Mac wont boot, think i am screwed. Please help!

I have a 2yr old 24" imac. It had been running slow for a few days, getting the beachball often. I did a disk utility and it said needs repaired, tried to repair and could not be repaired. Read online about starting off disk. Did this and still cannot repair drive. At this point i cannot load my desktop, all i get is the grey screen with apple logo and spinning wheel. Let sit several times as long as 1 hr. Still no responce. Started in safe mode, smc and pram resets. Nothing. I tried to repair disk several more times no luck, so finally i went with the erase and reinstall. About 2/3 through install of first disk , install stops error message : 10, 20, 30 mins stalled waiting on one message. I have tried several times to install. Now i can only start to disk, cannot get disk out of machine. Is my HD shot? Any other suggestions? I need this computer and am 4hrs from any Apple store. Thanks so much for any help.

With your OSX disc in the drive hold down the "C" key and start your computer go to Utilities / disc utilities select your hard disc from hear you can use First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, Restore. under Erase you can format you disc and reinstall your OSX.

Re Greenmans suggestion. Before you do this, make sure you back up your Hard Drive. Another solution is to run Disk Warrior or Drive Genius. Both may solve your problem. Let me know how you make out. Springerone, "Mac Help When You Need It" Canada