Intel Mac :: Won't Boot And Has Flashing Folder With Question Mark On Gray Screen
Jun 17, 2012
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.
Info:
iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
View 4 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Dec 10, 2014
I'm selling my old iMac and while cleaning the hard drive it froze. I forced shut down and when I turned it back on a circle with a diagonal came up initially, followed by flashes of that, a question mark and the apple symbol. Now it won't get past the grey screen and the flashing symbols. Â
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11)
View 2 Replies
View Related
May 4, 2012
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???
Info:
iMac
View 14 Replies
View Related
Jun 20, 2012
My macbook won't boot. A folder with a questionmark keeps flashing...What do I do, so I don't lose my documents?If I send it to reperation, will they see the last thing I did on it? Cause it was quite private...
Info:
MacBook Pro, MacOS X (10.5)
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 11, 2014
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.
Info:
MacBook Pro
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jun 17, 2014
My computer froze on me and the rainbow cursor appeared. I forced my Macbook Pro to shut down and when I restarted it, a grey screen appeared with a flashing folder that has a question mark inside. Â
I tried the following:
1) restarting it holding down the "shift" button and nothing changed
2) restarting while holding down opting+command+p+r until I hear it ding 3-6 times - nothing changedÂ
AND what causes this? This is not the first time I have heard of a Macbook Pro doing this...Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion
View 8 Replies
View Related
Apr 11, 2012
All of a sudden screen stays gray and flashing folder with "?" on it
Info:
MacBook
View 1 Replies
View Related
Feb 25, 2012
I have an issue with selecting (restart). If i choose restart after a software update, from the apple drop down, or when i select the drive in startup disk in preferences, it will boot into a gray screen with ? mark. if i choose (shut down) from apple drop down menu and then start up from the power button on the air, it boots up with no problem. I have checked with the SSD maker and i have the latest firmware I cannot use the old HD to see if it is a drive issue. Its dead.Â
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7)
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 22, 2009
I am currently getting a gray screen with a folder and question mark. I have tried resetting the PRAM and when I hold down the option key, no drives show up at all. I also can't boot into OS X in safe mode. I don't hear a clicking noise that you usually get from dead hard drives.
View 1 Replies
View Related
May 7, 2012
I recently upgraded to Lion on my MacBook Pro but it didn't sit well with my compuer. It became sluggish and would take forever to load applications, pictures, music, movies, etc that only took SL a few seconds at most. I decided to downgrade back to SL so I put in my Install DVD (version 10.6.6) and tried to format the hard drive so I could start new. However it would not work with the CD, so I continued looking around online and I came under the impression that if you erase the hard drive it will allow you to start new (in my case, with SL). However now I get a gray screen with a folder with a question mark.
I do not have my files backed up through Time Machine.
Info:
MacBook Pro
View 1 Replies
View Related
Apr 15, 2012
Getting the Flashing Question Mark Folder on start-up. What to do?
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 7, 2009
How hard is it to replace the hard drive? I have a disaster recovery company step up to get all my info off of it if they can. But I really don't want to spend the money to have someone pull out the HD and put a new one in if I can do it myself. I have experience building pc towers but I haven't ever pulled apart an iMAC. Its an iMac 23(or 24) inch from Dec 2007 (I don't have the model info on hand as the box is in storage).
View 4 Replies
View Related
Sep 3, 2014
I have an aluminium cased iMac (2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) running OS 10.6.8.Â
Recently I have found that sometimes the machine will not boot - I get the normal chime, grey screen and then the flashing question mark icon. I first noticed the problem a few months ago when restarting after a power outage had occured whilst I was using the Mac. After a couple of tries the machine booted and so I thought little more about it because in usual circumstances when the machine was shut down correctly it started as normal and behaved perfectly. However, after another power outage over the weekend the problem has become much worse.Â
I have tried all the usual things like trying to boot up in safe mode and recovery mode but with no success. The only way I can get the Mac to boot at all is to simply keep powering down and powering up again and hoping that it will spring into life. Once it does boot the Mac behaves perfectly.Â
I have an 10.6.8 universal system disk and I got the machine to boot from this disk. I then tried to perform some diagnostics on the hard drive (320Gb) but when I got to the pane that shows the available drivesthere was no drive to be seen.Â
After a lot of tries I have got it to boot off the hard drive since so, I have been able to back up files that weren't archived to an external drive.Â
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
View 5 Replies
View Related
Mar 23, 2012
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.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jul 11, 2009
I have recently come across an extremely cheap ibook (free) which i was able to keep if I got it too work. Well I've been successfully fairly by using it for a few weeks, then it just died. Not sure how it did but it did. The problems seem to be with the flashing (Finder/?) folder on a gray screen back ground. I've already run through the [URL] tutorials of what's wrong and have successfully done a PRAM and a PMU reset with no result. One of the times that I restarted the iBook and after the flashing folder got two new separate folders. One with an arrow turning clockwise on the left, and another folder with an arrow pointing right on the right. Both in blue folders as the flashing folders. Now I believe the problem is that the iBook is unable to find and utilize the Startup Disk. Forums I have read state to put in the reinstall disc, which I don't see how that will work on account of the CD tray not responding to anything I've yet put in there. Not trying with disc until i know that is the only possible solution. Don't want to loose my disc. Maybe some of you have come across this situation and know of a sure fire way to fix it. If not, Ill have to just send it in to some site.
