Macbook can't start up and a folder with a symbol "?" in it

[sweiz]

my english is not good
i hope u can understand what i said about the situation
about 4 days ago,i opened a psd file in may mac,but my mac worked very hard at that moment.and the cursor turned like a coloful circle
then i shut down the power
after couple of hours i opened the computer again,but terrible thing happened
it could't start up,just a blank screen, a folder with a symbol "?" in it.
someone told me maybe there was something wrong with the hard drive
so i put the system disk 1 into the computer and use the Disk Utility but it can not find my hard drive!!
Disk Utility show that only a cd,no hard drive
what happened with my mac? can anybody help me?

 

[MacGeek7]

your hard drive bite the dust....if you have a warranty still you could take it to Apple

 

[Araucaria]

Having the same problem. Help please!

Last night I opened a video clip file in my mac, but my mac seemd to be working intensely at that moment and the cursor turned like a colorful circle and nothing I did
worked, the keyboard seemed blocked. Then I shut down the power.
This morning I opened the computer again, but it wont start up, I only have a blank screen, with a flashing folder with a symbol "?" in it. What should I do?

my english is not good
i hope u can understand what i said about the situation
about 4 days ago,i opened a psd file in may mac,but my mac worked very hard at that moment.and the cursor turned like a coloful circle
then i shut down the power
after couple of hours i opened the computer again,but terrible thing happened
it could't start up,just a blank screen, a folder with a symbol "?" in it.
someone told me maybe there was something wrong with the hard drive
so i put the system disk 1 into the computer and use the Disk Utility but it can not find my hard drive!!
Disk Utility show that only a cd,no hard drive
what happened with my mac? can anybody help me?

 

[dckj95]

bring it in to the good guys at apple. it might have something to do with the sudden lack of power to the hard drive when you shut off the power. just pray that your hard drive aint corrupted.

 

[aleni]

boy, i wish you had backed up your data routinely.

 

[e12a]

freezing while doing work and forcing shut down via powerbutton, and then coming up with a folder/question mark 90% of the time means dead HD. Just replaced one the other day. you might, just might get lucky and software data recovery will work. Or you might be able to reformat it and continue working, but it will fail again. half the time it just keeps doing a rhythmic clicking and is irrecoverable.

let me guess, its a Seagate drive? i've seen so many dead seagates at work its ridiculous. barely over a year old too.