MacBook won't boot

Hi there.

I am trying to fix a MacBook for a Nephew.

The MacBook is old, probably new as at about 2008.

The MacBook will stop at the Apple logo with a spinning wheel;

I am able to access 'Single User Mode' & 'Verbose Mode', but by running /sbin/fsck -fy the result is:

"repairing Volume"... followed by "couldn't repair Volume after 3 attempts".

I only have experience with iOS & Windows.

Am I able to use Windows to help with this issue? (I don't have access to a working Mac).

I have tried Googling everything I can think of to help, but to no avail.

I do not know which version of OS X the machine was running ie. Snow Leopard or Lion.

Any help would greatly appreciated!