Flashing folder with question mark (MacMini)

Hi there,
I diagnose my Mac Mini (1.83Ghz, Intel Mac) and know that the HDD is failing, so I decide to change the HDD before the HDD totally fail.
But after I change the new HDD, and trying to install the OS back to the new HDD, I get a flashing folder icon with question mark in it, when I boot it up and press on the C key to boot from CD.  So I decide to take the new HDD back out, put in an external enclosure to make sure that the new HDD is not a bad one, and I can read fine with it inside the enclosure, put it back in the Mac Mini, still the same old flashing icon.
What happen?  Could someone help me please?
Thanks!

Hi Everyone,
Just for future reference for anyone who encounter this same problem, the reason that I go the flashing folder with question mark is first of all, the MacMini doesn't recognize the new hard drive.  No doubt about that since the hard drive has no OS and not formatted yet.  Second of all, it's because I don't have the correct Installer CD put in.  I didn't know if there's any difference in the Installer CD between PowerPC MacMini and Intel MacMini, but obviously there is, since the Intel MacMini doesn't recognize the PowerPC Installer CD.
After putting the correct Installer CD in, everything works just the way it should.
Thanks for all your help, everyone!
- NyCCD

Similar Messages

  • Flashing folder with question mark at Startup

    Here is what I know so far.
    - The computer was powered off by pushing the power button without shutting down.
    - The computer was then restarted and it was coming into the white screen with the Apple logo in the middle, but i noticed that it was skewed slightly (like someone took a 4:3 ratio screen and stretched it to a 16:9) and then it would show a circle slash icon and then the flashing folder with a question mark on it.
    - It would not come up in single user mode (Command + S) and it said that there was an error loading kernel 'mach_kernel'
    - It would not come up in safe mode (Shift)(The flashing folder came up again)
    - I reset the PRAM (Command + Option + p + r) and it seemed to fix the problem with the stretched screen but did not help the boot situation (still got flashing folder)
    - I did the start up where you can select the hard drive to boot with, it owed the HD and i selected it, but then i got the flashing folder with question mark.
    - It would not come up in Verbose Mode (Command V) Error loading Kernel again.
    - I bought a FireWire cable and hooked it to another MacBook Pro, and booted the faulty Mac into Target Disk Mode, the FireWire logo came up on the screen and bounced around like all forums said that it would, but the drive would not show up on my host. I checked the System Profiler on the host and it did acknowledge the Target Disk Mode was there, but the drive of the target would not show up on the host. I restarted the host, nothing. I checked all of the connections, nothing. I replugged all of the connections, nothing. I even reversed the FireWire cable, nothing.
    - I have DiskWarrior 4 if i can get the drive to show up in TDM, but nothing so far.
    Does anyone have any suggestions?

    Thanks for your help guys. I managed to get the computer started by holding down C at the Start Up with the Install Disc 1 in the computer. The disc was really kindof unnecessary, as the newest version of Mac OS X (10.4.10) became available via the hard drive.
    I then found out that the battery was not installed, so I reset the management system by removing the A/C power, the battery and pushing the power button for 5 seconds, and then reconnecting everything. It did not help, the battery is bad i guess, so I am going to call AppleCare and get a new battery.
    Thanks for your help.

