Can't mount startup drive using disk utility

[abrandt]

I have this mac that is fairly old running os x 10.4. When I turned it on today it stalled on the startup screen and then after several minutes the apple logo turned into a circle with a line through it. Before doing a reinstall i decided to run the disk utility program off of the install cd. The repair stopped halfway through and said that it was unable to complete. The same occurs when i try to verify it. Now my problem is that after running the repair the startup disk is no longer mounted. If i try and mount it, it gives an error and says to run the repair. Ive run a hardware test and everything passed so i dont think its a hardware issue. I have the disk warrior program but i cant try it because my optical drive keeps spitting out any cd but the install disk (separate problem). Ive tried using terminal by typing in "diskutil mount /dev/disk0s3" where disk0s3 is the disk identifier but that doesnt work. ive loaded fsck in single user mode but when i run "/sbin/fsck -fy" it scans the install disk because i cant run off the startup disk since it isnt mounted. Any ideas?

 

[DeltaMac]

If Disk Utility won't complete the repair task - usually means that the hard drive is failing, or has already failed.

Here's another method to use your Disk Warrior boot disk for a repair:
Connect your Mac to another Mac using a firewire cable. Boot your problem Mac to Firewire Target Disk Mode, by booting while holding the letter T until you see the floating FireWire icon. Then, your Mac is simply working as an external hard drive. Boot to your Disk Warrior disk from your second Mac, and repair your problem hard drive from there.
This assumes that you do have access to a second Mac, and that Mac has firewire.

 

[MisterMe]

If the OP intends to recover files from his failed hard drive, then he needs to stop futzing with the drive forthwith. He should not access the drive until his has a file recovery utility or has placed his drive in the custody of a file recovery service.