It had a stroke last night…the flashing question mark and folder on the screen.
I got it to reboot and save all my info but it won’t come to life today.
I think it is the hard drive, when I go to reinstall OSX there is no destination drive.
Can I replace the drive instead of buying a new one?
Thanks,
Andrew
I had a similar situation occur about 6 months ago. If you still under warranty its free of charge to send to apple, if not its going to cost around $250.00. Call them and they will send you a box to ship.
No warranty left, maybe I’ll take it back to my local retailer and see if they can rehab it.
Andrew
try doing the job yourself.
Laptops and macs are just as modular as desktop pcs, you can probably do it yourself for the price of the hd and maybe a few minutes looking for a youtube video of how to open your specific mac model. That said, opening my dad’s emac to change the HD was a ridiculously long process. I never want to do that again. I’d rather just buy him a new mac.
Depending on where you live at, there are companies that will do repairs on laptops. The drive should be no problem.
Or you can do it yourself. Plenty of websites that will give you instructions. Just make sure you always ground yourself before you touch an exposed part of the powerbook. It could be an expensive lesson if you don’t.
If you’re terrified to do electronic repairs yourself, you can send it in to MacService.com. When my sister’s g4 hard drive went, I had her send it in here because I wasn’t anywhere close enough to fix it myself. Excellent service, price isn’t too bad (way cheaper than the apple store…). Time to upgrade the HD too 
yep…mine did the same thing over the summer. the big ol’ question mark.
New HD should do it.
Did you lose much info or did you backup regularly?
I did a back up in between the stroke and the death but I don’t know how well it worked
Andrew
they have how to videos on how to replace parts, its easy don’t waste time and money having some else do it. It will take you about 30 mins tops.
You can order a new drive from there too.
they have how to videos on how to replace parts, its easy don’t waste time and money having some else do it. It will take you about 30 mins tops.
You can order a new drive from there too.
+1. It’s incredibly simple to replace the drive on a Mac laptop. I replaced my PBG4’s drive twice - both were upgrades. Get yourself a nice 320GB 7200rpm drive for about $70 and have at it.