Problem With Snow Leopard Booting!

Hi guys!
sorry if ive posted this in the wrong thread! im new and having an issue with my MacBook Pro. Im running Snow Leopard and up until yesterday morning everything was fine. But when i went to use my system that afternoon, a line appeared underneath the gear and the apple logo. It fills to about 15% and then starts again, gets to the same sort of area and then my mac shuts down. I know its not a heating issue because i started up using my Snow Leopard DVD and left it for a considerable amount of time and it just got warm. I run disk utilty from the DVD and it wont either verify or complete repair. Im told to back up as many files as possible, reformat and restore the files. I have so many pictures, loads of music and most importantly the backup for my iPhone on there and i desperately need to retrieve all this before i wipe it!

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Anty22

Can you afford a new hard disk?
If so, get a new HD & a USB enclosure.
Mount the new HD in the MBP and mount the old HD in the USB enclosure.
Do a clean SL install on the new HD. Do not try to use the migration tool.

Once the new HD is setup, plug in the old HD and see if it mounts. Create a folder on the new HD and drag as much data off the old HD as you can. If it mounts, but has lots and lots of errors, be patient - take smaller "bites" for the disk. Do one folder at a time.

If it doesn't mount, you are screwed. The only option is a company like Data OnTrack - a data recovery company that charges big-$$$$ to recover lost data.

BTW - It is not "If" a hard disk will fail, it is "When". The key is to be backed up WHEN the hard disk fails. SuperDuper, CrashPlan & Time Machine - all free, all good.

On the other hand my MBP had a video card fail and i got enough limited use to do a SuperDuper back up by following these steps, and when i had all data copied i sent it in.
1/ Do extended Hardware Test - which always came up OK
2/ Do a PRAM reset and after third chord let it boot and then it would work until it warmed up and then i would have to repeat the process.
NB With 4 GB of ram the extended test takes more than an hour.

If the drive will mount but Disk Utility won't fix it you might want to give DiskWarrior 4 a try. It may be able to repair the directory structure. You'll want to boot from the DVD to perform the repair.

There is also a program called Data Rescue 3 available to recover files. Data Recovery Software, Hard Drive Data/File Recovery Software - Windows/Mac. Prosoft has a demo available but you will need to have something available to save the files to. I haven't used this one but have used Disk Warrior a number of times.