Intel Mac :: Flashing Question Mark Folder On Startup
Apr 15, 2012Getting the Flashing Question Mark Folder on start-up. What to do?
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iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Getting the Flashing Question Mark Folder on start-up. What to do?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
on startup, macbook pro showed flashing gray folder with question mark, but no startup. After several retries, now shows circle with diagonal diameter, and still no startup. worked fine yesterday.
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MacBook Pro
I have a 13" Macbook that I bought when they first came out and upgraded to OSX a couple years ago. It's been running fine until a couple days ago when I turned it on and it was displaying a folder with a flashing question mark. I immediately went online to get suggestions for rememdies, but so far none of them seem to be working. When I insert the installation disc it gets recognized, but pretty much all options for reinstalling are grayed out. I hooked up my external hard drive that has my backups on it, but don't know what to do from there. Like many people, I haven't backed up my files for a few months, and there are docs in there that I'd prefer not to have to lose. I've noted that this seems to be a rather common problem.
View 29 Replies View Relatedwell i just got back from vacation and I tried turning on my macbook, but it wouldn't startup. it made a clicking noise and all that appeared was a white screen and a folder with a flashing question mark inside it. I then put in the apple disk it came with and went to 'disk utility,' but it wasn't able to find my hard drive. Is there any way of retrieving the data on my hard drive, or even better, fixing my macbook? luckily, for me, my warranty just expired while I was on vacation, and I'm not able to talk to apple customer service without paying 50 bucks.
View 24 Replies View RelatedI've had my mac for about a year after someone gave it to me. I think it's pretty old, I'd say about 5 years maybe. Its using snow leopard right now. I was on safari yesterday and once I opened my email the computer froze. Mouse and everything. So I held the power button down to turn it off and when I turned it back on there was a flashing folder with a ? on it. I looked this up on google but every thing I found told me to put a disk in the computer. I can't do this because I don't have the disk and the disk drive is broken anyway.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI turned on my computer this morning (it has been working fine until then) and a flashing folder with a "?" appears. White screen. I don't know what to do, I held the Alt key at startup and that just gets me to a gray screen with my mouse.Â
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MacBook Pro
I sometimes receive a flashing folder with a question mark when I reboot. If I wait a little while and reboot again, my IMac will reboot successfully. My instincts tell me that my hard drive may be failing.
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iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
I just bought a new iMac. I have been trying all week (with no success) to transfer files and apps from my previous iMac. The last time I tried to transfer, I used target mode on the old computer. It looked as if it was finally working, so I left with 2+ hours remaining on the transfer. When I returned, the computer was frozen and nothing would work. So I held the power button to turn it off. When I tried to turn it back on, there was only a gray screen with a flashing folder with a question mark. I feel like I have tried everything listed in other discussions. The only thing I am not able to try is to reinstall Lion because the new computer did NOT come with an OSX disc of any type.
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iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
My imac from 2009 won't boot up. It just keeps flashing a grey file folder with a question mark. Of course now I do not know where my start up cd is.....is there anything that I can do???
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iMac
have a folder with a question mark on startup? What do I do?
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iMac, Mac OSX (10.2.x) , Folder with question mark at start
Flashing Question mark on otherwise blank screen on start up
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MacBook
I don't have a installation disk for my macbook. When I start it up, it shows a blank screen then after a while it shows a folder with a question mark.
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MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
my laptop fell yesterday but it worked normally after that. i tried to turn it on after a couple of hours and got a flashing question mark. Â
an installation disk didn't come with it when i bought it so i can't do the disk recovery. holding the option key at restart (for startup manager) starts internet recovery ''starting internet recovery this may take awhile" and then an error shows up ( -21 05F).
i tried resetting PRAM but the flashing question mark is still there. is there a way to fix this or recover the files on the laptop?Â
macbook pro model: md313ll
Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
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MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011)
Alright, so my uncle just gave me this old iMac, and whenever I start it up, it gives me this error logo of a flashing question mark and finder logo, inside a folder. The question mark and finder logo alternate. Yes, I have checked out the inside, and everything that is supposed to be there is there. I even switched out the hard drive with a working one, so that is not the problem. Yes, I have tried booting from the disc; it never lets me get past this error message. I have included a picture of the iMac, since I'm not exactly sure which model it is. I also don't know whether it's a version of Mac OS X, or 9, or 8, or whatever. Let me know if I missed anything,
View 1 Replies View RelatedI recently purchased a Quicksilver machine from the original buyer. It came equipped with Panther. After getting it online I contracted a virus (should have loaded an antivirus program first). So I did a hard shutdown, since I couldn't close anything. When I restarted I went to options and made a bonehead move in selecting something that doesn't let me restart any farther than a "flashing folder with a Mac icon and question mark on it. How to rectify this?
View 9 Replies View RelatedI am getting the flashing mac folder with the question mark when trying to boot up. It started the reboot after I (unsuccessfully) tried to remove iTunes 8.2 so I could go back to 8.1. I was following some instructions from another site, but interpreted the code to be segmented and not to be entered as one large command. So I entered this into terminal while iTunes was still running. "sudo rm -rf /Applications/iTunes.app /System/Library". I think the system was hanging, so rebooted the computer and that's when this started. I can't enter single user mode, diskwarrior has rebuilt the directory successfully, but no luck. I'm on a 12" Powerbook 1.5GHz with 1.25 GB RAM, Leopard 10.5.7.
View 2 Replies View RelatedBasically, I hadn't used my MBP in a couple of days and it was sitting there in sleep mode and I thought nothing was wrong but I came to use it today and it had frozen so I restarted it only to have a flashing folder with a question mark appear.
