Did I wipe my hard drive?

[aidomoroknee]

So, I got the question mark in the folder and then used the internet repair thing on my Macbook Pro 13 2012. I erased a 16gb SD card in the utility disk section and made it my partition thingy (really wasn't clear on what I was doing). Then I installed Lion OS x onto it.

So, then I created a new account and all that with my new reinstalled OS...and it didn't work. It stalled like crazy after I removed the SD card and I had to hold down the power button to shut down the laptop. And then when I rebooted it the question mark in the folder came up AGAIN.

I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm willing to pay the €169 with apple that it costs to replace the hard drive if it means they can get my old data for me. But...can they? Is it too late?

 

[yjchua95]

So, I got the question mark in the folder and then used the internet repair thing on my Macbook Pro 13 2012. I erased a 16gb SD card in the utility disk section and made it my partition thingy (really wasn't clear on what I was doing). Then I installed Lion OS x onto it.

So, then I created a new account and all that with my new reinstalled OS...and it didn't work. It stalled like crazy after I removed the SD card and I had to hold down the power button to shut down the laptop. And then when I rebooted it the question mark in the folder came up AGAIN.

I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm willing to pay the €169 with apple that it costs to replace the hard drive if it means they can get my old data for me. But...can they? Is it too late?

Well I don't think you selected the internal drive as the startup disk. Here's what you should do:

1. Boot from that SD card and use Disk Utility to format the internal drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Make sure it's in GUID Partition Table.
2. Install OS X into the internal drive.
3. When restarting, after the chime, hold down Option immediately and select the internal drive.
4. Problem solved.

Edit: I suggested a reinstall just to be safe, in case OS X didn't install properly in the internal drive earlier.

 

[Weaselboy]

So, I got the question mark in the folder and then used the internet repair thing on my Macbook Pro 13 2012. I erased a 16gb SD card in the utility disk section and made it my partition thingy (really wasn't clear on what I was doing). Then I installed Lion OS x onto it.

So, then I created a new account and all that with my new reinstalled OS...and it didn't work. It stalled like crazy after I removed the SD card and I had to hold down the power button to shut down the laptop. And then when I rebooted it the question mark in the folder came up AGAIN.

I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm willing to pay the €169 with apple that it costs to replace the hard drive if it means they can get my old data for me. But...can they? Is it too late?

It sounds like your drive is bad and all this erasing and reinstalling is just overwriting the data again and making data recovery less likely. Even if you take this to Apple, all they will do is replace the drive and reinstall the OS for you to get your Macbook running, but they will not recover your data.

Your options at this point as I see it are to either try a utility like Disk Warrior or similar or pay a company that specializes in data recovery to do this for you.

Well I don't think you selected the internal drive as the startup disk. Here's what you should do:

1. Boot from that SD card and use Disk Utility to format the internal drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Make sure it's in GUID Partition Table.
2. Install OS X into the internal drive.
3. When restarting, after the chime, hold down Option immediately and select the internal drive.
4. Problem solved.

Edit: I suggested a reinstall just to be safe, in case OS X didn't install properly in the internal drive earlier.

OP >> Don't do this. It will erase all your data.