Grey Screen With Folder Icon and ?mark, flashing!! HELP!

hi guys im new so sorry if this has been posted before, i tryed to look but couldnt find anything!

Ok so i was watching that show 'Grease is the word' on my miglia tv thing, and it froze, (like it normally does becuase it sometimes gets confused with mobile phone signals, cos i use a small arial) so i held down the power button, also like ive done many times before, which then it starts up again normally and works perfectly....but when i switched it back on this time, the grey screen came up, with 'the start sound' but there was a faint clicking near the cd/dvd loading slot, and after about 3mins instead of the Apple Grey Logo, up came a folder icon with a ? in it, flashing, and thats how it stays!

if any1 has AnY advice or anything to say, atall, would be much appreaciated! thankyou!

have scheduled an appointment with my local apple store, but have to wait 3days, and it has uni work on it to be given in before then!!

Try this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042

If you do find that you need to reinstall the os, do an archive and install:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

Or you could try safe boot, but I don't think that will work. hold down the shift key on start up. If it works, go to system preferences>startup disk>then chose the blue macintosh folder>then restart.

Look at page 13 of this document on Apple's site.

I just had that exact problem with mine. I brought it in to the apple repair shop and apparantly the hard drive fried .

Roodki said:

I just had that exact problem with mine. I brought it in to the apple repair shop and apparantly the hard drive fried .

Click to expand...

Yeah, sometimes it can be the hard drive, but i try not to scare people. I always like to give a little hope.:flower: