Macbook Pro HDD failure, need help!

[Ergo the Qualmed]

Hey guys,

So I was reading the news in Firefox when suddenly firefox crashed, so too did Finder and everything else I had. I shut my 09 MBP off manually, and then restarted it. It got stuck on the grey screen w/apple logo and spinning gear for an hour, so I tried again but booted it into safemode.

So, I did disk verify and came back with an error:

Keys out of order

And it said my HDD was corrupt.

I have no access to the disks, as I am at college, and do not know if they would even help fix the issue, or what the issue even means.

I can access certain applications in safe mode--namely, Firefox, console, and perhaps more. Heck, i'm using Firefox right now...on a computer that exists only in the form of a few apps and a desktop in safemode...

However, whenever I click on one of my own documents or photos, I get an error saying the "application can't be found" (Error code 43 as well).

Can anyone tell me what has happened to my computer, how I might fix it, or if I am just SoL?

My last external HDD backup was about a month ago, and I have it hooked up right now but cannot access the backup fxn. Assuming I have any files left anyway...though, I wonder if I may. My theory is, that perhaps only the startup files are corrupted. I boot with safemode, bypassing the corrupted files, and so I reach all of my data, but I cannot use it due to the limitations of safe mode. If this is the case, that would make me happy, as I reaaaallllyy want my data to be alive...

[resident-shooter]

Buy PC. Game on it. Period.

[undercow16969]

an apple product that isnt an iPad or iPone? whats that?

I would recommend going to best buy or maybe even have one of the IT guys in your school to help.

[Casual_Shooter]

Odd coincidence, my wife's MB HD just failed.

Took it to the Apple store. $139 for a new HD installed. They booted the computer off an external drive and it started up. I bought a new external HD while I was there and including the time to copy the items I could save to it, I was in and out of the store in 30 minutes.

[Ergo the Qualmed]

Odd coincidence, my wife's MB HD just failed.

Took it to the Apple store. $139 for a new HD installed. They booted the computer off an external drive and it started up. I bought a new external HD while I was there and including the time to copy the items I could save to it, I was in and out of the store in 30 minutes.

Hmm I may just have to do this when I am home for Thanksgiving potentially...I just hope there is some recoverable stuff! And that I can scrape together enough money for it... :/

[Nose Nuggets]

Do you have another mac? you can connect your laptop to it over firewire and do target disk and try to pull the data off of it.

use someones osx cds and try to reinstall the os

replace the hard drive

[Rivers]

Which OS version are you running? If 10.7, there is a built-in repair drive (partition) for repairing the boot drive. If previous versions, find any OS install drive and boot from that like you were planning on installing the OS. HOWEVER, once the top menu bar appears, you want to go to Disk Utility. From there, you can make a disk image of the damaged drive onto an attached USB drive, or you can try to repair the boot drive if it's a software issue. For catalog repairs, Disk Warrior is excellent. Before trying to do the repair, I would boot from a CD to access the damaged drive, then copy over whatever files I absolutely needed to an external drive.

Remember, your backup schedule should match your willingness to lose any files outside of that schedule. Backing up weekly means you can lose up to six days of work. You might want to get a bit more disciplined in this area, especially with a laptop. MBP's are coveted by thieves.

[jonzer77]

Buy PC. Game on it. Period.

Lol that's what the Xbox is for.

[Gryff]

Take it to your local Apple Store and ask their Experts if they can help you boot it and run Disk Utility's First Aid feature on it. You might also see if there is an Apple Lab on campus that could loan you the install discs so that you can run Disk Utility yourself.

[undercow16969]

Lol that's what the Xbox is for.

I'ts also a console. PC > Console > Mac

/Bump

[kophinos]

if you're running 10.7 and have been using time machine to backup to your external HD you can boot off a 10.7 cd or flash drive and restore from a time machine backup.