Is my hard drive cooked?

[camster1964]

I have a Macbook about 4 years old that suddenly started making a clicking sound when I start up and I get the flashing folder with ?.

I restarted with the OSX system disc but when I get to the step to select a destination volume, there is no volume listed.

I also tried restarting holding down the D key to run a hardware test as per the manual but just the Install screen comes up as above.

I also tried running the disk utility by selecting my drive (4.7GB-HL-DT-ST-DVDR). I tried running Verify Disk Permisions but get a "Error:No Valid Packages). I also tried Erase and Partition but the Volume Format "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" is greyed out. Same with Partition.

So I'm just wondering maybe my HD is toast? or is there further tests, recovery options I can try. Any help would be eternally grateful.

Thanks
Camster

 

[max¥¥]

4.7GB-HL-DT-ST-DVDR is your dvd drive, so if that is the only drive in disk utility, your hdd is probably dead

 

[Patrick J]

Clicking = dead.

Flashing question mark means no boot up found.

 

[ulbador]

Clicking = dead.

Flashing question mark means no boot up found.

I hate that clicking noise. I have heard it many times over the years and it's never a good thing. Sometimes putting the drive in a plastic bag and freezing the drive for a while will allow it to boot up one more time to get your important stuff off.

 

[max¥¥]

I hate that clicking noise. I have heard it many times over the years and it's never a good thing. Sometimes putting the drive in a plastic bag and freezing the drive for a while will allow it to boot up one more time to get your important stuff off.

Freezing a hdd to get data of it? never heard of that

 

[ulbador]

Freezing a hdd to get data of it? never heard of that

I've pulled a dozen or more drives out of servers, dropped them in a freezer overnight, warmed them back up and had them boot right up, at least for a few minutes.

Here is just one such article I found on google:

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html

 

[Patrick J]

I've pulled a dozen or more drives out of servers, dropped them in a freezer overnight, warmed them back up and had them boot right up, at least for a few minutes.

Here is just one such article I found on google:

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html

Nice. I will remember that. Thanks for the tip.

 

[rtmadden]

Poor prognosis. Are you going to need to try and recover data or do you backup regularly?

 

[Buzzworms]

Your MB is about 4 years old? Have you checked out the MacBook Repair Extension Program for Hard Drive Issues? Apple recently sent me a check for HD replacement in my MB Core Duo 1.1.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/

 

[mobilehaathi]

Sounds like a dead HDD. Although it might be worth it to check out the suggestion above about potentially getting it replaced.