  • HT1366 How to fix Flashing Folder with Question Mark on Mac

    How to fix Flashing Folder with Question Mark on Mac

    RichardEL is probably correct.  I’ll go through your questions.
    > there is no Mac OS partition, I assume it would be directly underneath the HD on the left?
    I have not seen this particular condition where the hardware disk icon appears but the system volume that is supposed to be below it does not.  The System Disk partition would be below the HD icon indented to the right.  It is usually called “Macintosh HD” unless you renamed it.
    > when I go into disk utility my HD appears on the left, but I can repair or verify it
    Odd.  It appears but you cannot manipulate it with Disk Utility.
    > The S.M.A.R.T status reads verified
    If it did not say Verified then it would indicate a problem.  Saying Verified does not rule out problems but I think it indicates it is still breathing.
    > Is the HD deceased?
    If you booted the Recovery Partition (Boot, Command-R), which it sounds like you did, then at least part of the disk is still breathing.  If it took a long time to boot then that may have been a Network Recovery boot which would indicate the disk is very sick or dead.
    >  [If I] restore from time machine [will] everything will be back as it was before?
    Yes.  That is the beauty of Time Machine.  All your data, applications, and system preferences will be as they were as of the last backup.
    > I was thinking of erasing the HD, would this be of any help or do I just need a new one?
    Given what you reported from the Disk Utility steps you took it is unclear to me if there will be a way to repair the current volume, if you can erase and install from scratch or if you need a new disk.  Before proceeding it may be useful to have an expert at an Apple store look at it for you.  They may be able to revive it without a clean install or new disk.
    As was the case above, it could be a good disk with a bad cable in which case a new disk is not going to help.  To test this you can purchase an inexpensive external enclosure, remove the internal disk, place it in the enclosure, plug it in and then use Boot-Option to attempt to boot from the now external disk.  Here are links to the screwdrivers and enclosure you would need.
    $5 Toolkit: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/
    $22 USB 3.0 enclosure: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ES2.5BU3W/
    If you attempt a clean install, use the Partition tab to repartition the disk, selecting one partition and with “Options…” electing a GUID partition.  Then use the Erase tab, select “Security Options…” and set it to write a single pass of zeros.  This will write to every sector to map out bad blocks.  (If you have an SSD do not write a pass of zeros.)
    If you do need to replace it I recommend an new inexpensive (~$100) and super-fast hybrid SSHD drive that has an 8 GB SSD cache that makes the data fly.  Google “Seagate 1 TB hybrid SSHD”.

  • Flashing Folder with Question Mark after Trackpad 1.0 Update

    My machine won't boot after installing this update. I get the flashing folder with question mark and can't even boot from the Install DVD either... I just get a frozen spinney wheel at the Apple Logo screen. I've tried resetting the PRAM and everything else that a Googling of the problem suggests. This update bricked my Macbook!!!!
    Anybody else having this problem? Anybody have any suggestions or am I stuck with going to see a "genius"?

    I've not seen any other posts about it causing problems, worked fine here. You've tried resetting the PRAM the only other thing you could try is:
    Boot holding down Apple/S and don't let go until you see scrolling text.
    When that stops and you see a root#: prompt enter
    fsck -fy
    Let it run through all the checks and repairs.
    If it fails first time, at any time, or finds and fixes a fault - run the command again and keep doing so (some fixes can take several passes) until it says "Appears to be OK" then enter
    reboot

  • Flashing folder with question mark comes up at startup?

    it was working fine 3 days ago i try start it up and a Flashing folder with question mark.
    It has mountain lion i try to boot to recovery Part but when i hold the Option key nonthing show up.
    If some can tell me what else i can.

    restart holding command R  if it can not find a Recovery partition it will do a Internet Recovery.
    Run diskUtility "repair disk" from the recovery.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

  • Flashing folder with question mark on start up + many other issues

    About 6 months ago I first encountered the flashing folder with question mark on startup. I fixed the issue myself by unplugging the mouse and keyboard and rebooting. I also did the cmd S fsck -fy before that and all was well.
    The other day I had the flashing folder again...I got it going a couple of times but it happened again. Right now I seem to be in deep trouble. Please read the following:
    1. I booted up from the leopard dvd and no hard drive was there to run a disk utility on
    2. Booted up again from the dvd and hard drive was there. Ran the disk utility and everything was fine...for about 5 minutes. Then the computer froze and I had to hard power down. Rebooted to the flashing folder.
    3. Did command s and fsck but at the end I get the message failed to issue comm reset after 3 attempts.....failing....
    4. I powered down, vacuumed out the vents, sprayed compressed air to make sure it wasn't over heating from dust buildup as I read somewhere.
    5. Booted up...worked for about 5 minutes again.
    6. Now I can't get to the hard drive from the install dvd at all...I tried 100 times. Cmd s won't work at all!! So it looks like I am out of options. Does anyone have ny radical solutions that i can try to fix this. There are some very important things on my hard drive that I would be very upset about loosing.
    Please reply

    Sorry to bear bad news, but most likely the drive is already dead or dying. I hope you backed up everything when the first symptoms appeared.
    There are data recovery services, but might be very expensive.
    EDIT: Some (a few) people have had success putting the drive (sealed very well in a plastic baggy) in the freezer overnight and then quickly putting it in an external enclosure and getting the data off it that way.
    Message was edited by: WZZZ

  • Flashing folder with question mark only on sartup.

