Blinking question mark upon start up

When I turn on the computer there is a folder symbol with a question mark in the middle. It just blinks and wont do anything else. Anybody know what that means? Thanks

Check through these documents.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
One of them has the answer to your problem
I post all of these so you bookmark them for later reference and better understand how to troubleshoot/repair.
(also because I'm lazy )

Similar Messages

Intermittent Blinking Question Mark at Start-Up

I've read a number of postings about the blinking question mark problem during start-up, but this one is different -- its intermittent. By that I mean that sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Here is the chronology:
- Student comes home for Spring Break and requests me to connect her to our wireless network.
- I enter network name and PW. It gets connected, but the spinning rainbow wheel won't stop spinning. So eventually I re-start --> first time I've ever seen the blinking question mark. System won't start on multiple tries. Student says 'yeah, that's been happening for a while. Just wait a while and it will be OK.' I've never seen an intermittent problem like this.
- Took iBook to the Genius Bar at local Apple Store
- Genius gets it to start up on first try, amazing me. He didn't do any trick, just pushed the power button. But he did plug the AC adapter in as he was trying to boot it. (more on this later) How can this be??
- Genius does some kind of test on the Hard Drive and pronounces it OK. Says problem must be software-related.
- I mention that Student didn't bring home her 10.3.X Disk Utilities/Restore disk.
- I mention I've got 10.4 Family Pack, but haven't had time to load it on any of our Macs. Genius recommends doing Archive Install, then use 10.4 disk to run Disk Utilities to check Permissions etc.
- I load 10.4 and then run Disk Utilities. The start-up disk is already properly identified, no need to re-select the internal HD Sys X. But sure enough, some of the Permissions needed repair and were fixed. Problem seems solved, system runs fine for 3 days.
- Student goes back to college. Today she reports that the blinking question mark is back, but now she can't run Disk Utilities because I still have the 10.4 disk at home, and her 10.3 disk won't work anymore.
I should also mention: Student has been having short battery re-charge life. Checked the Apple Website and realized that her battery S/N is covered under the free replacement program. Today she received the new battery and installed it, and then when she re-started, that's when the blinking question mark showed up again. Could there be a connection between the power supply and the blinking question mark?
What to do? Any ideas welcomed. Student wants new computer, I say not so fast.....
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Assuming that you get the flashing question mark for extended periods of time (i.e. not just one or two flashes and then it boots), and repeatedly (i.e. it takes several power cycles to boot the system), I'd recommend a couple of steps:
1) Run the Disk Utility -> Repair Disk option while booted off CD. This will check and repair common disk problems that can cause this kind of issue
2) Reset the parameter RAM (PRAM) to reset the system settings (Command-Option-P-R as you power on)
3) When this happens, hold down the option key as you power up the system. this will offer a list of available boot drives. Check that your boot drive is available.
4) If all else fails, backup - soon, and be prepared to replace the hard drive. This might sound drastic but I'd had a number of laptops die through failed drives. This option is especially true if you're experiencing other unexplained problems such as hangs and crashes while running the machine.

Gray screen (sometimes blinking question mark) at start up

My husband was using my beloved Macbook last night & said that while surfing Facebook, all of Firefox locked up & the spinning wheel thing (like it was thinking) made it imposbbile for him to do anything. Rather than doing ctrl + option + esc (or w/e it is....I can do it with my hands quickly but can't think right now) to quit Firefox, he just held down the power button to shut the whole thing down. He said that when he turned it back on, it was doing the blinking question mark thing.
This morning (not having known what happened last night), I started it up & was confused by the blinking question mark. I asked him about it & then got the whole story. I turned it off & let it chill all day while I was at work. And now every time I start it up it's alternating between just being a gray screen or sometimes if I leave it long enough, it turns to the flashing question mark again.
I have done the restart & press option thing & nothing happened. Did a restart & pressed shift & nothing happened.
The only thing I've done & seen anything from resetting my PRAM & NVRAM (http://http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379) & even then, after the 2nd restart when it says to let go, nothing different happened. Still the gray screen!!!
Help!! I am a computer junkie & have loved my MacBook for 4 years. I put in a new harddrive (I wanted a bigger, better one) a couple years ago, but could that be it? I need to know more tests I can do.
PS - I don't have the right startup disc because I upgraded using my brother-in-law's & he lives 7 hours away. So I can't just pop in my start up disc. Any other suggestions???

