Internal hard drive stops working (OS 10.6)
Hi all,
I was working on my 2009 MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro, 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) with a number of windows open (Chrome, Word, Mail, Preview), but nothing really heavy. All of a sudden all the pages in Chrome went blank, Word documents would only open blank, and the icons in all Finder windows were blank. I tried to back up some important stuff that I hadn't had a chance to backup since last week, but the machine would not reconize my USB key or my WD external drive, also USB. I tried to shutdown the computer, but it would not properly shut down. I forced it down by holding the power button. After letting it sit about 10 minutes, I restarted it, only to get a folder with a question mark in it. I then tried to choose a startup disk by restarting and holding down the option-key. No luck. No disk was recognized. Then I restarted it and booted from the Snow Leopard install disk, holding down the C-key. I opened Disk Utility, but it did not find my hard drive among the disks connected to the computer, only the OS 10.6 install DVD. I have since shut down the computer and do not know what to do. I have done a lot of work that is not backed up, unfortunately, and would really appreciate any help with this issue.
Does anyone have any idea what could have happened and why it happened out of the blue?
I am running the latest update of Snow Leopard. The machine has worked pretty well in the past and nothing has happened to put the HD at risk; no falls, spills, or anything like that. I have written everything I know/remember about the issue and the machine, but please ask if I can provide further information in order to solve the problem.
I have an appointment at the Genius Bar in a few days, but I need to recover the information on the disk...(!) Have I lost everything?
Thanks!
Edit: [I forgot to mention that before restarting it while pressing the option-key, I reset the PRAM. Same result, though. Didn't work.]
Message was edited by: apoluistor
Hmm... Since your macbook won't recognize it right now, I would reccomend that your remove the hard drive and connect it through your external HDD's connection... Which external drive do you have? I have a Seagate Go Flex in which I can remove the Connector that attaches the external HDD and I can use it to connect any hard drive with a Standard SATA connection.... This might be something you could try... If you ultimate goal is to recover certain files.... That is strange that it won't detect the Hard Drive..... unfortunately that usually means that the drive has failed.... It's happened to a number of my SSD's.... Good Luck... If your wondering what I was speaking of with the Seagate Go flex you can always YOUTUBE it, there are some good videos on how to do this... also if you have a Hard Drive reader that converts from Sata to USB you could also use that....
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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help. If you have feedback for TechNet Support, contact [email protected] -
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You must purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
Snow Leopard General Requirements
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2. 1GB of memory
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