Help diagnosing a dropped mac problem

Hello from a newbie...
My Macbook Pro was dropped off a coffee table to a carpeted floor (about 18 inches) and now when it starts up it chimes, get the Apple symbol and then the spinning wheel. And then before it completes start up it switches off. Any thoughts on what could be damaged that is causing this? Thank you

Hard drive may have gotten damaged. Try booting the computer from:

- an external hard drive (with an OS installed on it of course)
- bootable USB stick
- OS DVD (if this is a MacBook Pro with a DVD drive)

* Nick

p.s. A cable may have gotten knocked loose as well.