Grey Screen of Death

[austinfd]

I have a wite macbook core 2 (from July 2006).

The other day, the song I had playing on iTunes stopped on it's own. I couldn't get to iTunes to quit the program, so I tried to force quit. That didn't work.

Instead the computer shut down on it's own, and now, when I turn it on, it shows the plain grey screen for a few mintues, the hard drive makes some weird grinding noises, and then an icon of a folder with a ? starts blinking in the center of the screen.

what does this mean? is my macbook FUBARed!?

 

[DeaconGraves]

Grinding hard drive usually equals dead hard drive.

Might want to run Hardware test off your MB DVD to verify everything, but that's my guess.

 

[geissap]

No need to jump to bad HD quite yet on this. Sometimes HD's will click and grind if they can't find a bootable volume no the drive...they just kinda spin in place.

First thing I would do is boot this up and put your install disc into the machine. Shut it down and start up holding C. Once you get to the installer click english for your language preference and then find disk utility. It should be under utilities along the top menu bar.

In disk utility there's a couple things you may see here.

Your HD with a grayed out partition:
-Meaning you probably have severe directory damage which can be fixed by disk warrior typically or a clean erase and install

Your HD will show up in red:
-Meaning it's failing smart status and you need a new HD

Your HD may not show up at all:
-Also meaning your drive is hosed and you need a new one

Either way with a flashing ? your probably losing all your data at this point but give it a shot! I have seen an archive and install fix

 

[M.Capz]

Same thing happened to me also, join the club.
My drive doesn't show up at all so I'm pretty much screwed.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/400110/

 

[andyjamesnelson]

If the HD is dead .. does anyone know a place I can buy a new one? Andy.

 

[austinfd]

UPDATE:

The HD didn't show up at all in the source list... But thanks to the fine folks at Apple Care, I should be good as new later today.

BTW.. I was told that all my data is *dead.* OK, OK, so I'll take the lashes for not having a recent backup, but is that really accurate? Just because the drive is busted, shouldn't the data still be salvageable?

 

[JML42691]

UPDATE:

The HD didn't show up at all in the source list... But thanks to the fine folks at Apple Care, I should be good as new later today.

BTW.. I was told that all my data is *dead.* OK, OK, so I'll take the lashes for not having a recent backup, but is that really accurate? Just because the drive is busted, shouldn't the data still be salvageable?

For a very expensive price, and even then it still may not be possible. If the head on the Hard Drive made scratches or other damages to the disc, then you are basically screwed.

 

[alexk82]

just started happening to me

this just started happening to me on my PowerBook g4. I had just gotten a new iMac and was copying data over when it happened. it seems to be happening alot since then. my laptop also won't wake up after I close the lid. I just followed the instructions regarding disk utility and it said it was repaired so wish me luck until I can get my new laptop coming end of Jan