RESET IPHONE 3G AND NOW IT WONT START, TRYED EVERYTHING?

I recently lost my phone so a close friend of mine let me have her old iphone 3g. She still had lots of old photos, contacts, apps, and ect. So i thought it'd be easier to reset the iphone instead of erasing everything. It said it'd take up to two hours and it was doing fine but then instead of starting up again its just stuck with the apple logo and a loading sign. The loading sign freezes after a couple seconds and that's it. I've tried plugging it to itunes but it wont come up, i've pressed the sleep and home button like everyone says but nothing. Im so stressed out help please. Also instead of shutting off when i hold down the home and sleep button the screen goes black but then the apple logo imedaitly comes up again even if i didnt let go of the buttons yet.

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