Can't restart from installation disc

I upgraded to Snow Leopard months ago and nothing seemed amiss until yesterday when I force quit (just pushed the power button) and then tried to restart. (My six year old had been looking at You tube videos and I'm not sure what had happened; things just kind of stopped.) When I tried to restart the computer (MacBook), I got the blinking question mark. I tried a safe boot; that didn't work. I then tried to use the Disc Utility on the Installation disc. When I get to First Aid, the verify disc and repair disc privileges are greyed out. So, I am stymied. I can't follow through with instructions I have seen elsewhere.
Thanks

Just a tip - the phrase 'force quit' doesn't mean forcibly powering your machine down. To bring up the "Force Quit" window, press Command+Option+Esc. It's almost always a bad idea to power down unless the computer has been non-responsive for at least a few minutes and you've tried every other recourse to get it back and running normally.

With that said - are you sure you had the correct volume selected in the left window pane of Disk Utility when you started it from the system disc? Several different options should show up, and some of those volumes will be 'read only', leading to not being able to verify/repair disk.

When you open Disk Utility, check to make sure you've got the right volume selected. It should look something like this:

Thank you for posting a reply so soon. Actually, when I am in disc utility, I don't see the volume Macintosh HD. What does that mean?

vaconn said:

Actually, when I am in disc utility, I don't see the volume Macintosh HD. What does that mean?

Click to expand...

Maybe you named it something else. "Macintosh HD" is just the default name for your HD. If you changed it to something else...then that will be the volumes name.

- Nick

Thanks. I did not rename the hard drive. What I see only is
HL-DT-ST-DVDRW GSA-
Mac OS X Install DVD

Is there any way to aqccess my hard drive?
Thanks to all who are posting.

Does the drive appear when booted directly from the OS X disc? If not you may have a failed drive on your hands.

vaconn said:

Thanks. I did not rename the hard drive. What I see only is
HL-DT-ST-DVDRW GSA-
Mac OS X Install DVD

Is there any way to aqccess my hard drive?
Thanks to all who are posting.

Click to expand...

I hate it when that happens - the Mac freezes, hard reset, and one gets greeted with the flashing question mark. This usually means that you have a dead hard drive. What the flashing question mark really means is that essential system files cannot be found on any installed volume so that the Mac cannot boot up. If the drive is not showing up in Disk Utility, it is most likely a dead drive. If so, buy a new one to make sure.

To make sure you have a dead drive, try running the Apple Hardware Test and be on the lookout for error codes.

Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test