Hard drive failure??

Ho hum - another HD goes AWOL

My daughter's Macbook bought back in May 2006 (must have been in the first batch here in the UK) has gone the way of all the other MBs posting on this topic and this one:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=960977&start=0&tstart=0

My question is: what is Apple doing about it? I can't see any mention on the support site and yet this seems to be a common problem. I have been a loyal Macabite for years but are Apple now happy issuing computers whose HD has a life span of (in some cases) 6 months. I suppose I should be happy - my daughter didn't get the flashing question mark of death for 15 months!

Come on Mr Jobs - Apple can do better than this surely. Can we have a response please?

Alright, just thought I'd add my story as well...

Same exact symptoms: Macbook froze up, spinning wheel, restart and flashing question mark, with ticking noises coming from the hd. It was 1 month past warranty, and the Apple reseller who sold it to me wanted 400 $ US to put in a new 100 gig drive (I live in Denmark which is an expensive country, but 400 $?? Get real!) so I replaced the drive myself as soon as I realized they weren't going to cover it. My Macbook has seen medium to heavy use, and normally I would have chalked it up to bad luck that a 1 year old drive would completely fail with no warning. But now I see other people are experiencing the same.... not a lot of people, but still, various brands of drives displaying the EXACT same symptoms.... strange. I wonder if we'll se more of this in the months to come... maybe it's some sort of design-flaw that doesn't reveal itself until after a year give or take.

Well if misery loves company then add me to the list. Using a less than one year old Macbook (one of two I own). A few nights ago screen froze. Tried all the usual tricks. Nothing. Then tried to use disk utility. Could only see the DVD not the HD. Tried to reistall system same problem-can't see the HD. Next morning went to Apple store bought drive recovery app that boasted it would repair all the problems I was having. Well, it might have if it booted. Kept ejecting. Admittedly back up plan wasn't very good and now computer is at a disk recovery company. Quoted at $1500 plus. I might be going out on a limb here but I think something is way wrong here. As a graphic design firm owner and Mac user for over 20 years I am stunned at this chain of events and the postings of so many similar problems. I have roamed the internet the past day or so and there are uncountable accounts of the exact same circumstances. And even if you do have backups...what do you back them up to it's the only computer you have and you are in the middle of a project? ARRGGHHH!!!!

Add me to the list of misery. I was in the middle of a job. Went to firefox to purchase stock footage. Went to apple mail to check for email and then it FROZE! Drive clicked clicked and then I've had since 4 pm today a folder with flashing question mark and then flashing to mac face.

Frustrating. Funny thing is that I was planning on backing up my whole HD this weekend. Go figure.

The other odd thing I've noticed is that I put in a NEW HD last year!

This is just too coincidental for it to be happening to so many individuals with all sorts of HD's and macs.

I'm wondering is this from the last upgrade from firefox or apple? Can it be a software issue that is a "fixed bug" which then makes your HD appear to die?

Sort of like the worm hack that makes your PC HD appear dead but with a lot of spent hours you can resurect it?

If anyone has any ideas or fixes please post. This is just one thread of many that I've discovered just recently.

For once i must side with Apple ( who in my opinion is kinda fuc__d. ) Hardrives are made as cheap as possible you should of backed up and hopefully do next time. I used 10 tb's worth of HD space in the last two years and 10%-15% of those drives needed to be replaced in that time. Drives are very prone to error.

I learned of a great company called Data Recovery Inc. AKA DriveSabers Data Recovery. www.drivesavers.com They provided me with a quote, a FedEx label (at their cost) and then will take a look at my HD. If they can retrieve all that I ask for then I pay, otherwise it's no cost to me.

Is that cool or what?! So at least this is another option if you can't get your HD to spin.

Sure enough I will obtaining a new HD along with backing it up to DVD's weekly.

Still I find it odd that all makes and models are now suddenly "expiring" this month. Just seems odd.

Thanks to all who are posting-I just got a new 13" MacBook 2 weeks ago, using as a main computer, gave my old 12" ibook G4 to my daughter--now I'm worrying. After years of not seeing the dreaded flashing question folder, I've seen it briefly about 5 times now. And just before, the cursor & screen was frozen when I came back to work, couldn't get it to move, it wouldn't force quit and it erupted into an amazing rapid chirping that went on and on. Disconnected all peripherals and was able to force quit, and it started up fine--I feel so lucky when I read the other posts--
My G4 ibook worked like a charm, I had 10.3.9 on it and I never had any problems--the battery lasted even when I kept it plugged in a lot.
Now this one seems to freeze, programs seem to quit a lot, even though I have software updated. Not sure if it's 10.4.10, this computer or both.
but I will be backing the whole thing up now. Went thru HD nightmare with Silver G4 desktop--Maxtor HD failure 2x--hope history doesn't repeat itself.

I just had this happen to my IMac G5. The power supply was replaced about a month ago.

My roommate went to check a CD of pictures and he said it just stopped working. It restarted and came up with the flashing folder.

I have started with the disk and when I ran utilities it seemed to recognize the drive but said the size was 0 k. I am going to try to connect it to an external serial connection and see what happens.

I have had this 2 years. Actually I am in the boat of others talking about backup. I realized last week all my pictures had no back and read how to backup in Iphoto. But haven't been home to do it.

Hopefully this won't be Lesson Learned the hard way.