    Flashing folder with question mark only on sartup. Won't recognise ANY startup key commands (tried different keyboards) and won't recognise OSX startup disk. Any ideas??

    The first thing I'd do is look at the silver side of the SL installation disc and check for finger prints or scratches and gently clean the disc with a lint free cloth. Also, instead of formatting the hard drive it would be worth deleting the partition(s) and repartitioning.

  • Flashing folder with question mark on screen

    flashing folder with question mark on screen

    This is the first time I have joined the support forum for MacBook - I tried the after Power Off - then while you turn it back on again your hold the "Command + R" - This has worked for some people - this was obtained on YouTube - see www.youtube.com/watch?v=flv2ebQMMtE.  This however, did not work for me.  I remember having a problem with my PC a few years ago - when I experienced something like this on it.  I fixed it by taking out the battery.  I was going to check the cable between the hard drive and the motherboard to make sure it was secure.  I removed the Battery on my MacBook - blew it off, and put it back in again and surprisingly it booted up normally.  Thanked the Lord for the quick fix.  Back to Normal. 

  • Netboot will not working, getting globe, then flashing folder with question mark.

    I just created a netboot image which went off without any problems.  I copied the two .nbi folders to my NetBootSP0 folder, and enabled them within netboot.  My OS X server which is my netboot server and dhcp server.  When I boot using N or Option N, I get the flashing globe for several seconds, the request goes through to the server and gets ACK {SELECT} however a few more seconds after, I get the flashing folder and question mark before it does a normal boot.  I have read the other posts about DHCP and Subnets.  My server and and clients are all 255.255.0.0.  Any suggestions would be very helpful as I need this to work for several buildings. 

    This might work for some:
         I had the same problem of the netboot image not mounting/opening, spinning globe then booting back to the Mac HD on the client and it was only when I remembered that we had manually experimented with jumbo frame rates and the MTU settings for our 32TB RAID in the Hardware settings for Ethernet ports on our servers. I turned the settings back to "Automatic" and 1000baseT on, then the whole NetInstall and Neboot was working perfectly again.

  • Flashing folder with question mark, apple logo, and do not enter symbol

    someone please help.
    i just took my imac to the apple centre and they erased everyhting and reset everything, and now it has just asked me to restart it so i did and now im stuck on flashing apple logo, flashing folder with quesiton mark inside, and a "do not enter" sort of symbol.
    please please please help, i cant go back to apple as i spent so much money already!

    Lion and Mtn Lion don't come on disks (the USB flash, AFAIK, is no longer available). You could boot into the recovery mode and reinstall. Details in Recovery and About Lion Recovery. Also, see the Internet Recovery.

