ibook G4 not starting up properly

I have a mac iBook G4 it is 3 or 4 years old until this morning never had a problem. I have spent the last 4 hours reading everything I could find, and not found the answer.

The problem:

1. Turn computer on at button

2. Chime sounds

3. Blue Screen with apple comes on wheel is spinning

4 goes to next blue screen "starting Mac OS X..." Blue status bar makes it all the way to the end and nothing happens it just stays there.

This is what I've done to try and fix

1.Tried starting in safemode using the left Shift, this didnt work.

2 on restart I hit Command and S to try to boot system through this. but now I'm lost.


I have a meeting in the morning and of course everything is on my mac with no way of getting to the backup.

At moment having to use my girlfriends pc to submitt this thread.

Thanks in advance

Justin

Have you tried booting from your system disk, selecting disk utility then running disk first aid on the disk? If it reports errors and can't fix what are they? Do you have access to Disk Warrior? If disk first aid reports no problems and you don't have access to more advanced software such as Disk Warrior, you could try an archive and install. The chances are you either have a corrupted system or failing hard drive.

Thanks Steve for that. In fact I do have a failing hard drive. ran disk warrior and managed to get every thing off the computer. Will be getting new computer now.

Thanks again

Justin