I did the latest update tonight, clicked on restart and now all i get is a white screen........

This is my first mac so no idea where to start trying to fix it, any suggestions are more than welcome!!

thanks guys

actually after about 10 minutes of white screen i got a folder icon with a question mark flashing on screen, guessing its not locating my OS, should i contact apple or is tehre way i can roll back the updates????

Hi there - can you hear any mechanical sounds (eg, 'ticking') coming from your machine (in particular)? If not, that rules out a hardware problem ;-)

nah just a fan noise really, im asuming it has to be software related since it occurred staight after the update

Okay, that's hardware off the list then.

Essentially the folder with the flashing question mark means that your mac can't find the system software. Another thing you can try is that while you turn on your mac, hold down option and see if your hard drive shows up. Click on it obviously :P

If that works, it means that something went awry with your startup disk preferences. Once back in OSX, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and make sure that your hard drive is selected.

i tried holding down the option button, got absolutely nothing.......... still just a white screen

ok, i ran disk utilities on it, and first aid and i am getting told my HD has an error that cannot be repaired, the error was:

underlying task reported failure on exit..

will this be a warranty issue? should i head back to dick smith? or contact apple?

sorry for all the questions but shitting myself here, i have a post grad uni assignemtn due friday!!! andof course after being 500 od words into it i hadnt backed it up yet!

EDIT- the HD has melted and it will be replaced under warrranty, next byte couldnt recover any data from it tho..................another lesson learnt about backing up!!