MacBook Air won't boot up

[userjoy]

New mac user - had this thing three weeks. I was trying to use "terminal" to make files visible. I got an error in the terminal window, and couldn't type in any commands. So I figured I'd just restart the computer to clear out whatever oddness was causing that.

It won't reboot. Can't get to where it forces me to put in a password to log on.

What can I do? Returning it is high on my list, but I need to at least recover the work I've done on it in the past few weeks.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Have you tried any of these steps?

Mac doesn't boot

Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck

Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on

A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac​

And what command did you use in Terminal?
Did you have to enter your password?

 

[userjoy]

Mac won't boot - solved

Thanks for the guidance. I called Apple Support and after an hour and a half on the phone (mostly on hold) and talking to three different people, the hard disk was repaired and it works again. Good thing I still have a reliable PC so I could go on line to find apple support - also so that when this happens again I can come back to this post via my PC and find your recommendations!

I never did anything in terminal - it didn't work. That's why I tried to reboot, and found that wouldn't work either. After the computer finally got working again, I found an alternate solution to the problem that I wanted to use terminal to address. (not an interesting problem...)