Mac OS won't load. stuck in White screen

Ill briefly explain what happened to me... I was installing MAC OS 10.6 in my white intel Macook (I had Tiger previously)... all out of the sudden I was having trouble with the installation, which lead me (very stupidly) to force a shutdown.
Now the OS won’t load and I’m stuck in a white screen with the rotating wheel, leading nowhere else.
I have tried many things… I tried entering in SAFE MODE, but didn’t work… Also tried the “Archieve and Install” but apparently the disc is corrupted… I also tried repairing the disc but same thing… In Disc Utility, the S.M.A.R.T. status says verified, so I guess the HD is ok.
What really worries me is that I don’t have a back up of all my data.
I know that I still have other options, such as connecting my mac to a pc with a firewire cable (but Im not sure whether it will work if my hard drive in corrupted…) or running DISC WARRIOR…
To resume things up, what real choices do I have if I don’t want to loose the data in my HD??? Is there some way to access the information of my failed HD so that I can save it, and then simply format it??
Thanks in advanced.

Have you got a spare USB drive?

If so you may be able to boot from it if it is formatted to MAC OS using the GUID Partition Table.

You can run the os X installer, format the external and install OSX on to the external.

If you are lucky you will be able to boot from the external, and get some data from the internal drive

Access my data in a failed disc?

My disc apparently is failing and it wont load Tiger! I have already tried the safe boot, repairing the disc and “Archieve and Install”… No thing works… What choices do I have if I want to access my file data so that I can save it on an external HD or DVD??
PLEASE HELPPPP

What Mac is it?

Firewire Target Disk Mode would work if you were equipped with Firewire, and you have access to another Mac with FW as well.

Your other option is remove the HD and put it in an external enclosure and mount it on another Mac.

Failed disc solution in tiger 10.4

I have recently post several threads talking about my failed HD. My OS wont load and Im stuck in a white screen with the apple logo and the spinning wheel. I would appreciate your help regarding these 2 questions:

1.) When connecting my white Intel Macbook to a regular pc through a firewire cable, the PC asks me to FORMAT the drive in order to access the drive. My intention is to access my files, but as I said, Windows ask me to FORMAT it. Is there some way that windows can access my HD without formatting it?

2.) Is there some recommended Software that I can boot that will be able to fix my failed disk? I have already tried Discwarrior but I get an error right at the beginning…

THANKS

Will the MacBook start in Target mode? With nothing connected just hit power button and hold down T key and if the Firewire symbol pops up and bounces around screen then u are in Target mode. If that is the case HD is probably accessible, but post answer first.

hi Collin.. yes I have already tried to start my macbook in target mode... when i turned it on I hit the T key, and the firewire symbol started bouncing al over... when my mac was connected to a regular laptop, windows said that in order to access my HD it needed to be formated.
So, again, is there a way that I can access my files without having to format my disc and loosing all of my data??

Ok, I solved the problem with my Failed Disc… Or better said, DISCWARRIOR solved it for me… It might sound like free publicity, but seriously this is software that every mac user MUST have… I run it in my failed disc, and it performed some advanced stuff in my machine, and did absolutely everything for me in just a few minutes..! I am very happy with the results because it saved me big bucks with computer technicians (which are extremely expensive in Spain).. And best of all is that I didn’t loose any of my info..!!
So if anyone has a problem with a failed disc, if you want to access your data, or you’re simply stuck in the white screen with the spinning wheel, I would recommend giving this software a try.

Note: Merged multiple duplicate threads.

+1 for DiskWarrior - it's a great program! It has saved me countless times at work!

I agree with the kudos for DiskWarrior. It's basically a one trick pony but does that trick very well. I have only needed to use it a few times since the earliest iBook days but it has saved me a few times.