MacBook :: Unable To Complete Boot - White Screen With Flashing Folder Appears
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?
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Jun 9, 2009
I have a macbook intel(black) it originally came with tiger, i installed leopard on it a while ago. How ever i dont like leopard i want tiger back. I lost the original grey cds that came with my macbook so i hooked it up to my imac with target disk mode. I erased the disk using disk utility. Then i installed tiger with an original copy of tiger bought in a mac store. My imac rebooted i follow the installation menu and it installed. the internal drive of my macbook booted on my imac asif it were an external drive.
I rebooted into the internal drive of the imac and ejected the macbook drive. I disconnected the firewire cable and rebooted my macbook. The problem is that it wont boot properly it just goes to the white screen make the startup sound and starts flashing a folder with a questionmark in it. ive tried resetting the pram etc but it doesnt seem to work. i tried holding alt at boot up all i get is the cursor and nothing happens. i can still connect it to my imac but that it. how can i get my macbook to reboot properly again?"
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Mar 12, 2012
I was given a MacBook 13" laptop, new to apple computers though. At first I was told the laptop itself did not power on. I charged it overnight, and it will come on, however, only to a white screen with a file folder in the middle with a ? mark in the file folder. I googled the screen and got several choices, start in save mode, did nothing. I called apple, since it is a 2006 model computer, it is of course out of support, but she emailed me articles to follow directions. None of them did anything, since it was given to me I do not have the start up disks, just the laptop and the charger. I did notice that out of all the steps the only thing that did anything different was the "reset NVRAM/PRAM" it made speakers make a sound as it was starting up. Thats all it just still went to white screen and file folder.
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Jun 21, 2009
ok my macbook wont boot. i hit the power button, i hear the cd drive move, grey screen comes up with the apply logo and the little progress loading spinner thing, boot sound rings, then it goes to a dark blue screen for a second then it turns a lighter blue and the cursor is there and i can move it around, and then nothing happens it just sits there
i tried holding command/option/p/r till i heard the boot noise twice then let go and it stopped at the blue screen again. i didnt download anything new or change any permissions or system settings, just powered off last night and went to turn it on this morning and this happened
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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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Jul 6, 2012
When I log on to my Mac I get a white screen with a flashing folder showing a? What is wrong with it and what can I do.
Info:
iMac
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Jul 24, 2010
Hi all, I have two Powerbook G4 laptops. Both have very similar problems. When I try to start up, the grey screen with the apple and spinning wheel appears, but I can't get beyond that. If I walk away for an hour, when I come back there will still be a grey screen with apple and spinning wheel.
I admit I know little about this sort of thing, so I began poking around online for solutions. I tried Tech Tool Deluxe. Inserted the disk and held down "C," but again it never progressed beyond the grey screen with apple and spinning wheel. Most frustrating. Is there any other way of running the disk with the laptop?
Entering the terminal yielded slightly different results on each machine.
Powerbook #1: Once in terminal I typed...
/sbin/fsck -fy
...response was...
disk0s10: I/O error.
Invalid Key Length
(4, 44890)
** Volume check failed
...tried /sbin/fsck -fy over and over, always received the same results.
Powerbook #2: Once in terminal, this appears...
jnl: update_fs_block: failed to update block 1073777488 (ret 5)
jnl: journal_open: Error replaying the journal!
hfs: early jnl init: failed to open/create the journal (retval 0)
...and it won't even let me type /sbin/fsck -fy.
I tried plugging both latops into my desktop in target mode. In both cases the target icon appeared on the laptop screen but the hard drive icon never appeared on the desktop screen. I would love to at least retrieve a few files off each machine, if nothing else.
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Apr 9, 2012
My computer seemed locked up, nothing would open. I had to force quiy everthing. I tried to normally shut it down and it wouldnt shut down. I held the on off power switch. When I tried to turn it back on It stays tuck on the white screen with a flashing folder icon with a question mark in it . Has my hard drive gone bad?
Info:
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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May 25, 2012
I have not been able to startup my iMac for 3 days. When I turn it on all I get it is a white screen. After about 10 minutes a folder with Question mark inside apears in the middle of the screen and it just stays like this. I unplugged everything from the computer except for the mouse and keyboard. I had this computer since 2008 and never had a problem until now.Please help
Info:
IMAC 24 2.8, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 2 GB RAM
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Jun 6, 2012
We did the most recent update that Apple produced and our iMac has yet to turn back on properly. We get a white screen with a flashing grey folder that has a question mark on it..
Info:
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Jun 6, 2012
when I turn on iMac I got white screen with grey coloured flashing folder sign,a question mark on it, that's it.
Info:
iMac, 2006 model
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Mar 19, 2009
I have had my MacBook for almost two years and the battery had just died on me. So I sent it back to Apple and got a new one. But ever since switching over to this new battery, my computer has had issues starting up. A grey screen fades into white and the Apple logo never appears. The computer will just stay like that for hours. A friend suggested turning the power off and back on, holding apple+ctrl+P+R, which worked. However, the next time I turned my computer on, the screen stayed white again, without an Apple logo. Can you tell me what the deal is? Should I bother reporting this to Apple? Is this permanent damage I'm going to have to go thru everytime I start me laptop? Any way to fix it? Thanks.
