...until now. I'm currently in Afghanistan with my MBP and do not have any of my systems disks. A week ago, the CD drive stopped reading disks of any kind and ejects them after attempting to read them. Additionally, I can now hear the right side fan sounding like a lawn mower.
Today, my biggest nightmare came to fruition. I restarted my MBP after making some folder organizational changes, and it now refuses to start. It sticks at the grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel. The wheel does spin. (I say that since in other threads I've noticed most people say their wheel does not spin).
I've already read countless blogs and discussion boards, and have tried many recommended solutions. I have particularly enjoyed Kappy's help to others. But I feel as if I'm in an near Apollo 13 situation, in that I do not have my installation CD and it wouldn't help anyway with my CD drive not responding and having nothing else to use to get my MBP to start up.
I've tried the single user startup using command "s" and attempted some solutions suggested by Kappy with the following results:
/sbin/fsck -fy
This ends by telling me "The volume MAC HD appears to be OK"
AWESOME
So then I tried this:
:/ root# /sbin/mount -uw /
:/ root# cd /Library/Preferences
:Preferences rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
and could not go any further because it responded with: "No such file or directory"
When I tried using command "V" it kept repeating the following:
chad-squires-macbook-pro-32 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.mDNSResponder[31]): posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder', ...): No such file or directory
So at this point, I have no idea what to do. I have internet access through a friends MBP (thought it's about as fast as dial up), but that's the extent of my problem and availability of resources to fix.
Please tell me that there is something I can do to get my baby working again, and most importantly get some irreplaceable family photos off and other documents back.

Answer 1

Oh boy, you've gotten some all-over-the-board responses.
Let's start here.
Someone mentioned above that it sounds like the NVIDIA issue. Rest assured, unless you have no video, graphics artifacting (lines, distortion, etc.), or kernel panics (messages that tell you you have to power off/restart), you don't have the NVIDIA issue. People love to toss that out when you have a model that may be affected, your symptoms don't sound anything like this.
You're not necessarily SOL without your install discs per se, but if it does look like you need to reinstall, there's not much that can be done without...well...some kind of installer. You can install from a USB drive but you'd need a working machine and an operating system disc of some kind to clone it.
That said:
:/ root# /sbin/mount -uw /
:/ root# cd /Library/Preferences
:Preferences rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
Unless I'm reading this wrong, you've got a typo.
Should be:
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Library/Preferences
rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
I saw the line
:Preferences rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
Was expecting you to have root# in front, that makes me think you typed 'preferences rm', you don't need to type 'preferences' first.
Also: is your account set to automatically log you in (take you to the desktop) or does it have you type your username/password first? That might be important.
Have you tried a safe boot?
Safe boot: this can be helpful if the issue is with your account, a font cache, or a third party kernel extension/driver. Boot this way by holding Shift when you hear the chime, let go when you see the spinning gear. If all goes well, this should take you to the login window. If you can't boot in safe mode or if it does the exact same thing, again, let us know.
The results you saw in verbose mode make me think it's hanging because something got moved. mDNSresponder is important and you can't start without it.
There are other preference files that we can troubleshoot, I find verbose mode to be the most helpful in diagnosing the spinning wheel that goes on forever, a lot of times it's a corrupt driver and there's not much that can be done except reinstall.
Lastly: you mentioned you restarted after organizational changes and that's when the problem started...what did you move? Anything in the System folder or Library folder(s)?
You mentioned you have a friend with a MBP. Any chance either of you has a firewire cable? Does he have his discs? You can use another computer's superdrive in target disk mode hooked up to your computer, that's always one way to reinstall if your own superdrive doesn't work.