Macbook not starting properly, flashing question mark, clicking sound...

The Black Oil

So, after my iMac's GPU giving up the ghost a few weeks ago, it sounds like my Macbook is fecked.

I left it on last night to upload a folder to Google Docs, maybe this wasn't the best idea. Anyway, I woke at about 5am hearing a clicking sound, instantly knowing that this was not a good sign. It's a fairly low and subtle sound, but I'm a light sleeper. Now the machine won't start properly, there's the clicking sound and a question mark on startup and eventually it turns itself off.

It's a 120GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm (according to the order/invoice). It's a little over 4 years old (Sept 2007 ish)...only earlier last evening was I thinking what a grand machine it was and how I'd been getting great use out of it. Question is, if it is the HD that's gone, are they cost effective to replace and can you do a DIY job or is it better to bring this somewhere?

Happened without warning, college deadline looming. Oh well.

Sad Professor

Yeah, the hard drive is dead. Boot from the install disk and run Disk Utility to confirm.

Replacing the hard drive is easy and cheap to do yourself. Don't bother dropping it in anywhere. Guide here, assuming this is an original plastic model:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/macbook_13inch_harddrive_diy.pdf

The Black Oil

Thanks, SP. I tried the Snow Leopard disk (plus alt), the cursor appeared as did the choice of Macintosh HD and the system DVD, but no joy luck after that. Opted for the HD, the grey Apple logo appeared, but didn't go any further and just showed a circle with a line through it/no entry. So, should I try again and get into Disk Utility through the system DVD?

Yeah, that's the guide I found, a few videos online, too. Seems fairly straightforward.

Can you or anyone point me somewhere where I'd be able to buy an appropriate replacement HD? I've no need for mega amounts of storage...just something that's compatible.

Sad Professor

Yeah, you need to boot from the install disk. Hold c on startup. Then select Disk utility from the Utilities menu and try verifying/repairing the hard disk.

Any 2.5" SATA hard drive should be okay. But preferably get one without a motion sensor as they can conflict with the Macbook's built-in one, but you can disable that if necessary. Have a look on Komplett.

Talisman

Hard Drive prices are starting to rocket due to the flooding in Asia closing manufacturing plants, so the days of spending under €100 on a hard drive are numbered for a while.

Elara.ie

The Black Oil

Can't get in via holding C and using the system DVD....it just stays on the grey screen for ages.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/catalog/ZKB_01COM/12_HDD/71_INTHD25/default.aspx

Any of these type of things?

Thanks, Talisman...heard that news alright.

Sad Professor

Try holding option and selecting the disc then.

unclebill98

I had this happen to a PowerBook.

Could not get in via boot up disk.

Hard drive was ok and I had the clicking sound. Took it out qnd but it in a blank chasis and used it on anoter mac to salvage music and emails. The motor board was damaged and more or less made the laptop useless.

The Black Oil

Got into Disk Utility via C and the OS DVD, but Disk Utility couldn't detect a HD to check, only the optical drive.

Sad Professor

Pop a new hard drive in and it should be fine. Do you have a backup?

muggyog

Black oil, the reason disk utility does not detect the drive is because it is dead. Do as advised and replace it yourself.

Losty Dublin

Black Oil wrote: »

So, after my iMac's GPU giving up the ghost a few weeks ago, it sounds like my Macbook is fecked.

I left it on last night to upload a folder to Google Docs, maybe this wasn't the best idea. Anyway, I woke at about 5am hearing a clicking sound, instantly knowing that this was not a good sign. It's a fairly low and subtle sound, but I'm a light sleeper. Now the machine won't start properly, there's the clicking sound and a question mark on startup and eventually it turns itself off.

It's a 120GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm (according to the order/invoice). It's a little over 4 years old (Sept 2007 ish)...only earlier last evening was I thinking what a grand machine it was and how I'd been getting great use out of it. Question is, if it is the HD that's gone, are they cost effective to replace and can you do a DIY job or is it better to bring this somewhere?

Happened without warning, college deadline looming. Oh well.

Hold your horses on ordering a new hard drive for a day or two.

There was a callback programme related to faulty hard drives on some Macbooks. My old one was one of the affected machines and it too was a 120GB machine from late August in 2007. I was lucky enough as although I found out about it long after the replacement was procured my myself, Apple extended the programme as far as to refunding people who had the replacement done themselves. Although it's probably finished by now, I'd suggest you contact Apple as soon as you can and see if something can be done for you first before you spend any money on a new HD.

Sad Professor

Yeah, that repair extension programme is over now.

http://www.apple.com/ie/support/macbook/hd/repairextension/

The Black Oil

Good catch. I read about that alright. I ordered on Saturday, so hopefully I'll have a new HD by the end of the week.

Next question is the correct way to install the software. Through Disk Utility you erase to Mac OS Journaled or something, yeah? The Macbook originally came with 10.4, I want to put 10.6 on it as that's what I had until it went kaput. I can't remember if you can go straight from Tiger to SL, don't think so. Can I do a fresh install of SL and then pull the iLife bits off the Tiger disk? Had to do something like that before, IIRC.

