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MacBook Crashed.... onto the floor.

S

spellflower

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 7, 2005
236
16
My Mac Book decided to pull a Humpty Dumpty, and landed on its spine (see below for details).

I tried recovering files, but was unsuccessful, as described here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=14386344#post14386344

So I used the OSX DVD to open Disk Utility and erase the drive. Then I started reinstalling OSX.

It took several hours, but seemed to be making progress. Then it went black, made the startup chime, and displayed a :apple:. Ten minutes later, it did that again. Then it did it again. After the 8th repetition of this, I turned it off.

What now? Should I go buy a new HD and install it? Or is there something else to try first?

Thanks!

Background Info:

My MacBook crashed- literally- onto the floor.

I picked it up and opened it and it made a lot of bad sounding mechanical noises.

I was able to drag windows around and minimize them, but it was very sluggish. When I clicked on an image on the desktop it opened up, but only after several minutes.

I restarted, but it just showed a logo and a spinning wheel for an hour.

I took it to the Genius Bar, and they said I should try using FireWire Target Mode to save files and then do a full erase of the hard drive, and reinstall everything. I have a Time Machine backup, but it's not recent, and I'd like to save pictures that aren't on it.
 
You may have caused damage to your hard drive (the mechanical noises) or logic board. How old is the Mac? If it's still under warranty I would take it to Apple.

The person at the Genius Bar is a tard if there's a bunch of mechanical noises inside the computer going off and exhibiting the behavior you're describing and he/she suggests reformatting.

Best case scenario is it's ONLY the hard drive, which is easily replaceable. I would try recovering as much off the drive as you can.
 
LiesForTheLiars said:
You may have caused damage to your hard drive (the mechanical noises) or logic board. How old is the Mac? If it's still under warranty I would take it to Apple.

The person at the Genius Bar is a tard if there's a bunch of mechanical noises inside the computer going off and exhibiting the behavior you're describing and he/she suggests reformatting.
Click to expand...

Warranty doesn't cover user accidents
 
I took it to the GB already (see the Background Information on my post.) Anyway, it's well out of warranty- it's four years old.

So should I buy a new HD and install it?

I forgot to say that at the GB they started it off of their external HD and it ran fine, so the Genius didn't think the logic board was the problem.
 
If it worked from an external drive, I'd say you got lucky and just need a new HDD.

Keep the receipt just in case.
 
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