In addition to above advice, here is an Apple article with some troubleshooting suggestions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Note that you will need your install disk. If you do not have it, you can call Apple; if you give them your serial number, they should be able to send you copies for a nominal charge.
PS - I don't have the right startup disc because I upgraded using my brother-in-law's & he lives 7 hours away. So I can't just pop in my start up disc. Any other suggestions???
If your Macbook meets the system requirements for Snow Leopard, you might want to consider buying that (available for $29 or less) rather than using someone else's disks which violates Apple's SLA.

Flashing File Icon with Question Mark Upon Start-Up

Today when I went to use my computer (which was already on) it went blank and then came up with a gray screen with a flashing file icon with a question mark in the middle of it. I have already troubleshot things with several forums online and nothing has worked. I have tried to restart in Safe mode, single user mode, verbose mode, and tried to get on using my option key which got me to an internet login screen finally. I tried to log in and eventually got to an apply.com/support screen with -1007f underneath. I am not 100% which operating system I am on. I know that it is Mac OS X and pretty recent. Please respond if you can help!

Reset the SMC and PRAM
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
About NVRAM and PRAM
To boot from DVD:
Press C during startup
Start up from a bootable CD, DVD, or USB thumb drive (such as OS X install media).

G4 shows folder with blinking question mark on start up

I bought my son a used G4. It worked well. We noticed it had 2 hard drives and only one was hooked up. We plugged in the second one, rebooted it and it will not load X, 4.2. Tiger. It worked fine before so we unplugged the second hard drive plugged in the first on as before and we have the same problem. I have tried to boot from the install disc but it will only let me verify the drive not to repair it. Help please.

Look at A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042
If two drives are installed, the jumpers on one must be located for Master & the jumpers on the second drive located for Slave. There should be a label on the drives showing the proper jumper locarions.
 Cheers, Tom

Blinking question mark folder upon startup on a 2 month old Pro?

Hi I had the grey screen on my macbook pro. I tried reinstalling maverick os x, but my wifi connection got interrupted and so did the download. I now have the blinking question mark folder upon start up. What can I do since I know it's probably not a hard-drive problem?

Startup Issues - Resolve
Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

Mbpro won't start up- get blinking question mark folder

help!!! think my macbook pro (1st gen, 17") has died- i get a blinking question mark folder when i boot up.
it's been having problems for a long while, so use it generally to record movies- which a bunch are still on there to export.
is there a resolve for this? would a new harddrive get it up and working again?
hoping i can recover the harddrive to get data, but ok without it. just want it working again if possible.
thanks for the help!

The symptom you describe is usually a HDD problem or it could be an internal cable/connection problem. If you have an external bootable HDD, employ it and see if you can access the internal HDD via Disk Utility and run First Aid.
Ciao.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
The above article may be useful.
Message was edited by: OGELTHORPE

The Dreaded Blinking Question Mark

About a month ago I started having a recurring problem of the computer freezing upon waking from sleep.
Each time I restarted it by holding the power button, and each time I would get the blinking question mark over the folder.
I replaced the PRAM battery and it didn't fix the problem.
I bought the latest version of Disc Warrior, ran it and it said that everything was fine. Still the problem persisted.
Finally, I popped in the Apple utility disc and it said that there were problems with the disc, but didn't fix them.
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Wake from sleep problems are on the MDD are common when USB PCI cards are installed. If you've installed such a card, try disconnecting everything from it and see if things get better.
If your PRAM battery is more than three years old, or your computer has been unplugged from the wall for extended periods, you should replace the battery.

