MacBook Pro :: Blinking Question Mark Folder (Already Replaced Hard Drive)
Apr 25, 2012
On Sunday night I found my macbook pro ("13, mid 2010, refurbished) in a frozen state a few seconds after waking it from sleep. So I did a forced restart and then my macbook wouldn't boot (blinking question mark folder). I troubleshooted with the OSX Install DVD on my own before taking it to the Genius Bar (disk utility & TDM could not find the hard drive), and we both came to the conclusion that I should install a new drive. So yesterday I bought a new drive, did a fresh OSX install and managed to migrate all of my info from my presumed damaged drive to the new one. Everything went smoothly and the computer was in working order all night. That is until this morning when I shut it down before bringing it to work. On my lunch break I decided to fire up my newly upgraded macbook only to find that it once again would not boot, still with the blinking question mark folder. I also tested to see if I have faulty RAM and it doesn't look like it (unless both sticks are fried).
About a week ago, my MacBook Pro started freezing and getting the spinning wheel. When this happens, the computer is unresponsive. So, I will turn it off and on reboot, but all I get is the question mark folder. The weird thing is that sometime it will boot right up, but sometimes it wont. Even when it does boot, it only works for about 5 minutes, and then the spinning wheel occurs again. So, I bought a new hard drive, installed it and reinstalled the operating system.
I Don't have a lot of knowledge of computers so I apologize if any of this doesn't make sense. I have an exactly 2 year old White Macbook. To make it short....screen froze....restarted...eventually got blinking folder with question mark. Tried all the various ways/modes (safe,single,etc) to restart the computer and nothing. Read the macbook booklet and it said to enter the Mac OS X disk 1 and I did that. It eventually worked, the disk that is. Went to Disk Utility and tried to repair Mac OS X Install Disc 1 and get ERROR:No valid packages. In the column of choices there are 3 other options for me to click and repair. I don't know if these options are confidential and need to be kept private but I will omit some of the numbers/ letters. These are the other 3 options: GB Hitachi HTS....( this is what I get when I try to repair: Invalid B-tree node size Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit......also.. 1 HFS Volume checked .....Volume needs repair disk0s2 ......this option when I try to repair gives the same exact error as the one above. GB MATSHITA.... this option gives the same response as when I try to repair the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 ......ERROR:No valid packages. Also I tried to reinstall Mac OS X by following the installer and clicked English and then get to Select a destination volume to install the Mac OS X software and there are NO options available for me to click. I am so desperate right now.
I Was skyping with a friend went to do something came back i was signed out of skype and my computer froze i restarted then it gave me a blinking file witch means failing hard drive so i put in my old hard drive that i knew works and still gives me a blinking file macbook pro 08 running on mavericks osx and something been running down ram for awhile to where it was not usable i had to keep running memory clean ...
My macbook is about two years old and recently have encountered problems. When I turn on the computer all I see is a blinking folder and question mark. I have tried putting in the install cd but it does not work. I try to reinstall mac os x but it tells me it could not be done. I have tried repairing the disk and numerous other things. I did not have anything truly important on the computer so I am not worried if I lose it.
disk utility is unable to repair the "Macintosh HD" disk. Re-installing mountain lion is not an option due to the computer's inability to detect the HDD disk. How do I differentiate between a corrupted (dead) hard drive or a broken SATA cable (in which acts as a medium)?
Just came back from the Genius Bar at Apple Amsterdam. Both iTunes and iPhoto had problems launching and libraries were not loading. Ruled out hardware problems so they tried installing OS Snow Leopard over my 10.5.8 in a way to keep my documents safe. All went well until halfway it said it couldn't install succesfully. Made a new appointment for in 3 days from now. They would then overwrite the current OS with the new one so i should go home and make sure to back up all my files in the meantime. Problem is that when i came home and started my laptop i got a blank/white screen with a blinking documents folder symbol with a question mark in it! Does anybody know what it means and will i be able to ever make a back up of my documents?
My Mac just made my heart jump. When I rebooted, it just showed a blank grey screen for about 15 seconds. It then showed a folder with a blinking question mark. I had seen this before on iBooks at my school, and knew it wasn't a good sign. I held down the power button, and rebooted. This time, it started up without a hitch.
i held the power button to shut off my computer because it was lagging badly. upon my start up of my computer i received a folder with a question mark in the center blinking icon (after a little delay).
i need to get this sucker up and running. i have some imporrtant information on it.
its basically a brand new macbook 2.0ghz 2 gig rram
osx installed 10.5.1 i think because i remember seeing it somewhere (i have updated) , but i have cd's for 10.4.9
When i turned on my iMac I was surprised to see a folder icon blinking as it was running fine before this. I didn't delete or install anything.
My DVD drive does not read properly so i am unable to boot from the installation disk, tried to boot using BootCD from Charles Soft that didnt work either. Even tried resetting PRAM/NVRAM, unplugged keyboard and LAN cable as well but still no luck.
