Macbook: Flashing Folder with Question Mark At Startup

Question

So, I've been hearing a clicking sound coming from my macbook for about a week now. The last few days the system has just been locking itself up when I try to type anything.

Now, at startup I see this:

I'm assuming that the clicking was "the click of death" and my hard drive is fried. Or am I wrong?

Answer 1

That's the most likely scenario.

Have you tried booting from a system disc? I'd recommend doing that, and then running Disk Utility and see what it says about the drive.

Answer 2

not necessary:)

your mac just cannot where your OS is,

check here and if not helps, reformat HDD and install fresh OS

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440

Answer 3

My MacBook is an older one - OSX 10.5.8 . It has had the "folder of death" problem twice recently. The first time I tried all the "fixes" recommended but to no avail. I did not attempt wiping the HDD. I put it aside for a couple of weeks and was surprised to have it come good after that. Today it went bad again. The clicking noise sounded like the HDD was stuck somehow. So I gave it a thump on my knee and it booted normally. I don't know if this cure is repeatable or works in all cases but for me it put off the inevitable trip to the Apple store for a while.