installation/ hard drive problems

i have a macbook that is currently running leopard and vista by bootcamp, a few weeks ago when i booted up and went to select my mac os, the screen wouldn't come up, power on > option > and then nothing, no choices of HD's just a blank grey screen, i've tried everything to get mac up and running (vista works fine), after many failed attempts, i decided to just erase everything and start over.

so, i went to reinstall tiger, then leopard, then bootcamp, then vista, but while i was trying to install tiger about half way through it will just stop installing and say, a error has occurred, installation failed. so i restarted the computer and tried two more times and the same thing just happened again.

i called apple support and the woman i was speaking to couldn't help me, she was only telling me things i already knew.

please help.
thank you.
by the way, this is not a new computer, nor new software, and it has all been used before and i've never had this problem until now.

NewMacbookPlz said:

Sounds like a dying HDD to me...that's exactly what mine did with my iBook when it was on it's way out. (The failing to install, not the BootCamp part obviously)

Why are you installing Tiger first even? You should be able to just go straight to 10.5 to save the hassle to begin with as well.

Click to expand...

see, i didn't know if i could install leopard first, i thought it was just an upgrade.

i'm pretty sure i like zeroed out both my harddrives, i'm not sure, i asked the same question on apple support and a user said..

"It sounds like a failing Hard Drive.

If you have no data you need to save on that HD, then...

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the Erase tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Highlight the drive, select Partition Tab, then Format type... MacOS Extended Journalled, select the Security Options button, choose Zero Out Data, Erase... after completion hopefully you'll be able to install.

after highlighting the drive, click on the Partition tab, Options button will be down below..."

i did that and then it went further but still failed, i left it overnight and then tried running the start up disk again, and when asked to pick a harddrive to install it on it was blank, no choices.
does this mean i deleted my harddrives?

do i need to buy a new harddrive or is there something else i can do?