Full hard disk - mac wont boot

Hi all

I am relatively new on this forum and new to Mac. I have macbook pro with 2.4 Intel Chip. I ran out of hard disk space when copying a file into mac. Suddenly the system froze on me and then like an idiot I pressed the power button (which I shouldnt't have). Now the system does not boot up. It displays the apple logo then I get grey screen and then blue screen. Then the system cycles between the blue and grey screen. I need to free up some hard disk space but the problem is that is that it does not boot up. I have the grey disks that came with the macpro. Here is what I have done:
1. Removed the power and tried to reboot after 10 minutes. resets the chip. No joy.
2. Tried the safe mode. I do get the login screen but for some reason the system does not accept my password.

What else can I try? I really want my data back

Thanks for your help

So what are u using to write this - if it another mac then connect them with a firewire cable power on the MBP and hold T key to start it in Target mode which will then show the HD on other mac desktop, then free up some space - aim for 15% free.

Mac does not boot up

Thanks. Since I dont have another Mac I may have to take it to Service centre.

One more related question- is it normal for the computer to not boot up if I run out of disk space?

Any other ideas?

u should be able to boot off install disk- push disk in and hold C key after powering on - but whether you could progress to archive and install with a full hard disk i have no idea. You can access disk utility from the install app but not sure if that will allow u to move files already on the HD.

Further to suggestions from Forum members here is what I did:
1. Got hold of another mac and opened my machine in Target mode. Thus I was able to clear about 12G of data. I also made a back up of all my data.
2. Seperately I tried to put the install disks (i didnt have leaopard) and ran disk utility, ran repair, fixed problems and ran verify permissions and fixed them.
3. Seperately I opened mac in the safe mode. I get the login screen, the mac accepts the password but comes back to the same screen.

When I boot normally I first get apple logo, then apple sound and then the system cycles between blue and gray screen.

Any way it can be revived or do I have to do a fresh installation?

What OS was on the MBP when u first ran into problems with the full disk and what OS was on the disk that u used to repair permissions - were they the same OS?

I have a feeling this isn't a simple matter of having a full hard disk. That certainly wouldn't cause your computer to lock up and not boot. More likely that hard disk is going bad or there is filesystem corruption.

Take a look at this guide, particularly step 9 on running fsck:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/93819-basic-os-x-mac-troubleshooting.html

Report back when done.