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macgs

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 13, 2007
4
0
My [black] macbook that I've had for about a year froze up a couple days ago. It started making a clicking noise up by the disk insert, and froze. I held the power button to turn it off and now it doesnt start up. It goes to a white screen, and flashses a folder with a "?" in the middle. After a few flashes it turns off.

I've tried doing various things, including starting it from the Mac install disc 1. When I try to repair in disk utility, it won't let me. The button isn't even clickable. The only clickable button is the "Verify" one, and it just comes up with an error. :(

Does this mean my harddrive is shot? Are all my files and stuff gone??

Any help besides "take it to a mac genius" would be appreciated.The only mac store is far away from me.
 
The clicking noise is definitely a bad sign, suggestive of a dead hard drive. Hopefully, you have your files backed up onto another hard drive. If not, those files may be gone for good.

If you can see the drive at all when starting from the system disk, you might be able to get your files off and onto an external. The other possibility is to try to start it up in target disk mode connected to another Mac and get the files off that way. Another possibility is starting from Disk Warrior - you might be able to repair it that way enough to get files off.
 
The clicking stoppped after a couple times of trying to restart. I have adesktop where mostof my stuff is. Nothing important was on it. At this point I just want it to work again. :confused:

Also, I have ACPP. How do I go about calling them for phone support? Do I just call the store phone and when they say you have to come in, tell them "screw of I have ACPP!"?
 
The clicking stoppped after a couple times of trying to restart. I have adesktop where mostof my stuff is. Nothing important was on it. At this point I just want it to work again. :confused:

Also, I have ACPP. How do I go about calling them for phone support? Do I just call the store phone and when they say you have to come in, tell them "screw of I have ACPP!"?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by your second question, but yes, I'd say your HD is dead. This has happened to me before (but with a G4). If you have AC, call them (there is a support # on the agreement they sent you when you signed up) , and they will take care of it. Since MB HD's are user replaceable , they might just send you a new one. Now, if there is anything you want off the dead drive you MIGHT be able to use disk warrior - but to do that I think you need to put the drive in an external drive.

By the way, although it is most likely your HD, you may want to insist that a specialist look at the computer just in case it is a more serious issue. The aforementioned G4 worked for a while with the new HD, but the logic board failed about two weeks later.
 
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