Blinking question mark folder, new hard drive

Okay so I've been having this problem for a couple weeks now. My computer was running a bit slowly when I was watching videos online, and it froze so I forced a shut down. It turned back on and it worked for a couple minutes, but then it froze again and when I attempted to reset it I got the scary blinking question mark. I went through all the options to fix it, but the computer could not find my hard drive. When I tried to repair disk no hard drive came up, and when I tried to re-install ios x it also could not find a hard drive. I confirmed that the hard drive had died so I purchased a new one, but now that a new one is installed I cannot re-install ios x because the computer won't read the disc. Under the utilities menu it shows that the disc is there, but it just won't re-install.
I checked on another computer and confirmed that the disc still works. I put it in my computer upon start up and got no response from the machine. Instead of getting the blinking question mark, the screen just stays gray.
My computer is a 2012 macbook pro. The disc I had to buy online because it did not come with my computer, and has OS version 10.5.2 on it.
Thanks

Hello,
A mid 2012 MBP should still be covered under AppleCare!?
Anyway, that MBP won't boot/use/run 10.5.anything, it came with...
Pre-Installed MacOS: X 10.7.3 (11D2515)
If you have an Apple Store nearby they can reinstall 10.7 or newer on it, 10.7 & up is only availble from a Download, not on Disc.

Blinking question mark on startup - tried lots of things - advice?

Hi,
A friend called me yesterday about a two year old iMac. Got the blinking question mark on startup. So I went over, tried disc utility, but disc utility (off the iMac's install disc) could not even see the hard drive. So I tried TechTool Pro. Same result. TechTool from AppleCare disc, same result, DriveGenius, same result, start up in single user mode, same result, targeted disc mode connected to my MBP, same result, Data Recovery II, same result, connected a Mac via FireWire and started up from that and ran those same diagnostics, same result. None of those could even find - much less repair - the hard drive. It still shows a blinking question mark. It seems like all the hardware is working fine (motherboard, display, etc), except the hard drive. Any advice?
Thanks!
Russ Conte

The machine must be a G5, or it would be older than 2 years. And no AppleCare or it would be in the shop before this. The most likely cause is hard drive failure, as already stated. A fact of life is that all hard drives will fail or have failed.
You can deal with this, providing you can handle a screwdriver. Go to the support area of the Apple Website and click "Manuals" instead of discussions where you are reading this. In the block "search manuals" type "Imac Hard Drive". The next step is to select the instructions for correct machine, and download.
Cost of replacement drives depends upon capacity. One source is macsales.com.
A new drive will have to be formatted. Easy to do prior to installation by connecting to any Mac with a Universal Drive Adapter via a USB connection. That adapter is also available at macsales and other places.
Final step after installation is to install the OS hopefully from the original disks.
Good luck to you.

Blinking question mark folder with only OS X base system left

Yesterday I turned my laptop on to see a blinking question mark folder. I searched through a lot of people questions with the same problem however mine is not the same because I only have the OS X base system left. I can't redownload the OS X lion because there is nothing to download it after I chose the option to redownload it. I see that most people have the Macintosh HD but I don't have anything like that.
disk1
Mac OS X Base System
that's all I see when I try the repair option?

Have you tried booting to your Recovery HD (if you are running Lion or Mountain Lion?) If not and if you were running Lion or Mountain Lion, then:
Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by:
Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD:
Boot From The Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

My iMac has a blinking question mark folder on it and won't let me boot.

