[mad cow disease]

Well, I think my HDD is kaput, but I wanted to get second opinion(s) because it seems to still be recognized by the system...?

So far: Macbook running 10.7 - would not wake from sleep, spinning beachball. Had to do a hard shutdown by holding down the power button. Rebooted, got the blue folder icon with the (?) inside.

Brought up the startup volume menu by holding down option key. The primary partition and the emergency partition appear. Selecting the primary as the boot-up system results in the dreaded circle-slash mark (prohibitory mark). Trying to boot up in safe mode using the primary also produces the prohibitory mark.

When selecting the emergency partition I left it running for 10 minutes, but it just hangs on the Apple logo with the spinning gear. No go.

I burned OS X 10.7 to a DVD and was able to boot up from it, but under Disk Utility the only volumes that show up are the DVD in the Superdrive and something that says "disk2" and is about 1.5 gigs (emergency partition?). The HDD doesn't appear. I tried to do a system restore but my HDD doesn't show up under the places I can install.

Opinions? Thanks very much in advance.

[Waragainstsleep]

So is Disk Utility showing the disk but only the recovery volume? You could try formatting the whole thing (assuming you are backed up) but chances are your disk is dead/dying. Any clicking noises coming from it?

[mad cow disease]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

So is Disk Utility showing the disk but only the recovery volume? You could try formatting the whole thing (assuming you are backed up) but chances are your disk is dead/dying. Any clicking noises coming from it?

No clicking noises. Cannot format it as I cannot select it in disk utility. Already tried that. As I wrote in the OP the HDD does not appear in disk utility, only the emergency partition. The fact it doesn't show up in Disk Utility yet the main partition shows up in the startup menu is puzzling.

[cgc]

Have you checked S.M.A.R.T. status? Select the suspect drive in DiskUtility then look near the bottom of the window for it's status. I had a failing drive that operated REALLY slowly though it still worked, S.M.A.R.T. verified it was bad.

[mad cow disease]

Once again...the computer doesn't appear to recognize that the drive is there, just the emergency partition, for some reason.

So no, I cannot select the SMART status because the only place where I can select the HDD is the startup menu (option key at startup).

[Waragainstsleep]

I've never had one lose just one partition before. So Disk Utility doesn't show the drive model/capacity listed above the emergency partition? Just the emergency partition by itself?

I think its time to write the drive off regardless.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I've never had one lose just one partition before. So Disk Utility doesn't show the drive model/capacity listed above the emergency partition? Just the emergency partition by itself?

I think its time to write the drive off regardless.

Guess I should read the OP...

[mad cow disease]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I've never had one lose just one partition before. So Disk Utility doesn't show the drive model/capacity listed above the emergency partition? Just the emergency partition by itself?

I think its time to write the drive off regardless.

Nope. No drive model or capacity, like you'd normally see in that profile. That's what I was looking for. Just "disk2". Ironically it shows up under that startup volume menu you get when you hold down option key after boot.

Dead HDD fits, was hoping that there was something I'd overlooked. Thank you everybody for your input.

Thank goodness for Time Machine.