Thank you Ronni and Eugene
I knew there was some way to start up in safe mode but could not remember how
to do it! I've now printed out the instructions.
I have to go out for a while and will then come back and try what has been
suggested. I do hope the problem is not too dire and if it is, will certainly
contact Apple. My MacBook is almost 4 years old but would have thought the hard
drive would last longer than than that.
Thanks again easing my pain. I'll report back a little later on.
Regards
Laura
On 06/06/2010, at 8:54 AM, Eugene wrote:
Hi Laura,
all is not too bad.
The mother board and memory modules are still good otherwise you wouldn't have
got going.
By the sound of it, it is down to the internal hard drive. Good on you for
having a backup drive to boot from and hopefully with all of your essential
documents still safe.
With the computer now booting is the other drive visible? If yes, it probably
has a corrupt file essential for running/starting up the computer, simply
reinstall the operating system. (not so likely as it died during operation, as
you said)
If not then can you see the HD using Disk Utility? (find this in
applications/utility or on the install disks) If yes, get Disk Utility to do a
repair.
If Disk Utility can't see the HD then the HD could have died. Apple had a huge
amount of problems with these drives. Is it still under warranty? Even if it is
not under warranty I would hassle Apples as there is a implied warranty that HD
should not die even after 3 years.
If they won't come to the party, 2.5 inch SATA drives are relatively cheap and
simple to install on the MB, hopefully this will be the last resort.
Regards,
Eugene
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<(null) 4.tiff>
On 06/06/2010, at 8:21 AM, Laura Webb wrote:
>
> 13" MacBook 10.6.2
> 1.83 GHZ Intel Core Duo
> 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 5DRAM
>
> Last evening the screen froze so I had to switch off, expecting that when re
> started all would be well. Not so, the chime was there but then a blank
> whitish screen appeared and after a while a black rectangular object in the
> middle of the screen with a question mark.
>
> I switched off again and hoped everything would be OK this morning but it is
> not. The only way I could start up was to use my external hard drive that I
> use for back ups. How glad I am to have that!! And that's how I am connected
> right now.
>
> Please can someone offer some advice? It's a bit like getting sick at the
> weekend, there are no outside resources available, and then of course we
> also have a holiday tomorrow.
>
> A;though relieved that the external drive has saved the day I still hope
> someone might be able to tell me what the problem is. I've never seen this
> happen before.
>
> Regards
> Laura
>
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