I have a late 2009 27 inch iMac whos hardrive failed a while back. A couple days ago i decided to pop in a new hard drive in it, the same brand, just different capacity. I wanted to put windows on it, and tried to boot it with pressing c on the keyboard at startup but encountered a few problems.
When i power on my imac the screen is just a blank white screen for about 20-30 seconds. During this time, any devices plugged into the USB ports do not work. My mouse is not lit up, and my keyboard will not react to pressing caps lock, num lock etc. After that 20-30 second period the folder with the blinking question mark on it pops up. I tried holding C, as well as windows key and C but nothing seems to make the mac recognize i want it to boot from other devices.
The hard drive i installed is empty (obviously) So i'm not sure if its an issue with the way I installed the hard drive (pretty sure i did it right) or another issue that may involve trying to put windows on it. Also worth noting is im using a normal USB mouse, and a normal USB keyboard, not mac devices. I'm willing to put OSX on this computer if its necessary to make it work, but right now all i can get on it is that white screen and then the blinking folder. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this?

Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
When formatting has completed quit Disk Utility and install OS X.

Folder with question mark at start up

Why a, I ratting a blinking folder with a question mark at start up. My MacBook will not open beyond that. Is it a ram issue?

That folder with the question mark icon means that the MacBook can't find the boot directory. That can either mean it can't find the hard drive or the Operating System data on the hard drive is somehow corrupted.
Put your install DVD into the optical drive and reboot. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option key until the Install Disk shows up). That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
When it does start up, you'llsee a panel asking you to choose your language. Just press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window. Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. When it comes up is your Hard Drive in the list on the left?
If it is then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

Can not get past blinking question mark after restarting in os 9

I have a ibook g3 clamshell 576mb ram 366mhz 30gb hd. I added the hard drive and upgraded the memory and then forgot to update the firmware before I installed os x tiger. So I keep getting kernal panics because the firmware is not upgraded. Like a fool when I upgraded to tiger I erased os 9 to free up more space thinking I would never use os 9 ever again anyway. Well the only way you can upgrade the firmware is to have os 9 installed so I copied os 9 system folder and applications from another ibook and transformed them to my ibook hd. I then clicked on the os 9 on the start up disk and tried to boot into os 9 so I could do the firmware update. Well now it will not boot past the blinking question mark. I guess there must of been some missing files? How do i get past the blinking question mark? Do I have to go and buy a copy of os 9 to reinstall it back on the ibook? Please help I am stuck here.

Don't think anyone will like the answer but this is how I did it. You have to put a os x cd in restart holding c and then follow through with the install. I used os x 10.0.3 then you have to do the same with a os 9 install disc and initialize disk image and then do the os 9 install download your firmware update and then reinstall the mac os x you are going to use. And for anybody out there a ibook g3 with an old airport card can connect to wep all you have to do is add a $ before your password works everytime. Hope this helps somebody. My only problem is after a downloaded the firmware update thats a .smi file evrytime I try to open it it says no application could open it. I thought .smi were self mounting image files. I never have used os 9 much and have no idea how to open this file. Can anybody give me a walk through on how to select a application to open this file so I can mount and install this firmware update.

I switched to the classic 'landscape' and when i reboot, it just stays at the greay screen, with the macintosh logo, and a blinking question mark. ive tried several methods of key combinations with rebooting etc.. i just bought this. please help.

i switched to the classic 'landscape' and when i reboot, it just stays at the greay screen, with the macintosh logo, and a blinking question mark. ive tried several methods of key combinations with rebooting etc.. i just bought this. please help.
I bought this off of craigslist with my christmas money, TODAY. i really need help, i have OS X experience from school, just not OS 9x. I need to reboot back to OS X asap. anything that may help is very appreciated. Thank You.
Chris.

Are you able to start up in Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455?viewlocale=en_US
If this works you will see the normal desktop Once completely started up in Safe Mode, try to restart normally and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Click on the top hard drive icon in the left sidebar and note the S.M.A.R.T. status at the bottom right of the pane. What does it say?
Select the named boot volume in the left sidebar, ("Macintosh HD" unless it has been renamed). What is the hard drive capacity and how much space remains available on it? Repair permissions on it.
See if you are able to do a little hard drive maintenance to help things out.

Blinking question mark upon start up

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