Ok so my situation is very confusing...
I originally was saving a document when I got the spinny wheel and when I clicked off of it to new windows for a little while, it froze completely.
When I booted the computer up, I got the dreaded flashing folder with a question mark in it. The only difference between what I experienced and what I saw other hard drive failures experience was that once in a while when I would boot it up, I would get the apple symbol which would eventually change into that flashing circle with a line through it symbol that means something is missing or whatever. Also, I tried the command where you can see all the disks and choose which to boot from and about once every hour or two, it would pop up for a few seconds. When I clicked it, it seemed like it would begin to load and then it would load to the question mark folder again. It seemed to get to this point when I hadn't messed with the computer for a while, so when it was cold. Also, the disk did not make any noise that was unusual compared to normal. Many users claimed clinking or clunking noises, none of which my hard drive made. It seemed to spin normal.
Anyway, I concluded that I had hard drive failure based on the symptoms. I tried everything I found on these forums and more and nothing would recognize the drive. I went ahead and bought two more hard drives and a hard drive enclosure so that I would be able to back up my data next time.
Anyway, I first tried to see if I could see any of the data on the "fried" hard drive with my other laptop (a PC) and all that was on the drive was a file with one of the tildes at the end and it was from about 8 months before it crashed. It was a list of things I needed to get done that week so it was very obvious when it was from. Anyway, the hard drive was originally 500GB and I had used probably 100GB of the space in addition to that taken up by Snow Leopard. When I checked the drive, it was listed as 16GB with only that one file and no folders. Anyway, I ignored this and installed a new Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB 7200RPM into the MacBook Pro 13".
Anyway, I borrowed my friend's Install DVD for his new MacBook Pro. I put it in and it loaded from the disk but when I got to the Disk Utility Menu, it doesn't notice the new hard drive, just like it didn't with the original that I thought/still think was/is fried. The DVD I was booting from is actually for a 15" MBP and mine is a 13"... but considering it actually booted up, I didn't think this was really an issue. It gets to the Disk Utility but finding the hard drive is a no go.
I'm trying to figure out what to do next. Any advice? Please don't tell me to search the forums because I have dug in and out non stop trying to find the solution.
Any help at all would be wonderful! Thanks!!
I originally was saving a document when I got the spinny wheel and when I clicked off of it to new windows for a little while, it froze completely.
When I booted the computer up, I got the dreaded flashing folder with a question mark in it. The only difference between what I experienced and what I saw other hard drive failures experience was that once in a while when I would boot it up, I would get the apple symbol which would eventually change into that flashing circle with a line through it symbol that means something is missing or whatever. Also, I tried the command where you can see all the disks and choose which to boot from and about once every hour or two, it would pop up for a few seconds. When I clicked it, it seemed like it would begin to load and then it would load to the question mark folder again. It seemed to get to this point when I hadn't messed with the computer for a while, so when it was cold. Also, the disk did not make any noise that was unusual compared to normal. Many users claimed clinking or clunking noises, none of which my hard drive made. It seemed to spin normal.
Anyway, I concluded that I had hard drive failure based on the symptoms. I tried everything I found on these forums and more and nothing would recognize the drive. I went ahead and bought two more hard drives and a hard drive enclosure so that I would be able to back up my data next time.
Anyway, I first tried to see if I could see any of the data on the "fried" hard drive with my other laptop (a PC) and all that was on the drive was a file with one of the tildes at the end and it was from about 8 months before it crashed. It was a list of things I needed to get done that week so it was very obvious when it was from. Anyway, the hard drive was originally 500GB and I had used probably 100GB of the space in addition to that taken up by Snow Leopard. When I checked the drive, it was listed as 16GB with only that one file and no folders. Anyway, I ignored this and installed a new Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB 7200RPM into the MacBook Pro 13".
Anyway, I borrowed my friend's Install DVD for his new MacBook Pro. I put it in and it loaded from the disk but when I got to the Disk Utility Menu, it doesn't notice the new hard drive, just like it didn't with the original that I thought/still think was/is fried. The DVD I was booting from is actually for a 15" MBP and mine is a 13"... but considering it actually booted up, I didn't think this was really an issue. It gets to the Disk Utility but finding the hard drive is a no go.
I'm trying to figure out what to do next. Any advice? Please don't tell me to search the forums because I have dug in and out non stop trying to find the solution.
Any help at all would be wonderful! Thanks!!