MacBook :: Hard Drive Died - Gray Folder And White Question Mark?
Jul 2, 2009
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?
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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.
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May 20, 2009
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.
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Apr 18, 2012
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.
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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).
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010)
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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
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Sep 6, 2014
My MacBook Pro is showing only white screen with a folder and a question mark. What will I do?
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Apr 11, 2012
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?
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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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?
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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).
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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)
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Mar 4, 2012
I have a macbook and been updating the OS via DVDs over the years to 10.6 currently. Recently, the hard drive died and I cannot find the DVD. I cannot load 10.5 on a new drive either.
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6)
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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
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Apr 12, 2012
My iMac 20" is giving me white screen with the question Mark folder, some smack head formatted it and now it won't respond to the install disk, it won't even beep on a pram reset and there's no chime?
Info:
iMac
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Nov 16, 2010
After 4 years of brave use, the internal HD on my Macbook Pro has died. I'm now looking for a new one to install it myself. It's a first generation Macbook Pro (1.83Ghz - A1150). From a first google search I found this option a pretty decent one: [URL:...] Any feedback on this particular item? Is the site reliable? Also, regarding the installation of the drive itsef: I've seen some guides on how to install it and they seem a little hard to accomplish. My experience with this kind of procedure so far is related to installing ram, which seems to be really easier. Is this something that a non-experienced user can install or shall I think twice before doing such adventures myself?
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Apr 25, 2012
I bought and was downloading Lion recently when my hard drive died,Apple Bath fixed it,but Ive lost Lion!
Info:
macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.5.1)
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Jun 12, 2012
What is the problem if you have a white screen with question mark in folder icon??
Info:
iMac, iOS 5.0.1
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Jan 4, 2011
On Christmas Eve my 6 month old MBP 13" hard drive packed up - got the apple logo and nothing else on boot up. Apple Care phone support couldn't fix so had to send it off for repair (due back this week). I know there are more important things in life, but to have spent a month's wage on a computer and to be let down like this was really disappointing. My last backup was a month ago, so everything since has been lost, and I was without a computer for two weeks. Is this a common fault? What bugged me most was that at no stage did anyone from Apple offer any glimpse of an apology for the floored (and very expensive equipment). I switched from Dell to this and love the computer, and had heard a lot about Apple's amazing customer service. Not what I've experienced.
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May 12, 2012
I've tried turning it ff and on via the power button several times, but it always goes back to the white screen.
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010)
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Nov 28, 2009
I just experienced the 8600m GT video failure and am bringing the computer to Apple tomorrow. Over a year ago I replaced my stock drive with a WD scorpio black drive 320gb over a year ago. Do I need to swap out my WD for the original HD? I have a recent time machine back up of my data, but I'm more concerned about someone denying warranty service because I swapped out my drive. What have you guys been doing when bringing your machine in for service? Does it matter that my original drive has not been updated for over a year?
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Jul 30, 2010
I have an original 24" aluminum 2.4GHz and it has been acting very strangely lately, and would not boot yesterday. Luckily I had a clone and booted from that, and on bootup I got the message that the internal disk could not be repaired and to backup and format the disk as soon as possible. However, trying to partition the disk gave "could not unmount"; does "erase disk" do a format?. All of the data appears to be on the disk and accessible, but read only, so it makes me wonder if the hard disk is really bad or if this is some other error. I am going today to buy another external disk so that I can have a clone of my clone (now boot) disk just in case. If the internal disk is bad then it is probably easier just to use an external and forget about the internal; I looked at the teardowns on ifixit and it looks like a very time consuming (but not necessarily difficult) process to replace the disk.
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Jun 24, 2012
I have normal vision and have found the ical update on OS Lion to be very difficult to read. As a photographer using a mac monitor for pre-corrected color, brightness, and contrast, changing the appearance of monitor is not an option for me. I am hopeful Apple will solve this design problem immediately and embed it in their OS update. It's not the size of the font that matters, it's the fact that light gray is on a white background and that makes reading it a nearly self-defeating process.
