Question mark when turning on MacBook

[janisg]

When I turn on my MacBook, I hear a sort of clicking/beeping-very faint-and then eventually a question mark on a blinking folder shows up.What does that mean, and can I fix it?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

To save writing a long post have a look here,
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
Let us know if this resolve your issue.

 

[janisg]

Hi,

To save writing a long post have a look here,
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
Let us know if this resolve your issue.

When I do this:
"Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your Mac OS X startup disk." I get a red ERROR message. Also there is no disk "("Macintosh HD" by default) in the left side of the Disk Utility window.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi janisg,

" I get a red ERROR message. Also there is no disk "("Macintosh HD" by default) in the left side of the Disk Utility window.

Would be good to know the exact error message, but the second part of your sentence leads me to thinks that this is hard drive failure. Coupled with what you said in your first post, sorry to be the bringer of bad news.
Personally I would book the mac into your nearest Genius Bar ASAP, and get them to double check.

 

[janisg]

I'm already headed in that direction. Have an appointment today, and I'm expecting that it's a hard drive failure.

Thanks for your input!

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Let us know the result.