Sad Professor

Is iLife not on a separate disc?

Losty Dublin

Sad Professor wrote: »

Is iLife not on a separate disc?

Perhaps it's a installed version and is backed up on the install disc.

Sad Professor

They still always had it had it on a separate disc in my experience, but perhaps I'm mistaken.

The Black Oil

Seems to be on disc 1 on the 10.4, same with the Leopard discs (came with an iMac). My SL disc doesn't have bundled stuff on as I bought it separately.

muggyog

ILife was bundled with some OEM system disks, never on retail versions. It would probably be better not to go directly from 10.4 to 10.6.

The Black Oil

Put in the new HD, installing 10.6 now.

The Black Oil

Arse. I've done something stupid and it says the HD is unmounted. Says it's 1.8 TB, which isn't right, it's only 250GB.

muggyog

Reformat with your 10.4 disks , install 10.4 and then upgrade to 10.6.

The Black Oil

That's what I was going for, unfortunately, it can't see a HD at the 'Install Mac OS X' (Tiger) screen. Erased too much, oops.

The Black Oil

No joy with this. Any solutions on remounting a HD? I've been looking into Disk Warrior, but without success.

muggyog

Assuming you have installed the drive correctly, you probably cant mount it because it is PC formatted. Go into Disk Utility app on the startup DVD. Format the drive for Mac OS Extended Journaled ( probably currently DOS ). If you like you can also partition your drive using disk utility.

The Black Oil

Physically, it was installed correctly, yeah. I made a mess of the software side, erased the new HD incorrectly, so it's now saying it's unmounted and 1.8TB, which is ridiculous as it's only 250GB and I can't seem to do anything with Disk Utility at this point. The OS installation can't proceed because the HD is greyed out.

MiniNukinfuts

Do what muggyog said, boot from the start up dvd by holding down alt/option key on boot-up. Then go to disc utility and format the drive as Mac OS Extended Journaled. Then just reinstall 10.6

muggyog

You may need to repartition the drive. In Disk Utility under the Partition tab select the volume scheme pull down window. It will read current, change it to 1 Partition and partition. Fourth figure down.

The Black Oil

It won't let me. It says 'partition failed input/output error'.

muggyog

Can you delete the existing partition by using the minus button?

The Black Oil

No. It says, 'Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quite and relaunch Disk Utility'.

I tried connecting my iMac and Macbook together via firewire, in Target Disk Mode, as suggested here. That worked in the sense that the iMac (host) was able to see the Macbook's HD, accurate size, etc, so I erased extended journaled and told Disk Warrior to rebuild it, which it seemed to do.

Unfortunately, once I disconnected the firewire and went to try the Macbook on its own, I was getting the same old story in Disk Utility, that it was a 1.8TB drive.

muggyog

What version of Mac OS is on your DVD and what version is on your iMac?
There maybe an issue with versions of Disk Utility.

If you have formatted/partitioned, just proceed to installing the operating system. The drive should now be available after your target mode procedure.

The Black Oil

10.4 on the DVD that's in the Macbook, 10.6.8 running on the iMac. So should I remove the Tiger disc and use the SL one instead (for the fecked HD in the Macbook)?

Maybe I'm not doing the format/partition in the correct order.

Edit, OK, here's what I see in Disk Utility when the two machines are connected via firewire. The orange drive is the HD in the Macbook that's giving trouble.

I don't see these things when I remove the firewire and let DU start up in the Macbook on its own (with the Tiger disc). It says 1.8TB blah blah.

The Black Oil

Well, you were right. Going into Disk Utility using the 10.6 DVD and it recognised the HD, so Snow Leopard is now installed. The machine originally came with Tiger and I've two discs for it, don't think I'll be able to put iLife on it (SL won't accept the Tiger disc optional installs), but at least the main bits work. I checked again after SL was successfully installed, put in the Tiger disc again, opened Disk Utility and it said the HD was 1.8TB, so DU definitely seems to have been part of the problem.

Now, I've a good few apps on the iMac I'd like to transfer over. Presumably I can also do this via firewire/Migration Assistant, it would take a good while to copy them to USB and then onto the Macbook.

Thanks

MiniNukinfuts

Glad to hear you've fixed it.

It all depends on the amount of apps you need to transfer, i'd recommend using a firewire/ ethernet cable if you've got more than 20GB of apps.

The Black Oil

It's about 3.5GB of .dmg files, easier to transfer rather than download them all again.

MiniNukinfuts

if it's only 3.5GB then use a USB. It'd be fast enough. And easier than setting up the migration assistant.

The Black Oil

It says about 40 minutes, probably another 40 then to copy that across once it's on the USB.

MiniNukinfuts

How much data are you copying? Unless you're using a really old USB, it shouldn't take that long.

The Black Oil

It's copied now...gotta take these estimates with a pinch of salt. Thanks.

MiniNukinfuts

Anytime.

muggyog

I know it's probably too late now but when you had the drive formatted correctly you could have installed 10.4 with iLife and upgraded to 10.6. At least you got an OS on it so all is well.

The Black Oil

Yeah, that was the original plan.