[VictorBoyko]

Today i took a PB 17" 1.67ghz from my girlfriend to spend a quiet weekend working (I own a Macbook, so Photoshop runs much faster on her machine).

It suddenly froze in the middle of the game my 10yo nephew was playing. After that it does not start at all: I turn it on, blue screen appears, then a welcome sound and then i hear clicks from lower-left corner (where the HDD sits): four clicks, then a short delay, then four clicks more, then short delay again then just one click. after that - nothing. I tried rebooting with option key pressed but it gave nothing, I don't see a HDD in a screen that appears.

Am I right and the HDD is dead? This is very painful, because the laptop is not mine, it's my girlfriends' and I really don't want to let her down with this. I think I can replace a HDD myself, but I just want to be sure it is HDD. Maybe it has something to do with sudden motion sensor?

What can I generally try to see if it is HDD or not?

Thank you very much.

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by VictorBoyko 

Today i took a PB 17" 1.67ghz from my girlfriend to spend a quiet weekend working (I own a Macbook, so Photoshop runs much faster on her machine).

It suddenly froze in the middle of the game my 10yo nephew was playing. After that it does not start at all: I turn it on, blue screen appears, then a welcome sound and then i hear clicks from lower-left corner (where the HDD sits): four clicks, then a short delay, then four clicks more, then short delay again then just one click. after that - nothing. I tried rebooting with option key pressed but it gave nothing, I don't see a HDD in a screen that appears.

Am I right and the HDD is dead? This is very painful, because the laptop is not mine, it's my girlfriends' and I really don't want to let her down with this. I think I can replace a HDD myself, but I just want to be sure it is HDD. Maybe it has something to do with sudden motion sensor?

What can I generally try to see if it is HDD or not?

Thank you very much.

Do you have an external drive or the Mac OSX CD to boot off of? If you have CD hold C key down while starting.

You can plug it into your Macbook by firewire cable and hold down T key while restarting PB into firewire mode. If drive is ok it should appear on Macbook.

[VictorBoyko]

sorry, i didn't really catch from your post what should i plug into firewire cable?

i have an external drive, but there is no system on it.

[Sherman Homan]

I think romeosc means that with a FireWire cable, you can boot your illing laptop in Target mode by holding down the "t" key. Plug the FireWire cable into your MacBook. The illing machine will appear on the MacBook's screen, you can run Disk Utility, reinstall the OS, copy the data if all else fails.

If you have a boot CD, restart the illing Mac with the boot CD in the drive. Hold down the "c" key, let the installer happen, choose Utilities and run Disk Utility, Repair Disk, Repair Permissions.

All that being said, clicking sounds from the hard drive are not good.

[VictorBoyko]

thanks for the tip, never knew about this target mode.

nothing. after those clicks i described, i hear much more quiter clicking which is almost constant, meaning it keeps clicking and clicking.

[romeosc]

Originally Posted by Sherman Homan 

I think romeosc means that with a FireWire cable, you can boot your illing laptop in Target mode by holding down the "t" key. Plug the FireWire cable into your MacBook. The illing machine will appear on the MacBook's screen, you can run Disk Utility, reinstall the OS, copy the data if all else fails.

If you have a boot CD, restart the illing Mac with the boot CD in the drive. Hold down the "c" key, let the installer happen, choose Utilities and run Disk Utility, Repair Disk, Repair Permissions.

All that being said, clicking sounds from the hard drive are not good.

Thanks for explaining, I guess I wasn't clear.