  • Grey Screen with Flashing Folder with Question Mark

    Hi,
    I need some help with an issue I'm having on my Mid-2012 Macbook Pro (13"; OSX 10.9.2; 8GB RAM).  I've had issues with this Macbook for the past year.  I've worked with Apple Support and had it into the Mac Store prior to the warranty expiring (Dec 2013).  I have the exact same model with all of the same specs that my employer purchased at the same time for work as my work computer, and I haven't had any issues with that one.
    Previously, the system would slow down excessively and eventually start hanging. Occasionally the screen would start flashing.  Apple phone support had me wipe the hard drive and re-install the OS and all of my file, apps, and setting from my Time Machine backup.  That worked for about four months, and then it started again. Since it was getting close to the warranty expiration, I took it to an Apple Store. They ran a bunch of diagnostics, said the hardware was all fine but the OS needed to be re-installed.  They did that in early Dec, and everything was cool again until about three days ago.  Three days ago, it started slowing down and freezing again (even when doing non-memory intensive tasks such as broswing the web with only a couple of tabs open and no other applications open).  Last night, it froze hard and wouldn't shut down, so I had to cold boot it.  When I tried to power it back on, it came to the grey screen with the flashing folder with the question mark (which I know means it can't find the boot sector).  I waited until this morning, and it stil wouldn't boot. I then rebooted into Startup Manager, and the HDD was there. I selected the HDD, and it booted fine and ran fine for a couple of hours (I was able to do a Time Machine backup).  Then it froze up solid again. I waited for an hour or so before cold booting (don't like doing that), and when I tried rebooting, I got the flashing folder with the question mark. I tried booting into the Startup Manager again, but this time, my HDD wasn't listed. I then booted into the OSX Recovery utility (CMD R on boot), went into the Disk Utility hoping to do a disk repair, but my HDD wasn't listed. I have an external SATA to USB adapter, so I pulled the HDD, hooked it to a USB port on my other (identical except it doesn't have problems) Macbook Pro.  Once my other Macbook booted, the HDD from the bad Macbook Pro showed up fine.  I ran a verify and repair disk on the HDD from the bad Macbook, and it didn't show any issues.
    So I figured I'd be really brave. I took the HDD from the bad Macbook Pro and put it in my work (good) Macbook Pro (I took the HDD out of my working work Macbook Pro).  It booted fine.  I then did the verify and repair disk (again no errors) and verify and repair permissions (it found a few, but no more than it has in the past). I ran it that way for about an hour with no issues. That led me to believe that the HDD for my personal Macbook was fine, and it must be an issue with the SATA cable or the mainboard. 
    Here's where it gets odd.  I put the HDD from my work Macbook Pro into the bad Macbook Pro thinking it wouldn't even recognize it.  It did recognize it, and it booted fine.  I ran it like that for about 30 minutes.  It did have a couple of short freeze ups, but it didn't lock up solid. I didn't want to push my luck and possibly damage the HDD for my work Macbook, so I shut down the bad Macbook Pro ended the experiment at that point.
    I put the original HDD back in the Macbooks where they originally came from. I then ran the Apple Hardware Test (press and hold D on startup) on the bad Macbook Pro; I did the extended testing option. It ran for about an hour, but it didn't find any issues with the bad Macbook Pro. 
    I put the HDD from the bad Macbook back in my working Macbook and wiped the disk and reinstalled OSX from a Time Machine Backup from last week (before the problems occured).  Put it back in the bad Macbook and still no luck. Finally I tried resetting the PRAM because I saw that as one of the options on this discussion board. 
    I've searched and read everything I can find related to this, but I can't find anything that works, and I'm at my wits end.  Can anyone point me in a direction of what might be wrong and what else to try?
    Thanks!
    Mike

    You performed thorough and methodical troubleshooting, and this appears to be the most important result:
    I put the HDD from my work Macbook Pro into the bad Macbook Pro thinking it wouldn't even recognize it.  It did recognize it, and it booted fine.  I ran it like that for about 30 minutes.  It did have a couple of short freeze ups, but it didn't lock up solid.
    Given compatible hardware, you ought to be able to swap hard disk drives in exactly that manner, so it shouldn't surprise you that it worked. However, installing the "known good" HDD in the problem machine should not have resulted in any freeze-ups at all.
    You can conclude the hard disks (both of them) are serviceable and whatever fault exists probably lies elsewhere. Often the SATA cable is damaged or not seated properly, and is likely to fail more than anything on the logic board. Inspect the logic board's SATA connections and make sure there are no contaminants or damage. The two drives and two logic boards are going to have slightly different component tolerances, so perhaps the defective one is simply exceeding some limit.
    Apple Hardware Test is very cursory and essentially tests for the presence of operable hardware. It is far from an exhaustive test, and only a report of a failure can be relied upon for accuracy. For a more thorough test you would need to have Apple evaluate it using the time-consuming Apple Service Diagnostics. Even then, they may come up without a clue, and eventually someone will suggest a logic board replacement which can be expensive.
    It is an unusual problem, and I don't know how much time Apple would invest in diagnosing it before they conclude you really ought to buy a new Mac instead. They might surprise you though in that a "depot repair", if yours is eligible, is a very cost effective option so consider it.
    Given your ability you might also consider purchasing a replacement logic board from PowerbookMedic, or even sending it to them for a flat rate repair.

