MacBook won't get past loading screen

[TheKingIV]

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A day or two I was on the computer and it froze so I shut it down manually. When I tried to start it later, it gets to the apple screen with the little loader thing under it going in a circle but never goes past it.

I've restarted a number of times and have let the battery run out, waited overnight then tried again.

Any advice?

 

[Macman45]

Possible hard disk failure, or corrupt OSX installation. Do you have the ORIGINAL installation media?

 

[TheKingIV]

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Yes I just found the original Mac Os X disc. Do I just run it? How will that work if I can't get to the home screen?

 

[minifridge1138]

Put the disk in the mac.
Hold the OPTION key as it boots.
It will give you a list of every bootable volume it finds (which should be the DVD and your hard drive).

You have some options:
1) Use the recovery disk to do a clean installation of OSX. You'll loose all of the data on the hard drive. Won't help you if the hard drive has gone bad.
2) Use the recovery disk and Disk Utility to try and verify/repair the hard disk. No data will be lost (that hasn't been lost if the drive is bad).
3) Buy a new hard drive and a SATA usb enclosure. Install the new drive into your mac. Put the old drive in the enclosure. Use the recovery disk to do a new installation of OSX onto the new hard drive. Attempt to recover the data from the old drive that is now a USB drive.
4) Sell it on Craigslist and use the cash to buy a new Mac.

Personally, I'd go in this order:
2, 3, 4.

 

[TheKingIV]

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Thanks minifridge. I have my computer backed up on carbonite, so I was trying to go with option #1, but when I click the disk after holding down option the computer just freezes.

Any further advice?