New Member.....Is my hard drive dead? Blinking folder with ? mark

[shale101]

I Don't have a lot of knowledge of computers so I apologize if any of this doesn't make sense. I have an exactly 2 year old White Macbook. To make it short....screen froze....restarted...eventually got blinking folder with question mark. Tried all the various ways/modes (safe,single,etc) to restart the computer and nothing. Read the macbook booklet and it said to enter the Mac OS X disk 1 and I did that. It eventually worked, the disk that is. Went to Disk Utility and tried to repair Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and get ERROR:No valid packages. In the column of choices there are 3 other options for me to click and repair. I don't know if these options are confidential and need to be kept private but I will omit some of the numbers/ letters. These are the other 3 options:
....GB Hitachi HTS....( this is what I get when I try to repair: Invalid B-tree node size Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit......also.. 1 HFS Volume checked .....Volume needs repair
Disk0s2 ......this option when I try to repair gives the same exact error as the one above.
....GB MATSHITA.... this option gives the same response as when I try to repair the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 ......ERROR:No valid packages.

Also I tried to reinstall Mac OS X by following the installer and clicked English and then get to Select a destination volume to install the Mac OS X software and there are NO options available for me to click.

I am so desperate right now. If anyone has any advice or knows what to do I would be soooo grateful!

 

[Sky Blue]

If you see a drive in Disk Utility, you could try an Erase, but you'd lose everything on the drive. Sounds like your HD may have failed

 

[Hoodman]

You have to erase the volume... sorry. if you want to recover your data you could use Target Disk Mode (Hold T @ startup) on your mac, an plug it via firewire to another mac and see if there is any data at all.

If by luck you can read the volume, just copy the files that are under your user /Users/"your user".

Then erase the volume, that should make the options of the installer available.

If you can not read the volume form another mac, or erase the volume, then your HD is dead... you'll have to get a replacement. Don't worry you can install it by your self for free.

hope that helps...

Certified Support Profesional

 

[shale101]

You have to erase the volume... sorry. if you want to recover your data you could use Target Disk Mode (Hold T @ startup) on your mac, an plug it via firewire to another mac and see if there is any data at all.

If by luck you can read the volume, just copy the files that are under your user /Users/"your user".

Then erase the volume, that should make the options of the installer available.

If you can not read the volume form another mac, or erase the volume, then your HD is dead... you'll have to get a replacement. Don't worry you can install it by your self for free.

hope that helps...

Certified Support Profesional

thank you so much for the response...... how should I go about erasing it? Do I go back to disk utilty (under first aide) and erase all of the 4 options in the left hand box?? Thanks again.

 

[Hoodman]

Hi

Start you mac from the DVD, in the menu bar there is a Utilities menu, click, then use Disk utility.

in disk utility select the HD, is the one that has the total space first then the maker... etc etc. on the right there is a tab that says erase. In the window that appears, you can chose the type of volume you would like to use, select mac os plus journal, down in the text box put the name you like for the volume, and then click erase. It should take a few minutes, even less than one...

if you return to the installer it should be available for install the OS.

Certified Support Professional