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Macbook Pro HD Dead? What to do next?

Hi everyone,


Two days ago, when I went to turn on my MBP it went to a grey screen with a flashing question mark. I then tried to start it in safemode only to find that the harddrive was not showing up in disk utility. After reading around I suspect that my hard drive is dead. I have an external hard drive that my stuff is backed up to so I'm not worried about the loss of data, but I would love to get the information off of my MBP hard drive as I hadn't backed it up for over a month although I haven't created any substantially significant files during that period. What options do I have as far as getting my computer up and running? Should I just replace the HD? If so can i transfer data from my dead HD to the new one? Or should I just get the new one and transfer from my external HD? Just want to know what my options are besides taking it to the apple store and paying a hefty amount of money for whatever needs to be done...

MacBook Pro (13-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Mar 10, 2014 9:25 AM

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4 replies

Mar 10, 2014 9:31 AM in response to Trentfromnc

Exactly how did you use Disk Utility in safe mode when the drive was not showing up? Did you successfully boot into safe mode? If so, then the drive isn't dead.


Did you boot the computer from the Recovery HD? Is that where you used Disk Utility? If you can boot to the Recovery HD, then do the following:


Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch


Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.


OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X

OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X

OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible

because it is three times faster than wireless.

Mar 10, 2014 10:09 AM in response to Kappy

I start up my MBP holding down the certain set of command keys( can't remember exact combination) but it sends me to a screen where there are 4 options. It gives me the option to look online for help, reinstall lion from Internet, repair disk, and use an external hard drive to restore...the problem with all of the options is that my HD won't appear so there is nothing to reinstall lion to... When I go to the repair disk part it shows my mac operating system on the left hand side under "disk1" but I can't it won't let let me click on the places to repair or even verify it

Mar 10, 2014 10:18 AM in response to Trentfromnc

From that Utility Menu select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. On the left sidebar you will find that "disk1" entry below the drive's main entry. Select "disk1" then click on the Erase tab in Disk Utility's main window. Set the Format Type to Mac OS Extended, Journaled. Click on the Erase button. When formatting is done quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu. Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.


If none of the above can be completed, then the drive is most likely dead.

Macbook Pro HD Dead? What to do next?

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