I Googled around a bit and I thought that a quick repair disk in Disk Utility would fix it as it has for others but when I tried that I get this error:
Code:
Invalid B-tree node size.
Volume check failed.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
This is a mid '09 Macbook Pro (specs in sig) so something going wrong with it was the last thing I expected, especially the hard drive.
So I went to sleep and my computer was just fine, just sitting there being normal as normal gets. I wake up and the cursor is beachballing, no response from anything, holding power button doesn't do anything, so I unplug it. Now when I turn it on it goes to the gray screen with a folder with a question mark blinking. Google told me that this means it can not find the startup disk, and my hard drive is probably toast. Upon advice of forums I grabbed my snow leopard install disk and am going to attempt a boot from disc after work today. If this does not work is it safe to assume I need to replace the hard drive? Computer is out of apple care so this will be a DIY operation.
Computer: 24" iMac, 2.8GHz core 2 duo, 4gb RAM.
Questions:
- What risks are involved with taking apart the iMac? What tools would I need?
- After I install a new hardrive, is it as simple as simply popping Snow Leopard into the disc drive and going from there?
- While I have it open, does anyone know if this model iMac has room for more RAM?
So for the first time ever I power on my iMac and get a flashing folder indicating the system cannot find the boot disk. I reset it a few times and it eventually boots up. A few days later the same thing happens only this time I can't get it to boot up after many attempts.
I try all the usual suspects, reset PRAM, attempt to select boot device (can't find any) Finally I boot from the install CD and when I get to select a destination volume for the OS there are no volumes to select.
I shut it off for a few days assuming I'd need to take it to an Apple store for some kind of repair or hdd swap. However it just started up tonight when I passed it and decided to hit the power button. Should I do anything to it while I have it running? Would a fresh OS install do anything for me? I have everything backed up with Time Machine.
New 13" macbook pro. Unibody. This is my friends.
She received it yesterday and after an hour of use she rebooted and got the Flashing Question Mark Folder.
She then turned it over to me. I have tried:
-Resiting PRAM
-Using the OSX Disc Disk Utility (It does not see the hard drive at all)
-Starting into safe mode (failed)
-Booting to firmware (failed) (command option p f)
I think the hard drive has died, but I want to get your input on it.
I got a hand me down iMac with both osx 9 and 10.4.11 on it. Tried to set up airport on it but it shows no airport at all in 10.4.11. So I went to start up disk to see if it was in on the 9 partion and everything I clicked on says missing something or other or not able to find so I thought well I would use disk utility and see what it could do for me it did it's thing and when done showed lots of problems so I clicked repair. When it was done it says everthing was repaired do you want to restart your computer? Clicked yes. Came back with a flashing finder folder with a ? mark! Problem is the computer has no disks that came with it so what if anything can I do? I also have a iPhone and now this is my only computer and I have no way to use iTunes for it.
View 2 Replies View RelatedMy MBP (mid 09) is showing a folder with a flashing question mark. I tried the usual things like PRAM Reset and booting with a external drive. I also changed the hard drive and could use it as a external drive on an other Mac - so this seems to work. Another drive could not be used too. The Apple Hardware Test does not work - my Super-drive is broken.
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MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), MBP mid 09
I have an error like a folder start to flash when i turned on my mac mini i just want to know what kind of error is that?
View 6 Replies View RelatedMy wifes mac book worked fine yesterday and earlier today. During her last session (probably surfing the net) mac locked up. She attempted to restart it and now she has a flashing folder with a question mark. Of course the HD is full of info, pictures etc.
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MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)
I have a problem at the start up of the Macbook. It shows a flashing folder with a question mark. I don't have the installation disk that came with it. It was running Leopard OS X 10.5.8. If I buy Snow Leopard OS X 10.6, will it work?
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MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
my files from the harddrive..flashing folder with question mark when i turn it on..what should i do to fix and recover my datas!
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MacBook Pro
i have an early 2011 macbook pro 2.7Â i7Â Â i have a folder with question mark flashing, i have replaced hard drive and also hard drive cable but can't see the hard drive, if iuse the old hard drive from usb the mac boots up, re fitting the old hard drive still does not show,
View 14 Replies View RelatedMac Pro 1.1, OS x 10.7 - installed storage hard drive in bay 2 now get flashing folder icon with ? mark
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Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5), os on drive in bay 1
about a week ago my hard drive died. i took it in to be diagnosed... I purchased a new 250GB hard drive and decided to install on my own. I followed the detailed instructions on [URL], it was a breeze... but, now the problem is installing OS X onto my laptop. I can't find the original start up disk for the iBook G4, so I tried using Mac OS X Tiger, V10.4. The installation DVD loads up fine, but when it arrives at the "Select a Destination" step no Icons appear on the screen... my new hard drive seems to be hidden.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have a 13" unibody MacBook running 10.5.8
When I start it up I get the Apple "chime" then the flashing folder with a question mark. Have tried all the standard procedures, ie. reset PRam, try to reboot i safe mode, single use mode etc... to no avail.
I can reboot from the install drive.
When I go to disk utilities my System Hard Drive shows up, passes Repair Disk Permissions as well as Repair Disk.
I can even go into Images>Scan Image for Restore and see all the files on my HD are still there - Documents, Photos, Apps, Desktop, Music. It shows how many folders and files there are. I can aslo go into System Profiler from the startup disk and the HD structure seems fine. So, I don't believe I have a catastrophic HD failure, but something else with hardware etc... Is there a ROM chip on a Mac that holds boot info similar to a Windows machine that has a BIOS chip? IF so, has anyone heard of these going bad?
I am not a hardware guru, but it seems it is not reading the startup files. So, I reinstalled the system using Archive my data and it still will not boot. I really need to save the data off this HD. It is under warranty.