MacBook Wont Boot From Hard Drive or CD

[ondagaskiknass]

My computer boots up at a white screen with a grey folder containing a white question mark on it. It is running the Snow Leopard OS. When i try and boot from a cd i get the multi-cultural language error saying to hold down the power button until the computer shuts down. and then turn it back on. Not sure where to go from here. Any help is appreciated!

 

[Detrius]

You probably get that when booting from the CD because it's older than your machine and doesn't have drivers for it. The blinking question mark most likely (though possibly not) means you have a bad hard drive.

 

[nicklad]

Do you have access to a machine with Snow Leopard or Lion on it?

If so, I suggest you download (purchase if necessary) Lion from the AppStore and put InstallESD.dmg on to an 8GB USB flash drive or burn it to a DVD.

Boot from it and see what Disk Utility can see.

http://holgr.com/blog/2011/02/creating-a-bootable-os-x-10-7-lion-disc/

 

[session101]

i would do the USB route, if your cd's are failing... it could be a bad burn, or a bad CD