[SOLVED] Mac completely freezes after start up (spinning wheel)

[madtop]

I have a huge issue with my macbook pro, which is version 10.6.8. After start up, when attempting to open/delete any files, use browser, or almost anything at all, the computer freezes with the spinning wheel. The spinning wheel is not existent in the taskbar, but that too becomes non-functional. The issue persists even in safe mode.

What could the issue be? Is it likely that this is HW related?

 

[BadAsAl]

Could be a hard drive going bad. Could be the cable connecting the hard drive to the logic board going bad.
To test the hard drive you can try this: http://osxdaily.com/2013/08/07/how-to-repair-a-mac-disk-with-fsck-from-single-user-mode/
I also recommend booting to OSX disk and running the repair disk option on the hard drive.