Hi Laura 4 years is not too bad for a Hard Drive, I have had some last for over 7 years and some just a few months!! If you had Applecare then it would be covered for 3 years unless you have extended it? If you buy a new drive the it would be covered by the manufacture for 1 year. To give you an example of the cost of a new drive at the moment you can get a WD SCORPIO BLUE 500GB 5400/8MB/SATA2 # for around $85.00
best regards Roger On 06/06/2010, at 9:08 AM, Laura Webb wrote: > > 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 > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]> > <(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 >> >> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >> Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]> >> > > > > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]> > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