Read many articles online regarding this issue and it seems that my hard disk must have crashed. I don't have backup of any files.
My iMac at start up has a blinking folder with a question mark on it. Iv done the option, command, p,r 2xs but it doesn't fix it. Also I lost the loud up disc to reset the computer altogether.
I think the hard drive in my Macbook (2007 Model) has died. My macbook froze and when I restarted I can hear an usual clicking noise and I only get a white screen with a grey folder icon and white question mark inside. Fortunately, I use super dooper to create a bootable clone of my hard drive as a back up. When I attach this and hold down the apple key I boot straight into the clone and the computer runs fine from the external hard drive. If I go to disk utility my computer can not locate the internal hard drive, nor if I go t sysyem prefs-startup disk. Should I assume its dead or could it be a connection problem. I don't have applecare so I'm willing to buy a new hard drive and swap it myself. However, this is making the assumption the hard drive is the culprit. Can anyone else diagnose this problem from the desrcitpion before I shell out on a new hard drive?
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....
I'm having an issue with my PowerBook G4. It wouldn't turn on at all before, so I installed another motherboard. Now it will power on, but it only shows this folder icon that blinks. I'm a complete n00b to macs. If this were a PC I would of fixed it by now. I need some help. I've tried the installation disk, but when I hold down the C key, it takes longer, but it just shows that folder again. When I hold down the Option key, it only gives me a reload button, and an arrow button, but no boot up options. Do you think it could be a problem with this other used motherboard? Or is it that I just didn't put it in right? I've double checked all the hardware, and it seems to be all connected. The keyboard lights up, and the trackpad works, and it makes the boot-up sound.
Last week the hard drive crashed (or so I assumed) on my late 2009 13" Mac-book Pro.I was getting the blinking folder icon at startup. After trying to boot in safe mode and several other start-up options, I booted from an OSX install disk and found that the drive wasn't appearing in the Disk Utility - this, and the fact that I had been running it at very high capacity for far too long is what led me to assume it was utterly dead.So I ordered a new drive, a WD Scorpio Blue 500GB, and installed it today. Again booting from the OSX install disk, I went to the disk utility (thinking I would format the drive before installing the OS), but new drive wasn't there either.Assuming I installed the new drive correctly (it was pretty straightforward), this is leading me to assume that I was wrong with my diagnosis.
I have an 8TB 4big Quadra with 4 bays. It's been running good for more than a year now. Today, the rear LED of the last drive is blinking red/blue red/blue. The drive seems to be working. My drive have only 1 big blue light in the front and one little blue LED for each disc at the back so I always had 5 blue lights on. Now I have only 4 blue and a red/blue blinking.
The drive is hooked up to my MBP running all the latest software.
This old unit needed a bigger hard drive, so a friend gave me a Hitachi 60 GB drive he didn't need and I installed it. He told me that it was formatted for MS-DOS and that I would need to reformat it for Mac OS. I'm pretty sure that I did accomplish that using Disk Utilities in the Installer program.
I put a OS 10.4 install disk in and tried to boot from it. My problem is I'm getting a screen alert that says, "This software cannot be loaded on this computer." I can either restart (what good is that?) or go to "Startup Disk" where I choose the install disk (or Network Startup) and click on Restart. Then I choose English as the main language and bang! - right back to the wonderful, "This software cannot be loaded on this computer."
It's running the drive, but nothing happens. Replaced hard drive and laptop will not boot up. I've changed it before so I know I've installed it correctly.
I just replaced my hard drive today. I booted it up and went to disk utilities to format it and all of that. When I finished I went to restore system from back up and plugged in my external hard drive and the computer said there was no history of back up from Time Machine. This was strange because before I formated the hard drive and tried to restore the information, it recognized that there was back up information. I decided I would re-install the os and try again.
How do I reinstall Mac OS X after the hard drive has been replaced? I had an authorized Apple repair facility replace the hard drive on my IMac when the original drive died. I have the Mac OS X Install DVD which says "To start up from Mac OS X, hold down the C key as the computer starts up." I've tried that and all I get is a folder icon with a question mark on it. I'm guessing that's because I don't have the the OS installed to start from. How do I get the OS X installed?
Info: iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.6), dead hard drive replaced
After replacing the first one due to a surprisingly noisy hard drive, and the replacement itself being returned due to having a massive hardware failure, I'm still not using the iMac I ordered over a month ago. Funny thing is, the second iMac had the same rumbling hard drive as the first which I was prepared to put up with. With no more than a few days of usage, it just stopped working. It's been over a week since the second was returned and the new one hasn't been shipped!
I upgraded my hard drive from a 500 GB hard drive to a 1TB hard drive in my MacBook Pro, I reinstalled Lion and restored the data from the other hard drive. Now when I try to login to my account, it's as though my password is incorrect. I'm certain it's correct.
How do I use my Apple ID to reset my password? How do I access my account?
Info: MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2), Mid 2010 model
