MacBook freeze on startup

skeletor

Registered
To start things off, I am a a well versed Windows user and fairly knowledgeable in Linux, but I know next to nothing about Macs. I come in peace, however, and need some help fixing my dads MacBook.

After showing him openSUSE 11.3 on my laptop, he wanted me to install a dual boot on his MacBook so he could play around with it. I didn't want to mess with the partitions since I don't know much about Macs, so I downloaded a LiveCD version and burned the ISO (both on the Mac, if thats relevant). So I rebooted with the CD in the drive, held C to boot from CD, and it went to the openSUSE menu without incident. I selected boot from LiveCD, and it froze just before loading the desktop. I restarted to try again, and it locked up at a black screen before loading the LiveCD menu.

Disappointed and confused, I rebooted and ejected the CD. But now, it wont even load Mac OS X off the hard drive. It goes to the white screen with the apple logo, after a few seconds gives me a little gear-turning icon, and after a minute or so the apple icon turns to a circle with a slash through it.

I tried booting holding "option" and selecting the hard drive, and it does the same thing. Booting holding shift didn't work either. Then, I tried booting the single-user system (command + S) so I could check the disk for problems, but it stops at "still waiting for root device".. Also a few lines up from there it says
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>

I don't know if that is significant but it seems a little odd being the only line with a bunch of tags in it.

Anyways, Im stumped at this point. Being unfamiliar with Mac, I'm not sure what the best course of action is. Whats confusing to me is that it was just a LiveCD version, I didn't install anything and the computer ran just fine before that... Are there any commands I can run to fix the problem? If not is there a boot disk someone can refer me to that can fix it? I'm not sure if my dad has a Mac OS X installation CD, if it came with the computer he probably does. I know he has a lot of important documents and pictures on the MacBook that I would need to retrieve before a clean install, if that is necessary. Like I said, I don't know much about Macs, so some assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

p.s. - Also, right before "still waiting for root device" it says failure to enumerate USB device, which is confusing because the only USB devices were the mouse and keyboard. The screen is cracked on the MacBook so instead of replacing it we've been plugging it into a monitor and using it like a desktop, but it won't display on the monitor anymore. No new software has been installed recently except drivers for a new printer.
 
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You'll need to find your OSX install disc.For what ever reason your Mac cannot find the HD.With the install disk in the optical drive,restart holding down the "C" key.When you finally get to the install screen,select utilities>startup disk,highlight the Mac's disk and restart.You should be ok.When the dust settles use a VM such as VirtualBox to install and run Suse.You should never install a linux OS unless it is on a separate patron or under a VM.
 
Does this solution work if my Mac cannot find the Macintosh HD drive but goes straight to Windows XP (I have the Mac partitioned)? Will the files there before the problem still be there? Or is it basically a reinstall?

My problem is, after using CleanMyMac and doing a software update, the Macintosh HD drive is completely gone at the start. That is, when I press OPTION at the startup, it only shows the Windows partition. There's no Apple logo and no going into OS X to fix anything that way.
 
(1) I made Mac OS X Snow Leopard bootable on an external hard drive.

(2) I held down Option when booting up and the Mac OS X Install showed up.

(3) I opened Disk Utility and tried to repair the disk.

(4) The disk couldn't be repaired.

Now I'm stuck trying to see if I can recover any files before reformatting or reinstalling Mac OS X (b/c I didn't use Time Machine).

What's the best way to do this?
 
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