Macbook won't boot up, can't find HD then it can find it?

I have a macbook pro (purchased in 08). Last week I got the beach ball of death while on the internet with Safari. I forced it to shut down. When I tried to restart it, all I could get was the grey screen with Apple logo and spinning cog thing. I've been able to boot it from the original installation disks, but the first few times I tried, disk utility could not see my hard drive. I put the computer down for a few days and when I rebooted from the cd and ran disk utility- there was my hard drive! So I repaired the disk- says it appears to be ok, then I verified, says ok. I ran the disk permissions and it froze again. When I rebooted, no hard drive found again. Ugh. The 60th time retrying, it found it again and I once again repaired and verified. I am in the process of repairing disk permissions again. Any Help? Since I can see my hard drive how can I transfer the data off the old macbook onto my new macbook pro? Thanks!

You can use the Disk Utility to clone to an external hard drive the contents of the internal hard drive, while booted from the DVD. The Utilities menu of the installer offers a Disk Utility. Note the external hard drive must be bigger than the internal, and empty. See my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/clonedu.html
And I'd make a copy to two hard drives. That way if changing anything in your internal is needed, you won't lose any data. If the clone fails, we may need to look at data recovery options from the beginning of my backup FAQ.

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Do you have a bootable backup?
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Macbook won't boot. When turned on, it starts clicking; after a while, I get a gray screen with a blinking folder in the middle that has a question mark on it. After a minute or two, it shuts off.

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
Put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
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Macbook won't boot up - grey screen only

Hi,
I have a core duo MacBook from summer 2007.
All of a sudden the MacBook won't boot up. The battery is fully charged and AC adapter plugged in (same symptoms if not plugged in). The following occurs upon pressing the power button:
1) Start-up chime sounds
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I have the same problem, just the grey screen and tried
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- Safe Mode (just the same)
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Also The Apple Hardware Test (by pressing D) doesn't get further than the, now familiar, grey screen.
I pressed the keys with different keyboards, with the original white keyboard and with the aluminium keyboard.
As I've tried everything, I think there's something seriously wrong. Does anybody have some last tips that I can try?

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So my White Macbook won't boot up anymore after trying to reformat. While trying to install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard, the Macbook just froze and I had to reset. Now, while trying to boot it up, it hangs at a white screen with a folder with a question mark.
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it hangs at a white screen with a folder with a question mark
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When I take out the battery, it won't boot anyways.
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If your MacBook won't boot on just the AC adapter, and you are certain the AC adapter is not damaged, then there is a hardware issue with your computer that needs to be repaired.
~Lyssa

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https://discussions.apple.com/message/21389737?ac_cid=tw123456#21389737

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I have the same problem as described here :
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4112865
My MacBook won't boot if my iPod 5G is connected to the USB port.
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<When iPod is plugged in at startup, the MacBook does not startup; unplugging iPod lets it startup.
yes, it seems that the kernel is not loading
<After resetting the iPod and BEFORE synching it, there is no problem. Any type of synching seems <to make this problem recur.
only syncing music make the problem occur.
the other syncing works ok
<Even if iPod is connected directly to Mac and it is the only USB device connected, the problem still <occurs.
yes
<The iPod and MacBook work fine if iPod is connected after startup.
Yes
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My macbook won't boot at all. It is a white non unibody one. When you press the power button the screen breifly blinks and a clicking sound is heard but no other sounds or chime or anything. I'm suspecting the worst but thought i'd submit it on here first. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply but it isn't a hard drive issue. I have tested the hard drive in an external enclosure and it's working fine. I even put in another hard drive i have and it wont boot that either. I'm thinking its a logic board issue. Any one know best place to get logic board replacement near london for cheap

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Hello Everyone,
I am in dire need of assistance I am hoping someone could provide. I have a MacBook 4,1 with Intel Core 2 Duo processor 4GB Ram. It is taking over 10 minutes to boot up past the gray apple screen when I turn it on. First I cleared the PRam (?) then I checked the disk using Disk Utility Verify, and it said the disk needed repairs. So I ran the disk repair and it said it was unable to fix the errors on the HD.
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Thank you for your time.

You've a couple of issues .... when Disk Utility tells you it can't repair a drive, if the error is a soft error, like an invalid tree or node, Disk Warrior (or TechTool Pro) can handle it. However, if Disk Warrior (or TechTool Pro) can't handle it, you can erase and write zero's to the hard drive and restore to it, or you can buy a new hard drive. Sometimes running SMART Utility can provide additional insight into the health of the hard drive.
THe 4SNS error is a sensor error. You could install iStat Pro to see if something is indeed getting too hot or remaining room temp or less. You may need to take it into an Apple shop so they can use their thermal diagnostics to test and isolate it further.

My MacBook won't boot anymore. What can I do?

Hi,
yesterday I upgraded to Mountain Lion. After the installation, my MacBook booted and everything seemed fine. I started using Mountain Lion. Then I shut my MacBook down and I won't boot up anymore today. What can I do?
Additional Information:
MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011
Upgraded HDD to SSD (OCZ Petrol 256GB)

What did you do to fix it?

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On Sunday my ten-month-old MacBook froze up and made some nasty clicking noises. I forced a restart, but now it just boots to a white screen and, after a good five minutes or more, eventually displays the blinking, question-mark folder.
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You may have a bigger problem than just the Hard Drive. Call Apple support or go by an Apple store if your near one and talk to them. You've done everything you can do. It will be up to them now. Be thankful it's still under warranty.

Macbook won't boot up, can't find HD then it can find it?

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