macbook disaster

hi
well folks it finally happened

my macbook won't boot all i get is the dreaded
flashing folder with question mark?

either the software to start up is corrupt or the harddrive
has crashed.

can't boot from dvd as the hard drive is gone - i've lost everything

woe is me

any offers of help or sympathy accepted

regards

Is the hard drive making odd noises or clacking? What events directly preceded the flashing folder? Do you have Bootcamp installed?

hi

no noises from machine
i don't have boot camp, prior to the crash machine froze with spinning
beach ball. when after shut down - it won't reboot i think its software
- but fear i need to reinstall os x, - but can't even do that as there's no hard drive icon?

any help i'll try before it goes back to apple

regards

brendan67 said:

hi

no noises from machine
i don't have boot camp, prior to the crash machine froze with spinning
beach ball. when after shut down - it won't reboot i think its software
- but fear i need to reinstall os x, - but can't even do that as there's no hard drive icon?

any help i'll try before it goes back to apple

regards

Click to expand...

Give this a try - turn the machine on, press and hold Command-Option-P-R. Wait for the power-on chime to happen three times and then release.

hi

i've reset pram which is yhour suggestion i think and still no
hard drive

regards

brendan67 said:

hi

i've reset pram which is yhour suggestion i think and still no
hard drive

regards

Click to expand...

OK. You mentioned that you were unable to boot from the System CDs, because when you did, there was no hard drive available? If that's the case, it sounds like your hard drive is bad.

hi
yeh but is it the drive itself or software?like back to apple

either way it looks like back apple

one thing is can you advise how i can get the dvd out?

as i can't get past it now as its in the drive?

regards

brendan67 said:

hi
yeh but is it the drive itself or software?like back to apple

either way it looks like back apple

one thing is can you advise how i can get the dvd out?

as i can't get past it now as its in the drive?

regards

Click to expand...

If you're not even seeing the hard disk, it's definitely the drive itself. You would at least see it as an available option if it was just that the file structure was damaged.

To eject the CD/DVD, just press and hold the mouse button when you turn the machine on until the disc ejects.

hi

tried that won't even let me eject the disk

regards

brendan67 said:

hi

tried that won't even let me eject the disk

regards

Click to expand...

Make sure you start with the machine turned off, just to be safe, remove the battery and pop it back in. Then start the machine with button held down. If that doesn't work, try it with the Eject key as well.

hi

i was trying to boot up forlornly with a firewire cable
and got the dvd out - great.

firewire confirms our fears as the hard drive of the target macbook
wouldn't appear on my imac.

back to square one

another suggestion was disk warrior - which of course i don't have

looks like apple would u agree?

so far with this macbook i've had a new battery, a new battery charger,
and new faceplate which went discoloured.

it now appears the hard drive has crashed

i'm writing this on my trusty ibook g4, which never had a single problem

regards

brendan67 said:

hi

i was trying to boot up forlornly with a firewire cable
and got the dvd out - great.

firewire confirms our fears as the hard drive of the target macbook
wouldn't appear on my imac.

back to square one

another suggestion was disk warrior - which of course i don't have

looks like apple would u agree?

so far with this macbook i've had a new battery, a new battery charger,
and new faceplate which went discoloured.

it now appears the hard drive has crashed

i'm writing this on my trusty ibook g4, which never had a single problem

regards

Click to expand...

I highly doubt Disk Warrior will do anything for you considering that the drive doesn't appear to be seen on the bus itself (very typical of some of the laptop hard drive failures I've seen in my work - particularly when there's no evidence of a mechanical failure). I would say your only option would be to go back to Apple.

Unfortunately, in my line of work, I see a lot of failed laptop hard drives (more so than desktop drives) and the trend of seeing failed drives in newer machines has only increased lately. I don't blame the system manufacturers themselves as much as I do the hard drive manufacturers. They just don't seem to be churning out the kind of reliability that they have in the past. I remember in years past seeing hard drives that were 7+ years old still chugging along just fine. Now, I'm surprised to see a drive that's more than a year or two old and still running problem free - if nothing else, they usually start to whine loudly after some time. Hitachi, Samsung and Fujitsu seem to have the worst problems in my experience. I've seen only a couple of failed Seagates, and have never seen a failed Western Digital 2.5" HDD.

macbook crash

hi

cwa 107

thanks for your help and input i knew it all along and agree my hard drive has failed at least it did it, inside the warranty.

glass half full, and all that.

kind regards

I agree, sounds like the hard drive bit the dust. Did you have any of your data backed up? Sounds like a trip to Apple for that Macbook. Sorry if you lost anything important.

macbook crash

dtravis7 said:

I agree, sounds like the hard drive bit the dust. Did you have any of your data backed up? Sounds like a trip to Apple for that Macbook. Sorry if you lost anything important.

Click to expand...

yeh its a goner lost an iweb blog archive which wasn't fully backed up
anyway i can get it from .mac.

anyone?

regards