Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

my MacbookPro is making horrible death rattles, starting yesterday when it spontaneously started making noises having been left to sleep for a few hours. it starts up ok, but makes noise from the off - as soon as the fans start. then after a few minutes the buzzing and droning gets louder. it still seems to work, applications start up etc, but it can't backup (Time Machine stays in "preparing backup" stage) and Verify Disk failed (See image).

It isn't making glitchy hard drive noises, but it's more than just the fans. something is very wrong.

Question 1: what the hell is making that noise?

Question 2: it's a 2007 model, it's already being used basically as a desktop because it no longer responds to keyboard, trackpad, screen is pretty ropey etc. can it be repaired, is there any point?

Question 3: new laptop. I need it to run Adobe CS and CAD, no heavy rendering/modeling though. I'd rather something smaller than a 15" so it's easier to carry (I loathe carrying the current one more than a few miles on my back), and I can always plug it in to a screen when I get home. was thinking about a new MBP, smaller one, anyone else run CAD on it? or better recs for running that sort of stuff? In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not very computer spec literate. I do basically need it to work out of the box...

sorry for n00b questions.

1. The Fan you are hearing may need replacing or simply resetting on the System Management Controller. Do an SMC reset
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

2. The error message you had is related to hard Links which is related to some individual directories. Depending how affected they are they may be unrepairable. First boot from a recovery partition or Boot Disk. Then Run Disk Utility and repair disk. If error remains. Backup HD and resinstall OS

3. Once completed apply all SMC and firmaware updates then run Disk Utility again to check.

Job Done.