Info:
OS Lion, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
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Aug 29, 2014
I have never backed up my Macbook 2.1 duo before yesterday. While in the process of backing up I was using photoshop, and my computer froze. I waited 30 min and then decided to shut it down. When I tried to turn it on it will not boot-up, I only get the grey screen of death. I had just recently upgraded to Snow Leopard this week. I used an external DVD drive which seemed to cause issues. So I thought I might be able to use that to install a clean version on this busted drive, well nothing worked, tried holding option key, holding down the C key. I ordered another drive that says its compatible with my drive. Since the my mac doesnt seem to acknowledge my drive, I bought an external housing for my new internal. I want to format and load Snow leopard onto the new hard drive using my girl friends mac. then put in my macbook. I would like to know if this will work? how I need to format my drive in disk utility.. Is it possible that it is not my Hard Drive?
Another side note, I just upgraded my RAM from 1GB to 4GB on my Macbook 2.1, I did try and putting my old ram back in just incase that was the issue.
Info:
MacBook, iOS 6, 2.1 13" intel duo
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Aug 17, 2006
So the 4200rpm drive in my 867mhz powerbook finally decided to bite the big one, so now after frantically backing up whatever I could I'm in the market for a new drive. I want 80 gigs, 5400rpm and an 8mb cache, and have basically narrowed it down to either: Western Digital wd800ve or Seagate Momentus 5400.3 ST980815A Does anyone here have either of these drives running in their laptops?
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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.
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7)
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Nov 12, 2009
I got a 3 year old white macbook. I was surfing the net when suddenly it turned off. On restart, I got the grey screen for a while, the a picture of a file with a question mark in it, waited for ten minutes, still the file. I have done the following:
1.- Reset the PRAM: I use the combination of keys, and it reboots, but on rebboting it goes back to the picture of the file.
2.- Use the option key on startup: I get a grey screen with the curso on it, which I can move with my mouse, but no buttons to click or nothing.
3.- Use the X key: as if doing nothing
4.- Resseting the SMC: as if doing nothing
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May 14, 2012
Replacing a SECOND failed hard drive on a mid-2007 white macbook (Intel core duo 2.16GHz), this time on my own Need to purchase a serial ATA drive, but I keep reading that trying to format and/or partition the drive for use with the original Tiger install disk is unsuccessful and that I would have to update to a newer OS before I can do that. I have Leopard as the current OS, and that is in my backup files from Time Machine, but I do not have a disk with Leopard. Wondering the best course of action and/or if someone had success wit ha particular Serial ATA using the Tiger disks?
Info:
MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.5)
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May 3, 2012
About 1 week ago, I noticed 2 faint grey smudges in the middle of my MacBook Pro screen. I dismissed it at the time because I could barely see them unless I looked extremely close on a dark screen. I opened my computer up yesterday to see that the amount of spots had tripled from 2 to 6, are becoming more apparent, and all in the same area in the middle of the screen. They are still only able to be seen on a dark screen. The smudges are about the size of the cursor Also, when I tilt my head or tilt my laptop screen far back on a white screen, I can see that those spots turn slightly brighter white than the rest of the screen. While the grey smudges aren't connected, these white areas appear to connect to make a circle.
Another quick note, in December, I had a similar problem with my screen. The white spots were in the same circular shape and clear on any background, however, instead of grey smudges, I had spots that were black in the exact same circular shape. Apple labeled it as pixel anomalies and replaced my screen for me with no problems. Do you think it is pixel anomalies or something different? I bought the laptop in September 2011 and it is under every?
Info:
iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1, GameCenter
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Apr 30, 2012
I tried to connect to a montor with a DVI connector but it's not getting a signal. Is there a quick fix? (School project today!!)
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)
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Dec 18, 2007
Yesterday my G5 (Dual G5 2 Gig, 10.4.1 OS) hung up while running illustrator 7, did an escape quit. Now the computer will not restart - a hard drive icon appeared with a flashing question mark. Ran the apple restore disk and the all hard ware pieces checked out fine. When I tried to reinstall the OS it does not open past the install icon. Startup utility does not find the one and only hard drive.
Information:
G5
Dual G5
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