Cant locate my hard drive...wont startup

hello
Ive been reading through problems where machines wont startup...only the flashing icons and clicking...still I cant find a solution...is my machine finally failing
Ive tried inserting the installation disk and reinstalling it but the destination window is empty [i dont see my disk]...please help with a fix...
Message was edited by: marAz14

marAz14 wrote:
Ive been reading through problems where machines wont startup...only the flashing icons and clicking...still I cant find a solution...is my machine finally failing ?
A flashing disk icon means the bootloader that starts up your Mac can't find a suitable startup disk. Something happened to the internal HDD to cause this, the damage may be repairable or not.
Ive tried inserting the installation disk and reinstalling it but the destination window is empty [i dont see my disk]...please help with a fix...
It can't see the disk for the same reason that the bootloader couldn't. Let's try to see if it is fixable before reinstalling everything and losing all your settings. Since you already are able to start up from the Install CD/DVD, go to the Utilities menu and select *Disk Utility*. There, check and see if the HDD device appears on the left column. Under and indented you should see the volume by name.
If the device does not appear, then it is really hosed and you will need a new one.
If it appears, with or without the volume, it means it is damaged but may be repairable. Click on the device and do a *Repair Disk*. If it says there are errors, repeat *Repair Disk* until it comes out clean with no more errors. After that, reboot and see if the Mac will start up correctly. When it does, run Disk Utility again (it is found inside the startup volume's Utilities folder) and do a *Repair Disk Permissions*. If all is well, you'll be a happy camper and your Mac will live to see another day.
If you can't get the *Repair Disk* procedure to come out without errors, it means that the damage is more severe and Disk Utility can't repair it. You can either get heavier duty tools, like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior, or you can choose to format the HDD and reinstall afresh. Note that you will lose everything. If you decide to format and the formatting has errors, it also means the drive is permanently damaged and will need to be replaced.
Let us know how it turned out and welcome to Apple Discussions.

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