Is my hard drive dying.... dead?

MacBook Pro 15" - 1.83GHz

So I started hearing a clicking noise from the upper left side of the computer (under the escape key). Sounded like a crackly speaker, but I turned off sound and the clicking was still there.

Next, I couldn't open programs.... they would just crash on launch, accompanied by more clicking. I got all the data off the machine to be safe. It starts up VERY slowly and I hear the clicking every time I try to do anything. No programs will open and when I was moving data off the machine, it would not allow me to copy certain files, saying they were corrupt.

Is my hard drive toast? Disc utility doesn't show any problem, strangely.

Thanks in advance.
signed, "friggin bummed"

Sounds like it's about to die.

What I need most are my Firefox bookmarks. Since I can't open any apps, does anyone know a stop gap measure to help this thing limp along? I really need to open firefox to export my bookmarks. Any ideas?

Clicking definitely is not a good thing for a computer.
As for the bookmarks, I know you can't open apps, but can you open Finder windows? If so, you may be able to recover your bookmarks manually by going in through Library > Application Support > Firefox > Profiles.

Now the machine won't boot at all. It just scratches/clicks along and then comes to a black screen with the following text:

"Jul 1 07:46:29 Launched: com.apple.syslogd: respawning too quickly! throttling

Jul 1 07:46:29 Launched: com.apple.syslogd: 8 more failures without living at least 60 seconds will cause job removal


Jul 1 07:46:29 Launched: com.apple.syslogd: will restart in 10 seconds


Jul 1 07:46:30 Launched: com.apple.mDNSResponder: exited abnormally: Bad system call:........."

That's all I could read then it repeated "diskOs2: Oxe0030005 (undefined)" about a thousand times and completely stopped trying to boot.

Obviously, I'm not really wondering about my hard drive anymore, but rather leaving this for anyone who sees the same thing.......... HD dead.

Oh well..... chance to upgrade. Thanks to all who responded.

Well it might and i repeat might be your system errors. You could try reinstalling Mac os x. That might MIGHT fix it. It will save you money.

Thanks Terrag,
The horrific noise coming from the hd was enough for me to order a new one. When my irritation passed, I realized I should have upgraded a long time ago. I've been getting the spinning rainbow for quite a while now.

Perhaps the sound was unrelated, but is what you suggested a possible source of that noise? I'm thinking probably not.

k

It is highly unlikely, if at all possible, that OS problems will cause odd HD noises. Odd HD noises are often a sign of an impending failure and you have done the right thing in backing up your data.