Hard Drive not found, but it's busy?

[ajzerick]

Hello all, basically I'm registering to ask this question I CANNOT find the answer too.

So I have a Macbook Pro, 2007 model. It's a dandy little laptop.

Well, first of all, ever since I got it from my uncle for graduation, he had it upgraded to Snow Leopard, and when I got it, my battery required servicing. Now, everytime I boot the computer, a long load bar below logo and spinning gear begins. Usually, after 10 mins, it would go away and computer would boot up normally.
I'm not complaining about this at the moment.

Lately, it does the same thing, but after the bar, it just shows the spinning gear and apple logo... forever. I don't know how to get past this, and it's rather annoying. IF you can help me with this, thank you, that would be best.

If not, help me with this. I cannot fix that, so I was going to erase and reinstall Leopard(original disks) and hope that it fixes everything(except service battery). Well, I push "C" when it boots up, and I go to Disk menu, and it says, Continue -> Agree -> Select Hard drive... problem is that it doesn't show a hard drive to select!

Well, I tried to go to Disk Utility and erase it from there, but every time I try to erase or anything, it claims "Resource Busy". And I can't choose the repair option. So basically, I can't wipe it out OR start it up. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as my Uncle, who purchased Apple Care, will not email me back about sending it off. Thank you so much

 

[AL2TEACH]

while booting up hold down the command and S keys. When you see a black screen with text release the keys. At the prompt, type in fsck -y then press enter, that's fsck(space)-y
When it's done, you'll see a message at the end about whether or not the HD was repaired. If it was all should be good and at the prompt type reboot
If it was ...cannot be repaired, you can type fsck -y and press enter again. If it's still not repaired, your troubles may be small to replacing the HD. I had to replace the HD. Get your uncle to send you the apple care for the machine.

 

[ajzerick]

I did that, and it said it couldn't be repaired
what about if I wipe it out, then re-install?
I just can't afford a hard drive.

 

[AL2TEACH]

I would take it to an apple store first to see if a new HD is needed.