  • A flashing folder with question mark

    Dear all,
    I have a rather strange problem with my  MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011). Whenever I start my computer I see a flashing folder with a question mark. I know this is supposed to be a common problem wich can be usually solved by the solution provided by Apple support (http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440) However, my issue is different. Here is how it all started: I wanted to install Windows using bootcamp. The installer complained that my hard disk was corrupted and that I need to repair it using the recorvery HD. When I tried, I was asked to provide the firmware password. Since I did not have it ( I wrote it it on a piece of paper that I did not have access to at the moment), I went back and restarted my in target mode so I can back up my documents on another mac. Unfortunatelly, after restarting in target mode, I was asked to provide the firmare password again. When I finally got the password, my computer restarted with a flashing folder with a question mark. I have tried all troubleshooting available on the internet and nothing seems to work. Some people thing that I need to replace my internal HD cable. However, how can this be? I didn't mess up with my hard disk at all. During the troubleshooting, I used a bootable hard-drive, and notice that I could no longer see my HD in the list of available hard-driver. It is like it is completely gone. Can someone please suggest any solution? Please keep in mind that I live thousands of miles away from any Apple store. I can't get any official support. I have to fix this myself.
    Thanks for your assistance.

    You very well may be having a problem with a faulty SATA cable - go to www.ifixit.com and search for your model number and the part number of the cable. Then go to eBay and search for the part number. You'll find a cable much less expensive on eBay than from ifixit.
    You won't know unless you try!
    Clinton

  • Gray screen, flashing folder with question mark

    My macbook pro was working normal in the afternoon...  I closed the computer lid and returned a couple hours later to a gray screen & flashing folder with a question mark.  When I hold the option key down at startup I only get an internet recovery mode.  I plugged in my airport time capsule and was able to boot from it.  I used disc utility check and everything checked out ok.  I used my ESET NOD32 Antivirus and it checked out ok.  Finally, I went to start up disc and restarted my computer from the Mac HD.  This also worked without problem.  Afterwards I disconnected my airport capsule and restarted the computer as a final test.  Unfortunately I am back to the flashing folder with a question mark.  What do I do?

    See:
    A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
    Seems like your disk is failling.

  • Macbook crashed : Flashing folder with question mark (noise on hard drive)

    My macbook (intel core duo) just crashed a few days ago. This is what it's doing:
    The screen displays a a flashing folder with a question mark. I did find an article in apple for that : http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042
    But the think is, it (macbook) turns off after a while. I did try to boot up with the installation CD, but it can't find my hard drive. So, I thought it must be a hard drive problem. And I could hear that the hard drive makes a noisy sound. So, before I run to bestbuy or futureshop to get a new hard drive, I wanna make sure that it's really the hard drive that went kaput!
    I was trying to install the leopard. It just crashed when I went surfing, and editing on iMovie.

    I have a MacBook 13" Core 2 Duo, 160GB HHD, 2GB memory. My hard drive appeared to "crash" a few days ago. Whenever I pressed the power button, I would eventually get a grey screen with a folder with a "?" in front of the folder icon. I decided to re-install OS X thinking this would resolve the issue. During the install process, I would eventually get to the point where I am asked which drive to install OS X. The computer didn't recognize the internal hard drive. I do have an external hard drive for backups and the computer did recognized this one (WD MyBook).
    I have since bought a new internal hard drive (Seagate 200GB 7200RPM 2.5" Mobile with Shock guard), installed it and went through the process of re-installing OS X. Again, the computer doesn't recognize the new internal hard drive. And again, the external hard drive is recognized.
    For the time being I've installed OS X in the external hard drive. But now I have a new internal hard drive but is useless since the computer will not recognize it.
    Anyone installed a new internal hard drive and experience the same thing as I have? Anyone with possible solutions or any advice you can offer?
    Thanks.

  • Flashing Folder with question mark when turning on

    My friend was running MacScan. All the sudden, it was blocked. He waited and nothing happened. He turned it off. Turned it back on, but nothing changed so he took the battery out. When he tried to turn it back on, there was nothing for about a minuted except the grey screen when it turns on until there was (and still is) a flashing folder with a question mark?
    What should he do?
    Thank you!
    Antoine

    Hi Antoine;
    Generally the flashing question mark in a folder at boot indicate that the Mac is not able to find a disk with a system on it. It usually indicates problems with the system disk. I would suggest you boot from the install media that came with the Mac. Then run Disk Utility from there to check out the disk.
    Allan

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