completely lost and desperate for help, clicking noises, then a blank screen

[melissabyrd]

First off this is not my computer (its my boyfriends and he is out of town) so I dont know the specifics of it, but Im so distraught over it that I have to ask someone, and any general advise would be greatly appreciated. About a week ago we were using Ichat to video chat and the computer ( a desktop) suddenly started making a clicking noise every 2 seconds or so coming from what sounded like the backside if the screen, so we disconnected and I shut it down. When I started it back up it was fine. A few days later the clicking started back up again, but this time it was just a few clicks and then it stopped on its own. Yesterday it was slower than usual and then froze. I could still move the mouse but nothing on the screen was responsive to it. So I shut it down by holding the power button untill it went off. I left it off for a bit and when I turned it back on I heard the startup ding, but the only thing to ever appear on the screen was a little file folder with a question mark in it. so my questions are, What happened? Is this somehow my fault? Is it fixable? He has tons of music and pictures on there I would hate for him to loose.

 

[DeltaMac]

Sounds like a typical hard drive failure.
No, not likely your fault. Hard drives do fail.
I hope your boyfriend keeps a backup of the files on his Mac. It's very easy to do, with Time Machine built in to the system. Some users prefer other backup solutions. And, you back up the hard drive, because of situations like this.
If there is no back up, it's likely too late for that now - but you should stop trying the computer. The more attempts 'forcing' the hard drive to - somehow - work, will not help, and can make the possible recovery more difficult, and less likely to be successful.