Help! MacBook has died...

[supergrandma]

I was downloading an iTunes rental when a "cannot write to disk" error message came up. Then, everything started to freeze, so I was forced to manually restart the laptop. Instead of restarting, every time I press the power button, the gray screen comes up (without the Apple logo) and the fans go crazy. I tried putting in the OS X disk and booting up while holding down "c", but nothing happens; I also tried booting while holding "option." At this point, nothing seems to work, as I can't even boot the laptop from the OS X disk.

[Vulcan]

Is your MacBook still under AppleCare? I would say that your hard drive died if something came up on the screen, did you see a ? by any chance? The fans don't seem right, if you can, take it to a Genius Bar.

[mrrish]

Does your mac keep restarting after the gray screen on its own? Try replacing the hard drive, either through apple, or a 3rd party.

[dckj95]

most likely your hard drive has died. bring it in to a genius to have it fixed. apple may charge you for the hard drive if you dont have applecare.

[supergrandma]

It was definitely hard drive failure I swapped the failed Seagate with a new Western Digital drive and it works fine. Thanks for the help!

[iDave]

Originally Posted by supergrandma

It was definitely hard drive failure I swapped the failed Seagate with a new Western Digital drive and it works fine. Thanks for the help!

I would think it would still boot from the optical drive, but I learn something every day.

[supergrandma]

Originally Posted by iDave

I would think it would still boot from the optical drive, but I learn something every day.

After a long while, it eventually booted from the optical drive, so I was able to run the OS disk.

[Scottological]

Hope you didn't lose much data. I've had the same thing happen to me.

If you did lose data and ever tell the story to someone, they'll say, "why didn't you back it up?" The only proper response is to hit them in the face.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Scottological

Hope you didn't lose much data. I've had the same thing happen to me.

If you did lose data and ever tell the story to someone, they'll say, "why didn't you back it up?" The only proper response is to hit them in the face.

Haha

Well, glad the OP was able to get their computer back up and running.

[supergrandma]

Originally Posted by Scottological

Hope you didn't lose much data. I've had the same thing happen to me.

If you did lose data and ever tell the story to someone, they'll say, "why didn't you back it up?" The only proper response is to hit them in the face.

Time Machine is a wonderful thing.

[angemon89]

Originally Posted by Scottological

Hope you didn't lose much data. I've had the same thing happen to me.

If you did lose data and ever tell the story to someone, they'll say, "why didn't you back it up?" The only proper response is to hit them in the face.

You should always back up though!
Seriously, If I were to lose all my data I would cry for like 5 days straight.

[840quadra]

Originally Posted by iDave

I would think it would still boot from the optical drive, but I learn something every day.

Drive failures can either be mechanical (more common) or logical (less common). Mechanical (or physical) is usually caused by one of the moving parts having some kind of failure, causing the drive to be unreadable, or non functional.

The Logical style failure can be one of many things, including damage from electrical discharge (static), file system corruption, to failure of the controller board. Logical drive failures can often result in a non booting system (regardless of boot device) for various reasons.