Tried to turn on my macbook and it just gives me a folder icon

[sigh]

I tried to turn on my mac book and the center of the screen is just a folder with a question mark.

 

[jbrenn]

hope you have a backup

that is exactly what happens when the hard drive goes bad.

 

[andimaciphone]

Sorry that means your hard drive is dead

This happened to me back in the summer.

Hard drive had died, thankfully mine was still under warranty so got a replacement FOC.

Thankfully I have a time capsule so didn't lose anything.

Hope you have a back up as well.

 

[FJ218700]

I tried to turn on my mac book and the center of the screen is just a folder with a question mark.

I doubt your hard drive is totally dead.

start it up with the option key held until you get to the startup disk mode screen (grey screen with arrow icons in bottom right and left. If your HD icon pops up click on it an hit the bottom right arrow.

if that still fails to starup OS X, start the computer holding "T", you will see a firewire symbol. Hook it up via firewire to another mac and get your data off.

you could also try booting from the install DVD and doing a disk repair from the disk utility (in menu bar when booting off DVD)

 

[walnuts]

Is there a cd in the drive or an external drive connected? Is it possible that the macbook is trying to boot from the wrong volume?

Edit- darn beat me to it!