OSX Cannot see Hard drive

Hello all

I have a problem with my Macbook (OSX 10.5) hard disk. It is rather full, although I have recently freed up some space (around 8 GB free now). I was backing up on to an external drive the other day and the system crashed.
Now on startup I get a flashing question mark. I have reset PRAM. I tried booting from the install DVD, but I cannot use Disk utility because the hard drive does not appear. I also cannot reinstall OSX, because the hard drive does not come up as a destination volume.
I tried to boot in single-user mode, but this did not work either (I still got the flashing question mark). As far as I can see, I've come to the end of the solutions listed on the Apple website and nothing has worked.

There is data on the hard drive not backed up that I really want to extract before I erase it. So if anyone has a suggestion for a fix that does not involve formatting the drive, that would be great, and also any advice about extracting data from a hard drive would be good.

Many thanks.

Your HDD failed on you. That's why you have the question mark because it can't find anything to boot from.

Time to get a another HDD. >_<"

Sadly should have backed up the drive to the external whilst all was hunky dory. You will find data extraction from a dead drive very, very expensive.

Now may be the time to try a long shot. Take out the drive and put it inside a zip lock and leave it in the freezer for half an hour. When you take it out, GENTLY bang the drive against the palm of your hand and insert it into the Mac and turn it on.
If it starts backup now. If it doesn't start increase time to one hour and hope. Be ready with the backup drive.
Last solution requires surgery on the drive. I have had a drive restart after changing the electronics that drive the HD. You will need an exact model of the HD to do this. Definitely a long shot but this has worked. A local IT repair place may be able to do this for you but they have you over the barrel.

There is data on the hard drive not backed up that I really want to extract before I erase it. So if anyone has a suggestion for a fix that does not involve formatting the drive, that would be great, and also any advice about extracting data from a hard drive would be good.

Click to expand...

A bit late with this reply, but your best bet might be to download the demo version of Data Rescue II and use it to see if your data can be rescued and copied to an external source. If the demo works, you'll need to purchase the registered version in order to remove your data from the drive. ($99)

Regards.

Thanks a lot for the replies. I had been hoping someone might suggest a way of making the drive discoverable, but it seems it was completely dead. For that reason, Data Rescue 2 is not an option (they say if you can't see the drive in Disk Utility, then their programme won't be able to see your drive either).
I got an appointment with a 'genius' in an Apple store, who, to my astonishment, replaced the hard drive with a much bigger one free of charge, even though my AppleCare had expired.
As for the data on the dead drive, it's really too important for me to be putting it in the freezer and banging it around, so it's now with a data recovery company, who will charge a fair chunk (£100-£150 they say, which I guess is about $150-$200 US), but I think the repair Apple gave me for free was worth about £150 in any case, so I'm not doing too badly in terms of money, especially as I was preparing myself to consider buying a new laptop.

Thanks again for everyone's replies. Yet another reminder (if anyone needed it) to backup files obsessively.

Thanks again for everyone's replies. Yet another reminder (if anyone needed it) to backup files obsessively.

As noted author Mac David Pogue reminds us, there are only two types of computer users. Those that have lost all their valuable information, and those of us who are about to.