So the laptop doesn't start at all, and it makes a clicking kind of sound?

When mine was doing that this summer, the hard drive had crashed. It happened very quickly. All I can say is it sounded like there was a spinning and clicking along with it.

I have a Mac, but because my Mac wasn't "factory", and had a hard drive other than an Apple drive, the Apple store wouldn't touch it.

I actually took it to Staples, and they were great, and have very inexpensive support. I bought a new hard drive, and they installed it and helped me reinstall the OS, and it was only $30 or $35. And it was guaranteed.

The Apple store would have wanted an arm and a leg as payment.