I am having the same problems on my Macbook intel core duo. (just over a year old) Yesterday my husband put in a disc with photos to add to iphoto and when we went to view them later in the evening couldn't get it to even run. I shut it off and now all I get is the grey screen and folder. I have tried the disc repair but my hd doesn't show up on the menu (install disc 1 and pushing c technique). I tried the command, option, p,and r, and I tried the "safe" mode. I can't get past the little blinking folder.

Is there anything that can be done?

You definitely are experiencing the exact problems I encountered. I tried Data Rescue program and couldn't even get the disc to boot let alone run. None of the usual tricks or even attempting to reload the system worked. No Hard Drive showing up. It's beyond any capability we would have to repair ourselves. As to what to do...right now computer is at a disc recovery company. They feel that for $1600 they can recover all or most of the files. Their diagnosis is Electronics Damage and Firmware Corruption (whatever that is). After that I plan on bringing it back to Apple for repair I guess. The drive is shot. At this point it seems like a second computer should be kept on the shelf so when the drive fails you can take those up to the minute backups you've been so conscientious about keeping and reload them and keep working. Someone actually told me "What do you expect..drives are made cheaply and are prone to failure". Huh? On a computer that costs over $1000 and in less than a year? So instead of moving forward technologically we are going backward? Sounds like a good plan to me!

Just experienced my first failure on my MacBook Core2 Duo 1.83GHz 160GB (Seagate) 2GB Ram. This machine is only 6 months old. Drive "clicks" every 2 seconds and nothing (Disk Utilities, DiskWarrior, Norton) will see the drive to repair it.

I have caught up with the threads on Apple discussions and this problem seems fairly widespread. I remember there being an unusual amount of fan noise the day before this happened with my MacBook on and plugged in, resting in the same location that it usually is.

Not backed up (I know, my own fault), I have lost an amazing amount of data. I know now there is no way to get it back. I just wish Apple would respond to the overwhelming ammount of people that are having this problem with some type of resolution.

mine died after three months in Jan this year, flashing folder, swallowed and would not boot from or eject install disc, HD replaced. Took the service centre 4 weeks to fix it. (Not Happy) 😟

And another one...add me to the list. Having now looked on this and other forums I can see that this is an unacceptably widespread problem and all experiencing exactly the same symptoms prior to a total hard drive failure. This should not be happening Apple..!
My first Apple computer was a 12" iBook...still have it....it has never let me down, looks a bit beat up now as it has been in the back of my rucksac around the world but it is still as sound as the day I bought it including the original battery. It was because I was so impressed with the iBook that I bought my Macbook. My husband wanted a laptop just for internet when travelling so we kept the ibook. I am very glad we did as my Macbook (bought June 06 in the UK) needed a new logic board to remedy the random shutdowns, and now the hard drive has failed. All I was doing was trying to view a Quicktime movie trailer when suddenly the fans went mad, SBOD, couldn't even force quit so had to power off, then nothing but a blinking question mark. Disc utility can't see the hard drive and having read everybody elses reports I know know there is no hope of a recovery and so for the second time in less than 16 months it means a trip back to the UK to get it fixed under Apple Care warranty ...thank God I took that out! I am seriously unimpressed with this situation. Apple used to make the best computers in the world but now it seems as if they are more interested in consumer gadgets..no disrespect to all the millions of iPod and iPhone owners , but it now seems as if their desire to become the market leaders in these kind of products is more important than ensuring that their loyal computer buyers get a product that is reliable. My PC owning friends are laughing at me now and are saying that they are glad they didn't take my advice when I was trying to persuade them to switch! I will soon be returning home to the UK after a few years in India (where there is no Apple Service provider) and was really looking forward to buying either a new iMac or a Macbook Pro but I am not sure I want to take the risk now..even the new iMacs seem to have problems and the Macbooks all run too hot (which may be the cause of all these breakdowns). What good is that going to be to Apple in the long run..its bad enough to put potential PC switchers off from buying but to turn their loyal long time customers away buy making computers that don't even last 18 months is shameful.
I am sorry if this is a bit of a rant but I am very dissapointed with Apple right now as I will be without my computer for the next few weeks until I go home to get it fixed..again! As an owner of an Apple product I didn't expect this to happen.

I just had this problem as well on my Macbook on October 5th 2007. I am glad I got the extra Apple Care. Hard Drive was toast. Wasnt a slow death since I always check to make sure my SMART Stutus on my HD is verified. Happened instantly while browsing. Option boot, Target Disk, Network Boot, CD boot, Nothing worked...

The Genius (and I use this term loosely) at the Apple Store said HD was dead but it may be the logic board. I think the Seagate HD just gave up.

You can add me to the list as well. This afternoon while I was in school waiting for class to start, I was on Firefox and my computer froze up, I tried to do a force quit but then everything was frozen. So I held down the power button for 10 sec. and the computer shut down, When I restarted I got a gray screen with a blinking file with a "?" I tried rebooting and running diagnostics and it says my memory is fine, when I tried to reboot with the install disc the HD does not show up. So I went to the apple store and it is closed for remodeling until Saturday. I am guessing my HD is also fried and I will have to have it replaced. This is ridiculous I have not even had the computer for a whole year, my old PowerBook G4 is still running strong and has never had a problem. Apple needs to figure out what the real problem is it can't be that the HD's are just failing.