Macbook Pro stuck on freezing wheel, please help!

[Olivia]

I opened my Macbook pro 15" (running OSX mavericks, i think bought Christmas 2010 will check the exact model) and the calendar was frozen with spinning wheel. I waited then forced restart holding down power button and when i powered up again was very slow and when i got to the home screen and tried to open applications (itunes, google chrome etc) the spinning coloured wheel started again and didn't stop, couldn't use any of the applications, mouse wouldn't move etc. I tried restarting about ten times and it started up slowly but surely every time and then froze. Tried starting in safe mode and started up better but then froze again. I've turned it off as not sure what to do, don't know if i can run disk utility or back up without it freezing out.

I can't get an appointment at apple store in London and really want to avoid taking in as i already had to pay £500 to fix three months ago (water damage, they replaced parts but checked there was no damage to motherboard or hard drive and has been fine since).
If anyone could help my they would literally save me as i've got an article due in a few days on it.
Thanks!
Olivia.

 

[oldscribe]

• Hi,

Once started can you use the apple menu? If so click force quit and select all running apps except finder. Then select shut down from the Apple menu and when the box appears uncheck the box re starting applications.

If you can not do the try running recovery.
To start your Mac from Recovery, restart your Mac and hold down the Command key and the R keys keep these keys pressed until the Apple logo appears. This indicates that your Mac is starting up. After the Recovery System finishes starting up, you should see a desktop with an OS X menu bar and a "Mac OS X Utilities" window.
NB: If you see a login window or your own desktop and icons, it's possible that you didn't press The keys early enough. Restart and try again.