2008 MacBook Pro not starting

I have an older Macbook Pro which has been working well for years without problems.
I have the Macbook partitioned with Windows and Mountain Lion.
I was on the windows side last, and when I rebooted the computer suddenly didn't want to start up again.
When you hit the power button, you hear a little noise, and the hard drive starts up.
But when I hit the power button now, I hear the noise, and there is no bootup at all, and the power light stays on. Any ideas to what is happening? My guess is that I have a hard drive failure and needs to be replaced. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Try booting the computer from an OS install disk…or one of the gray disks that came with the computer when new (if you got the computer brand new)…and see if the computer will boot.

You're probably right…the hard drive may have failed. Booting from the OS disk will help confirm that (and that it's not something else).

- Nick

p.s. Moved thread to more appropriate forum.

Thanks

pigoo3 said:

Try booting the computer from an OS install disk…or one of the gray disks that came with the computer when new (if you got the computer brand new)…and see if the computer will boot.

You're probably right…the hard drive may have failed. Booting from the OS disk will help confirm that (and that it's not something else).

- Nick

p.s. Moved thread to more appropriate forum.

Click to expand...

Hi Nick,
Thanks for the reply. I didn't own the computer from new, but I do have the Mountain Lion OS disk that I purchased. Can I use that as a boot disk?

moradwpg said:

Hi Nick,
Thanks for the reply. I didn't own the computer from new, but I do have the Mountain Lion OS disk that I purchased. Can I use that as a boot disk?

Click to expand...

Technically speaking…there is no such thing as a "Mountain Lion OS Disk"…Since Mountain Lion is a downloadable only OS. But if you made a backup bootable Mountain Lion disk yourself (after purchasing & downloading Mountain Lion)…then sure it will work (if it was made correctly).

On the other hand…maybe what you have is not a Mountain Lion disk. OS 10.6 Snow Leopard was the last OS install disk Apple officially sold.

- Nick

OS Disk

pigoo3 said:

Technically speaking…there is no such thing as a "Mountain Lion OS Disk"…Since Mountain Lion is a downloadable only OS. But if you made a backup bootable Mountain Lion disk yourself (after purchasing & downloading Mountain Lion)…then sure it will work (if it was made correctly).

On the other hand…maybe what you have is not a Mountain Lion disk. OS 10.6 Snow Leopard was the last OS install disk Apple officially sold.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Hi Nick,
You are right, it IS a Snow Leopard disk. You can tell I'm not an avid Apple user. I use it on the windows side mostly. So if this Snow Leopard disk boots up the computer then what does this mean? How will we know if the hard drive is functioning or not as it will be using the CD rom drive to bootup. Thanks for all your time and help, it is greatly appreciated!

moradwpg said:

Hi Nick,
You are right, it IS a Snow Leopard disk. You can tell I'm not an avid Apple user. I use it on the windows side mostly. So if this Snow Leopard disk boots up the computer then what does this mean? How will we know if the hard drive is functioning or not as it will be using the CD rom drive to bootup. Thanks for all your time and help, it is greatly appreciated!

Click to expand...

If you can boot from the Snow Leopard disk…then at least you know that everything from a hardware standpoint is working (other than maybe the hard drive). And if everything is working (other than the HD)…then you know the problem lies with the HD.

After booting from the Snow Leopard disk…move your trackpad "pointer" to the top where application menus usually are…and some menus will appear. Open "Disk Utility"…and see if it can "see" your HD. If Disk Utility can "see" the hard drive…you can try repairing the disk, and/or repairing permissions.

But if Disk Utility cannot "see"/find the HD…then the HD may be dead.

One other problem folks have sometimes…is they let their hard drive get too full. This may or may not be the problem…but I just wanted to mention it. Disk Utility can tell you how full (or how much free space there is on the HD)…assuming that Disk Utility can find the HD.

Good luck,

- Nick

Thanks so much Nick for all your great advice. It's really nice of you to take the time to respond.
I will try what you mentioned and let you know how things worked out. It'll be on the weekend sometime.
Kind regards.

moradwpg said:

Thanks so much Nick for all your great advice. It's really nice of you to take the time to respond.
I will try what you mentioned and let you know how things worked out. It'll be on the weekend sometime.
Kind regards.

Click to expand...

It's very possible that the HD has died. It happens. Luckily the HD is pretty easy to replace. If the HD has died…hopefully you had a backup of all the important stuff!

Good luck,

- Nick