Flashing Folder with question mark

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Hi,

I have a 3 years old MacBook 13.3" white C2D 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM...while i was deleting some items from my flash drive the system got stuck with the spinning beach ball i waited for a while and then my friend pulled the power cord (my battery has died so im using it on power supply for 3-4 days).

When I restarted my Mac i heard the start up gong and then nothing!!!...there was only a white screen for a long time...i tried to boot up a couple of times but nothing happened so i left the MacBook in the same state for a while hoping it would start up. After 4-5 mins I saw flashing folder with a question mark inside...it just kept on flashing for a while and nothing happened so I googled some solution for this. Apparently i found some remedies:

1. after the flashing icon appears wait for a while and the system should start up normally then simply change the startup disk to Macintosh HD....well that didnt work, so i tried another one

2. try selecting the hard drive from startup manager by pressing Option/Alt key...when i did that hard disk didnt appear, instead i could see my mouse pointer but nothing else!! :(

3. they also suggested that if that didnt work then i should startup from the MacOSX restore DVD...since i have upgraded my MacBook to Mac OS10.6.2 recently and when i purchased my MacBook it came with Tiger preinstalled and i still have the Tiger DVDs...but however i tried doing that aswell but nothing happened, I tried to hold Option key while booting to select the DVD manually, the DVD did appeared but when i clicked on it, nothing happened, i even tried to hold the C key while booting with the DVD inside and nothing happened :(

4. As a last resort I tried to rest the PRAM by holding Option+Command+P+R keys together while booting...after the next boot the flashing folder icon appeared again, I tried this several times but same results :(.

Is there any possible solution to this problem?...or is my macbook BRICKED??...and how come this suddenly happened?

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRICIATED!!!

THANKS!!!!!!!
 
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Can u download the combo updater and run that, it should sort it Mac OS X v10.6.2 Update (Combo)
If it locks up always press and hold power button to force a shutdown - if u pull power cord while it is writing to disk - well u know the answer to that.
 
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well yeh i can download the Combo updater but then how does that solve my problem??...i mean how should i run the update???
 
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Good question.
Does your MacBook have a firewire port?
Do you have a firewire cord?
Do you have another computer with a firewire port?
If the answers to all three of those are yes, then you should plug your MacBook into the other computer using firewire and hold T while booting up. This turns your MB into an external hard drive. Then, if it doesn't show up, your HD is probably dead and you may need a new one.
Correct me if I'm wrong about the dead HD thing.
 
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And you have updated to Snow Leopard. Use that disk to boot from and run Repair Disc and keep your friends away from your computer.
 

Slydude

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If you have upgraded to 10.6.2 then at some time you had the 10.6 disc, correct? If I am not mistaken that disc contains the full OS. Insert it and attempt to boot from the DVD. Once you have chosen the Install language you should be able to run Disk Utility and attempt to repair the hard drive.
 
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well i dont have the firewire cable nor do i have the 10.6 DVD...i installed it from a 8GB flash drive...but the good thing is that I still have the Snow Leopard dmg file in my other laptop...will give it a try
 
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well if that doesnt work then how much will the new HDD cost me ??
 
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Back to my old 2.2GHz C2D MB after selling my MBP and wondering what my next Mac will be :)
well i dont have the firewire cable nor do i have the 10.6 DVD...i installed it from a 8GB flash drive...but the good thing is that I still have the Snow Leopard dmg file in my other laptop...will give it a try

No, there is no good thing here.
Sounds like you have Snow Leopard from performing an illegal install.... and I doubt that you are going to have any further assistance here!
 
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i tried to start up my mac again and this time i heard some clicking noises and then the flashing folder icon...does that mean that my HD is busted??:Oops:
 

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No, there is no good thing here.
Sounds like you have Snow Leopard from performing an illegal install.... and I doubt that you are going to have any further assistance here!

Exactly. And we're done here.
 
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