:(

I think the hard disc on my Macbook died last night. I had just connected an Ipod when everything froze. I had to manually force the computer to restart, and when I did I got the dreaded flashing question mark. After restarting from the install DVD, the computer still could not find the internal hard drive. I reset the PRAM, still no hard drive. Reinstalling the operating system is not even an option if the computer cannot find any place to put it. After spending over an hour on Apple's support and discussion pages, I came to the very technical conclusion that the disc is likely screwed. I'm glad that I finally started backing everything up a few months ago on an external hard drive. On Monday I will visit the genius bar at my local Apple Store to see if there is anything I missed, but I expect them to give me bad news.