Hard drive failure??

Hiya,
Funny you say this. This happened to me last night. I'm not the brightest person when it comes to computer hardware but I was installing Eye TV on my Macbook when I discovered that the antennea that comes with it is magnetised at the bottom. It was near the mousepad on my Mac and it picked up the magnest from the hardrive. It has completely wiped my hardrive losing absolutely everything that was on my Mac. What's worse is that I didn't have anything backed up. I'm taking it to Apple tomorrow so fingers crossed they can fix it for me. It was making that same noise that you described and it was showing just a blank screen. It also showed a little black folder where the apple symbol should be. This black folder had a question mark in it. So may I suggest not having any magnets next to your Mac. 😟

The same thing happened to me just last night. I was trying to open Firefox when everything froze and I had to force shut down. There was a loud clicking sound as it turned off, then when I turned it back on I got nothing but a grey screen. I'm not even getting the blinking folder w/question mark, just nothing. I've tried booting from the installation disk and still nothing. I'm taking it in to a Genius Bar tomorrow, and really hoping they can fix it because I need my MacBook!

ETA: By the way, I've had my MacBook for exactly THREE WEEKS. 😟 At least it's still under warranty.

Message was edited by: ChelseaW

It seems like a wide problem for Apple, my Macbook (purchased in July 2007) has been making a small, quiet clicking noise coming from the right of the tracking pad so I also assume it is a hard drive program. I haven't been having problems with accessing files or anything like that, and the noise only occurs sometimes but like the rest of you I'm going to get it checked out soon.

We've had similar problems with a MacBook, Apple changed the logic board and it was fine. Then there was the clicking and sporadic blank screen - so we went to the store. I'm not sure that the guys at the Genius Bar can always do the tests properly so be careful. We had the drive tested, they said it was fine - it totally died as soon as we were home.

To be fair all has been changed under warranty and the hard drive is a very easy swap - if you have the data back up! Then the battery was replaced last month and it now has the chipped case....

The other MacBook has been fine, so far (wood anywhere?), so it seems to be isolated machines.

I spent half an hour on the phone w/tech support this afternoon. They ran me through all the usual troubleshooting, and when booting from the installation disk I got the flashing folder w/the question mark. Went to Disk Utilities and it couldn't locate the hard drive at all. So it looks like the same problem others on here have had and I'm not expecting a good result. 😟 I have an appointment at a Genius Bar tomorrow so will so what they find - or don't find!

The silver lining is that since I've only had the MacBook for a month, I don't have tons of data to lose. And the stuff I do have on there is mostly backed up either on my iPod or online photo sites. I'll tell you what though, when this is fixed I am definitely going to back up REGULARLY!

Add me to the trail of tears from this and the linked thread. I was surfing the web late last night, cursor disappeared, had to turn the computer off, and it never came back on - only got the folder/? icon that so many have reported. I have not been taking it well, I just started a new academic job, so I had all my research data on it, waiting to put it on my new office computer, which has not arrived yet - no other backup. From what I am reading here, I guess I can kiss it goodbye.

Has Apple done anything about this? When my old G3 kept having problems with the screen, they replaced it for free even outside the warannty. Of course I am 2 months beyond my warranty for this computer now - hence why I ask. If there seems to be such a rash of this, you'd think they would?

Has anyone been able to retreive any data after this occurred?

even more disturbing...we had the same thing. Our computer is dead. we lost all the data inside (or at least now we are trying to recover them trough drivesavers and pay thousands of dollars). we had to buy a new hard drive, install it...there is something wrong....our computer was running perfectly and it was only 1 year old (actually our warranty expired 2 days before the failure!) what do you think?

why is this happening so much?? This is clearly not coincidence that so many people are having the same problems. Mine died on me last night. I had my logic board replaced a few months ago on an unrelated issue.

So many different configurations, different hard drives (both OEM and replacements), too many having failures.

Sure would be nice to know what the heck is going on....

Mine also died a few days ago. The computer is 15 months old (and out of warranty). It's worrying that there might be a motherboard problem as well.

Just happened to me too, a couple days ago. Same symptoms, had browser and other apps going on, and while it was finishing up syncing a podcast to my Nano, the MacBook froze, eternal spinning pizza until I forced a shut down. After that it wouldn't boot, so I booted from the install DVD and ran Disk Utility, which saw the disk but couldn't fix it.

I then ran the MacBook from an external USB HD and ran DiskWarrior (which has saved my U-know-what many times in the past); it did rebuilld the directory and allowed me to recover a lot of files to my external HD. The drive started clicking, though, and performance eventually ground to a halt before I got them all.

I just came back from the Genius Bar and the girl gave me the option of ordering a replacement drive off of Apple's support site, but I can't find where. Has anyone here done this? The only link I could find ("Request hardware repair or parts replacement") leads only to info on the battery replacement program and no other parts for MacBook, just iMac and iPod stuff. Help! Do I have to call 1-800-APP-CARE?

thanks!

my hd died to got it replaced also my batt, that got replaced to. not good but sh*t happens. apple were good on both counts replaced no quibbles.

took it to the Apple Store today. They took it in for repair, but would not even consider anything other than a failed hard drive. Said they would try to recover any data, but got the call later in the day saying the drive was dead and nothing could be salvaged.

All in all, got the service I needed. I still think there is something that is causing the drives to fail since it is happening to such a number of people with such varying equipment. But I'm happy to get my 'book back. Now I'll just be much more diligent about backing up everything!

if its the same drives it could be a manufacturing fault with them.

Add me to the list of hard drive failure. I bought my macbook in May last year. This is my first Mac.
In October , it experienced random shutdown. It was still under warranty , so they changed the heatsink without any cost.
Then last month , I was surfing the net ,it suddenly froze. I turned it off , when I turn it on, it showed a flashing question mark . I tried to install the recovery cd , it would not recognize the hard drive.
I went to Apple , he did some tests, and the tech told me that my macbook needs a new hard drive (mechanical hard drive failure) . Sad to say , I don't have any extended warranty. I brought it to an apple authorized repair center , they changed the hard disk and now it's fine. Cost about $ 200.
Lesson of the story , If anyone plans to buy a mac , get an extended warranty because apparently these machines are unstable .