Macbook Pro Hard Drive Gone?

Hey, So I need some help. Here is the situation:

August 2009 Macbook Pro 15 inch.

Recently it has been getting stuck on the opening screen after the "bong" screen and the little gear under the Apple sign just keep rotating. I have left this for hours and it just continuously rotates.

I have to do several, maybe 4-5, hard restarts and then it finally opens up to the login screen.

When I finally do get to log in everything goes slow and the little spinning beach ball keep popping up. Everything seems to have slowed down. Just typing this message has been a problem.

And last, when I open the computer from being asleep. Most of the time it works for a few seconds and then freezes up and I have to hard-restart again. After which it will get stuck again on the "bong" screen with the Apple sign and rotating gear.

Any ideas? Anything I can do myself. Mac store is pretty far.

You really should take the machine in to your local Apple store and have them trouble shoot it for you. Your MBP is under warranty. If you do decide to take it on in, call ahead and make an appointment first with the genius desk.

What you can do at home in the meantime:

Boot the machine with your Snow Leopard DVD. (hold down C key after hearing the POST chime)

After the machine boots, cancel the installation process and perform the Apple Hardware Test. See the following Apple KB link to learn how.

Read the Apple article first.

Regards.