2008 MacBook Pro Blinking Folder icon I have a friend with a ~2008 MBPro which has seemingly hit the hay. I'm not 100% it's 2008, but I think so. It has magnetic power cord--the square one. 

Anyway, as soon as it turns on, there is the blinking folder icon with question mark. Safe-boot, single user... nothing will boot except the installation CD.

Heres what I've tried:


Reset NVRAM/PRAM;
Booted with CD; 

-- Repair Permissions: OK; repairs made

-- Verified permissions: OK

-- Repair disk: OK; repairs made 

-- Verify disk: OK
Tried to select startup disk: HD not available for selection
Reset NVRAM; reboot
Tried to select startup disk: HD not available for selection
Fired up terminal; HD is there, mounted, browsable, and all the files appear to be there. However, permissions seem strange (even after repair)--lots of 501's.


Questions

Is there some way to determine if it is reparable with an HD swap? i.e. is there some way for me to determine it is not some other hardware issue? 

I had recently (a few weeks ago) added in some more RAM. But, since then, until a few days ago, everything was working fine. When strolling through some logs, I did see a reference to a missing NVRAM variable--but might have been the result of hot-swapping USB... Could an issue with RAM keep the startup disk from working?

Thanks
The blinking folder icon indicates that the computer can't find a valid startup disk. Based on the tests you've performed, it may that one or more critical files was removed from the drive, but the screwed up permissions are indicative that something is screwy.  I would reinstall the operating system.

If there are files on the disk you want to save, copy them off of the drive onto an alternative volume before installing the OS.