View 7 Replies
View Related
Jun 3, 2014
My almost new macbook pro was showing a white screen with a flashing folder with a question mark. I was able to do the internet recovery, installing OS X on my external harddrive, but how do I use my mac without the harddrive plugged in?
View 4 Replies
View Related
Apr 28, 2008
i just upgraded my ibook g3 hd to 20gb. i put in my tiger install disc 1 and i let it go while i was out of the room. i heard the startup chime from another room, later i went to see it with a blue screen and mouse cursor. it wouldn't do anything. then i restarted it with the install disc again, holding C down, and it booted to a grey screen which after about a minute went to the flashing folder with the ? mark.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Jun 21, 2014
I get is white screen with flashing question mark. I've inserted OS disc but it won't run.Â
View 1 Replies
View Related
May 15, 2012
When my wife starts her iMac the screen stays gray and in the center of the screen is a folder with a question mark. I am not sure how to get it running.
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
View 5 Replies
View Related
Sep 1, 2014
iMac start up... Why my imac start with question mark sign on gray screen
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 13, 2010
I woke up to my MacBook fan going nuts. Had an error message on the screen that said something about a disk error. The machine wouldn't do anything (force quit, launch app) so I hard powered down. Now.....NOTHING. All I get is the white screen, followed by the flashing folder. Here is what I have tried so far.
I already booted from the restore cd that came with it and opened disk utility. The hard drive shows up as something like disk1 but not "Macintosh HD."Tried to repair permissions and got an error message. Thought then to do an archive and install......and the HDD isn't even a viable option to install the OS on.
I had the original (but smaller) HDD that came with my MacBook, so I put it back in and everything booted up just fine and is back up and running. (Thank God for MobleMe that had all my contacts, etc on it). But I still have some info on that other HDD that I need. I ordered a usb enclosure for the drive to maybe try some recovery, but it seems to me that the HDD failed or something. Is there anything else I can do?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Apr 17, 2012
I installed Lion on my Intel iMac (about 3 years old) several months ago and it was working fine. Then yesterday it stopped booting up. It loads a grey screen and then just shows an icon of a folder with a question mark in it. I tried the following:Holding Shift to start safe mode - no response, loaded question mark screenHolding Command Option P R - no response, loaded question mark screenRepair Disk from Disk Utility - says "the volume Bernard 1 appears to be OK"Verify Disk from Disk Utility - no response, loaded question mark screen I created a Lion recovery disk on a USB drive
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
View 2 Replies
View Related
Feb 9, 2012
So, I was on windows, using bootcamp, and I was creating partitions on a pen drive with it, and then it asks me that it needs to restart to apply changes.
But then, while restarting, a blue screen occurred (**** windows).... And I forced the shutdown pressing the power key.Â
Then, I simply turned the MacBook on, trying to boot on my snow leopard and I got a flashing folder with a question mark on it. Now I can't access any partitions on it, if I press option key on startup I get a blank window!Â
I tried to reset PRAM, repair the MacOs partition using the snow leopard DVD (it shows up fine, along with windows partition and EFI partition), and I still don't get my startup disk showing up...Â
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Snow Leopard with windows7 bootcamp
View 1 Replies
View Related
Mar 26, 2012
My Friend gave me his Old IMac G5 and when I boot it a question mark and the finder folder blinks. My friend says to install OS X because its running on nothing and I have been trying to install. OS X 10.6 but it wont respond to the Disk it just keeps blinking after a while it starts making this. Loud noise as if its running something, the furthest I've got it to a blue screen with a replay icon button. Towards the left and an arrow button pointing right but cant do anything after that, I don't know what to do. My other problem is the I have the latest wireless keyboard and wireless magic mouse so I cant connect them thru wifi until I have my imac running so im using a normal Dell Keyboard....
Info:
iMac
View 6 Replies
View Related
Mar 4, 2009
I 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 Related
Jun 3, 2009
I 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 Related
Nov 2, 2009
Basically, 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.
View 8 Replies
View Related
Jan 2, 2010
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 Related
Nov 15, 2010
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?
View 10 Replies
View Related
Dec 20, 2008
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.
View 8 Replies
View Related