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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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Sep 3, 2014
When I turn my MacBook Pro on, the colorful pinwheel shows up and then the screen flashes white and goes back and forth from my screen saver to the white screen andI can't get it to stop.
Info:
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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Mar 19, 2012
I have a flashing file folder wheni boot up my MacBook pro
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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)
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Oct 11, 2009
I don't know what else to do... Started sounding like a cd was running o something when nothing was in there, now that stopped, but im just getting a white screen with a flashing folder with a ? Its flashing between the finder icon and a ? and will not do anything else.
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Feb 15, 2010
My step mom has an iMac. The first gen intel one and the other day out of nowhere there was a white screen with a folder on it and now when you go to start up the iMac the screen just stays white.. What would be the cause of this and what should I do to fix it .. thank you
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Mar 26, 2012
a blank white screen appears whens i start the imac up, it doesnt seem to respond to anything i press on the keypad or the mouse. it just simply stays on a white screen and wont let me log in or anything. when i turn the imac on it just pops up straight away without the loading sign and bluescreen that appears after the white.
Info:
iMac
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Aug 8, 2009
I have an iMac 2.8 24 inch, about Two years old running 10.5.7 , when I start the computer it shows the normal Gray screen for about 30 seconds, then the screen goes all Black , but with a small flashing white line ( _ ) in the top Left hand side corner.
It just stays all Black for ever , I then hold down the On / Off button and turn off the computer, I then hold down the keyboard '' option key '' and press the on button at the same time , then I get the option to start from the main HDD , I click the Icon and the computer then starts normally , and every thing runs ok.
Can some one please tell me what I have to do to get my iMac to start up normally again , Ive run Repair Disk permissions but the problem still occurs . Over the last few day's Ive been trying out a few new applications, so not too sure if this has any thing to do with this current problem
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Nov 23, 2008
I have had my MacBook for almost two years and the battery had just died on me. So I sent it back to Apple and got a new one. But ever since switching over to this new battery, my computer has had issues starting up. A grey screen fades into white and the Apple logo never appears. The computer will just stay like that for hours. A friend suggested turning the power off and back on, holding apple+ctrl+P+R, which worked.However, the next time I turned my computer on, the screen stayed white again, without an Apple logo. Can you tell me what the deal is? Should I bother reporting this to Apple? Is this permanent damage I'm going to have to go thru everytime I start me laptop?
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Jun 21, 2014
I get is white screen with flashing question mark. I've inserted OS disc but it won't run.
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Nov 29, 2010
I have an ibook that boots up first to the flashing folder with the question mark then quickly loads to apple screen , then into the os x. This just started happening but I've never seen it before is this a bad sign?
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Apr 11, 2012
All of a sudden screen stays gray and flashing folder with "?" on it
Info:
MacBook
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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.
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 changed
AND what causes this? This is not the first time I have heard of a Macbook Pro doing this...
Info:
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion
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Dec 29, 2008
My iBook G4 will not boot even from DVD.Boot with option does not show the hard drive, but shows the Tiger dvd.Memory access error shows at open boot.How can I get this thing to boot?
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Jan 30, 2010
Since a few days ago my Macbook Pro 13" from last June started to freeze randomly for atleast 30 seconds and then it would come back and most of the time freeze again after a while (in OSX only it seems, Windows 7 I did not have such problems, though I didn't use it often). Sometimes it occured frequently, other times it didn't and this morning I had the same thing again, I just held the power button and shut it down, did this two times in a short period of time and when trying to boot it for the second time all I get is a gray screen with no Apple logo or anything.
Searched the forums, tried the install DVD and C button to no avail, same thing with trying to reset the PRAM and NVRAM...Is the logic board broken or anything? I don't understand how this could happen...And if I do take my laptop to Apple, should I remove the Intel SSD drive I got in it right now and put in the stock?
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Dec 4, 2010
I was working on this machine 3 hours back. Thereafter I put the machine on standby mode. Now when i try to start the laptop, the icon for password does not appear. Instead a mouse curser sign and a circle [like freezing] appears on the screen.
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Mar 14, 2012
So i turn on my computer and the screen goes white. The only showing is a blinking folder with a question mark in it? Virus?
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Sep 30, 2007
I have an iBook G3 Clamshell 466MHz with 192mb RAM and 10GB HD. I recently updated the OS from 9.2.2 to Panther on a single partition. The upgrade went flawlessly.Then I purchased a 512mb RAM module from a 3rd Party Vendor and after fitting it discovered the iBook no longer boots past the flashing folder/?.
I removed the new ram and replaced the 128mb module but haven't been able to boot past this flashing folder/? icon. I've zapped the PRAM, reset Open Firmware, disconnected the Keyboard then booted, reset the PMU (need to do this each boot or I see black screen only) and tried to boot from the Panther Disc #1 holding the 'C' key. I also tried TDM with my Intel Mac Core 2 Duo but couldn't boot past the flashing folder/? icon.
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