My MacBook died...

What a great way to spend my 500th post...

So I was surfing the web earlier, when my MacBook decided to start slowing down, eventually to a halt. I held down the power button to turn it off, because there was nothing else I could do. I then started it up, and all I got was a grey screen with the "?" folder. I put in my Tiger DVD to run a hardware test, which came up with nothing. I restarted and after a while, it booted from the CD. It goes into the installation menu and everything, but I definitely didn't want to re-install everything. I went to the disk utility, and the only thing that came up was my CD drive. The hard drive wasn't even listed there. I am out of ideas.

Someone, please help me! neye: <- That's me. I'm beat up and crying.

It should still be under your warranty. Contact Apple and have it repaired.
:black:

So it doesn't sound good?

I know the Apple store is open tomorrow, but does anyone know if the Genuis Bar is open on Sundays?

Not sure on genius bar but it sounds like a defective Hard Drive that died. Anything on your drive important that was not backed up?

Everything.

I didn't have too much on there that I valued though. Only all my school stuff and music. I don't really care about any of the other stuff.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, Jeff. And even if your HDD took a header off the digital cliff, the data on there is probably still recoverable depending on how much $$$ you're willing to spend to get it back.

And, for the rest of us, this is another good reminder to back up our drives. I use a 300G external drive for regular backups on a monthly basis and also save critical stuff to a DVD just in case all the drives take a dive and I need access from a non-Mac computer.

I'm pretty sure the Genius Bar is open on Sunday. Around here, at least, the Genius Bar is a madhouse every second that the Apple Store is open.

I don't care about the stuff that's on there enough to pay for it. It can all be gotten again...I think.

That teaches me. I would never have thought that a hard drive would go sour in just over six months. I will probably be buying a good external hard drive tomorrow, as well as the AppleCare warranty. Stupid Apple cheating poor college kids out of their hard-earned money.

Another question. What are the chances that they could fix it on the spot? I'm crossing my fingers that they can do something on the spot, but what are the chances?

sorry to hear that Jeff. hope everything works out for you - fingers crossed!

"poor college kids" is redundant.

If the problem is just a goofed up configuration file or loose connection I suppose there's a chance the Geniuses might be able to help, but my understanding is that they won't even install an upgraded HDD so odds are they'll have to send your book away for a while. Sorry, dude. We'll hope for the best.

Altight, thanks again Todd.

Sorry I couldn't find a simple solution, Jeff. I know I'd have a hard time falling asleep after that.