Help me fix my hard drive

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Hello folks,


I have a 2-year old macbook that very abruptly quit working.
It froze on me and when I start it up, I get the blinking folder+question mark icon.

I attempted to do a disk repair through the install CD, but no such luck, it cannot find my hard drive.
The install CD also does not recognize my hard drive through the normal installation process.

When I attempt to start the computer in safe mode, I get the "panic" kernel error and have to restart.

When I attempt to access the hard drive through target disk mode on my roommate's iBook, it does not recognize the hard drive either.

Is there any other way that I can completely wipe out my hard drive and just reinstall? I am not concerned with needing to save any information - I just need to get my macbook working again.


Thanks so much in advance.
 

B&O


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP i7, Mac Mini & iPhone 3G.
It wouldn't boot in target mode from a non-intel machine. It sounds like your HDD is dead. It is pretty easy to replace check out youtube for video guides.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
Try running FSCK.
If your using Tiger or Leopard you can check it without a disc.
Start up holding down command and s, after the text has loaded type fsck -y (exactly like that with the space) and let it run through. It will tell you if the HD is ok or not. Repeat until it says the Macintosh HD appears to be ok. If it won't then the HDD would indeed appear to have died, though I'd be surprised.
Come back after you've tried with the results, and make a note of what it says if it errors.
 
OP
M
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I tried booting while holding down command+s, but to no avail. It just brings me to the blinking folder.

Is there any way to wipe out the contents of the hard drive without using the install disk?

Also - how do I find out exactly what hard drive to purchase if it does turn out that my HDD is dead?

And finally, do I have to backup anything on my current hard drive (i don't particularly care to save anything..) before I install the new one? I imagine I can just install my OS right onto the new one with my install disk.

Sorry, I'm sure these are rudimentary questions, so I appreciate your patience.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.
If command and s didn't find the HD then it must be fried, sadly. Bad if it's only 2 years old.
No way of erasing it if you can't find it I'm afraid, but if it's dead no one will be able to access it anyway (not without some fancy tech anyway).
Just google "replacement HD Macbook" for some answers there. Plenty of them, may as well upgrade it if cost isn't too bad.
Yes, you just install to the new HD, no backing up needed, which you couldn't do anyway.
Just one thing, when you boot holding down command and s, you need to keep them held down until a screen of text appears. Just in case you didn't, because I'm really surprised that it's dead already.
 
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Various Mac's
Your HD has died, I see this a lot. You need a 2.5" SATA 5400 rpm drive, capacity to suit your requirements. Eject the battery, loosen the 3 captive philips headed screws, pull the drive out by the white tap. Use a torx driver to remove the 4 screws holding the drive to the carrier, fit carrier to new drive, reassemble and install OS. Drives are very cheap now.
 
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2.26 13in MBP
Looks like you need to buy a new HDD
 

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