can't boot up.. I'm getting a "no entry sign" and a folder icon

[jrm27]

Hi all,

I can't boot up my mac pro! When I try to do so I get the apple in my boot screen, then it changes to a "no entry" sign and then a flashing file folder icon with a question mark in it. I'm assuming that means there is something wrong with the OS?

I booted up from my install OS disc, but my startup disc isn't showing up in my disk utility. Well, it was initially but it isn't anymore. when i first tried to repair the disc it told me that the disc wasnt repairable and that it would need to be reformatted. So I restarted the mac in target mode and am in the process of copying one of the partitioned volumes before I do anything else. It looks like my time machine failed on me and hasn't made a backup since November... awesome.

Either way, when i try to boot back into the disk utility so I can reformat the drive, the drive doesn't appear. any thoughts? any ideas as to what my next steps should be? Thanks!

-jon

 

[Dalton63841]

The no entry symbol means it can't find your startup disk. If it isn't even showing up in the Disk Utility then the Hard Drive has probably failed...

 

[ActionableMango]

It looks like my time machine failed on me and hasn't made a backup since November... awesome.

I can't speak for your Time Machine, but mine complains to me periodically if it hasn't made backups in a long time.

 

[QuarterSwede]

That's a classic sign of a bad hard drive.

My father just (as in yesterday) experienced the same thing on his 09 iMac when updating to 10.6.6. He called AppleCare just to be sure and they're having him take it to the Apple Store for a hard drive replacement.

I hate mechanical hard drives. I've had one fail on every computer I've owned (no exaggeration) [1PC, 2 Macs]. SSD is the way to go.

 

[jrm27]

Crap.. that's not what I was hoping to hear! Oh well, them's the breaks!

So then, everything that was on that hard drive will be gone (with the exception of what Time Machine backed up in November).

The strange thing is that the volume I am copying over right now (only 17 hours to go) is a partition of the drive that has gone bad. At least I think that is what is going on. I need to talk to the guy who put this one together. So I figured that this volume wouldn't be accessible either if the hard drive is going bad. Hmm... maybe I'm missing something here.

 

[Transporteur]

I hate mechanical hard drives. I've had one fail on every computer I've owned (no exaggeration) [1PC, 2 Macs]. SSD is the way to go.

ALL hard drives do and will fail, no matter if they are mechanical or flash based.

Has always been the case, and will always be.

 

[jrm27]

so... what hard drive should I be looking for as a replacement? are there specs I need to keep in mind?