Mac Mini stuck at grey startup screen. Help!

[AWester]

My Mac Mini (10.5.8, 2006) won't change to my desktop. It stays at the grey loading screen including the grey apple logo and the spinning wheel.

I've tried using the option key, to start it in safe mode, but it doesn't respond.
The problem is, I haven't got the OS X install disc which makes it quite impossible for me to take any further action.
I have got another Mac OS X 10.4.11, perhaps connecting the two computers will do the trick? Screen sharing? I don't know

Who can help me, I've searched my *** of on the internet, looking for solutions, but so far nothing has worked.

 

[cwa107]

You should be able to start the Mac Mini in "Target Disk Mode" and then attach it to the other Mac via a Firewire cable. Then, you can access the Mac Mini's hard disk from the other Mac and run Disk Utility and attempt a verify/repair disk and verify/repair permissions.

 

[AWester]

Thank you so much. I'm gonna give it a try.
One more question: after finishing the Disk Utility, will I lose any files from my Mac Mini?