Blinking system folder
Hi. I'm a IT tech at a high school and I came across a teacher's computer. The system folder was blinking with a question mark at start up, so I used Diskwarrior 4.0, and managed to repair permissions. I also rebuilt the directory, and the program said directory successfully rebuilt. When I restarted the computer it booted from the cd again. I ejected the cd and restarted, but the blinking system folder with a question mark came up again. I then used a 10.1 install cd's disk utility to repair permissions, and everything seemed ok, until I restarted the computer again, and I get a blinking folder with a question mark. I then used a 10.2 install cd's disk utility to repair permissions, but the repair button was phased out. (I guess it could not see the hard drive) and it gave me an error when I checked the files and folders option. I finally used the Diskwarrior 4.0 again, but when I tried to rebuild the directory for a second time it gave me this error:
'The directory of the disk "unknown disk" cannot be rebuilt. The original directory is too severely damaged. The disk was not modified. If you report this error, please mention the error code (2155,-57).'
Is there anyway to access the files on this hard drive or is it totally gone?
Would Diskwarrior 3.0 help?
If anyone can assist me in this matter, it would be greatly appreciated.
Btw, the computer is an imac G3 crt 500mhz indigo slotloading powerpc with a 10.2.8 operating system.
Thanks in advance,
Rayan
Try a new hard drive. Takeapart for swapping drives - slot load is a good pictorial if you have never replaced a drive in one of these machines.
'Bet it's a failed drive. It's showing all the usual exasperating symptoms.
David
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Apple sign is blinking during boot process, probably deleted system folder
Hi,
I have probably deleted the system folder. System does not boot anymore. Display shows only blinking apple.
Do I have to reinstall Max OS X?
..hope someone can help me as mac-world new joiner.
Cu
mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.7)Welcome to Apple Discussions!
If the system doesn't find a valid MacOS installation to boot from, you'll see a flashing question mark on screen.
Deleting MacOS itself is not all that easy since MacOS knows it's not a good thing! If you aren't sure you've done this, try booting with the Option key held down (it's marked as the Alt key on PC keyboards) and this will take you to a screen showing you any available boot volumes in, or connected to the system. If your internal drive is showing, select it and boot, then go to the startup disk preference and select the drive to make sure it boots from that correctly next time.
If the internal drive doesn't appear, then yes, you've lost your MacOS. Insert the original install disk which came with the system and boot with the C key held down. Run Disk Utilities and check the internal drive for permissions errors and problems (the repair permissions and repair Disk buttons) respectively. If all is well and the system still doesn't reboot, run the installer from the original install disk and do an Archive and Install, which will retain your data and just create a new copy of MacOS.
If your dive is reported to have problems that Disk Utilities can't repair, you will probably need to do an Erase and Install, which will reform the drive (thus loose your data) and install a completely fresh copy of MacOS, returning the system to out-of-the-box condition. -
15" MacbWhite screen with a blinking file folder icon with a question mark on it.
15" Macbook. When i power on all I get is white screen with a blinking file folder icon with a question mark on it.N
You may have a bad hard drive. The flashing folder with the ? indicates that the system cannot find your hard drive. Use the installation disc that came with your machine. Insert it into the disc drive and restart the machine holding down the "C" key . When the restart shows the Apple screen you can release the C keyWhen the installation screen appears, click on the utilities button. Does the left side of the disc utilities screen show your HD? If not, then your HD is bad or it could be a loose connection. ifixit.com has a good tutorial on how to replace the HF in the Macbook. Follow the instructions to remove your HD. Reinstall your HD and boot up your machine to see if it recognizes your HD. If it does't, you probably will need to replace your HD>
Is your machine still under warranty? If so, take it to your nearest Apple Store for repairs as the repairs will be covered under your warranty. If you bought AppleCare when you bought your computer your warranty is for three years. If you didn't buy the Apple Care, then your warranty is only good for one year from the date of purchase. -
What does a blinking file folder with a question mark indicate?
What does a blinking file folder with a question mark indicate? I cannot get past it or do anything with the unit.
glamiera wrote:
What does a blinking file folder with a question mark indicate?
That's the firmware telling you it can't find the operating system it's been assigned to boot from.
It could be because it forgot somehow, or the operating system is no longer there or readable or the hardware holding the operating system has failed.
Hold the power button to force a hardware shutdown, then reboot holding the option/alt key held down on the wired or built in keyboard, icons will hopefully load on the screen and if OS X appears, click the arrow to boot from it.
Once in OS X, head to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select your boot drive so it can remind the firmware.
If there is no OS X boot volume, just recovery or Bootcamp (if Windows installed) then you need to perform more work.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
To get a copy of your files off the drive.
Step by Step to fix your Mac
To fix your machine and find out (hardware test) if it's a hardware issue of some sort. -
My MacBook Air has a blinking file folder icon on a blank screen with a ? In the middle of the icon. I've tried turning my computer off and on three times with no luck. Any recommendations on how to fix the problem?
Reinstall OS X 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. -
Blinking grey folder icon with question mark on boot
Hi. Just got my system from the Apple Service center where they have reinstalled a new hard disk for me.
When I come home, and start the machine, it shows me a blinking grey folder icon with a question mark in it.
Only thing I can do in this screen is switch off the power. But when I reboot, it shows me the same icon again.
With google, I discovered that if while rebooting I press the OPTION key, then it boots me into the firmware password mode. How can I automate this? I do not want to have to always boot the laptop with Option key pressed.
Thanks for any pointers.That question mark means that your machine can't find a drive with a system installed to boot from. Sounds as if the techs didn't install a system when they replaced the drive... do you still have the installation disc(s) that your MBP might have come with?
Clinton -
Startup = blinking file folder icon?
After waking my Intel iMac from sleep mode I selected "Mail" too quickly and got the spinning beach ball for a while. I put the iMac back to sleep, woke it, same problem. I turned it off using the off button on the back of the iMac, because I was unable to turn it off using the menu option. When I turned it back on I got a blank screen for about a minute, then a blinking gray icon of a small (1 inch) file folder. HELP! This reminds me of the old days of system conflicts.
From what you say, it looks like the hard drive has dead. The blinking file folder appears when your Mac doesn't find any bootable volume.
The best you can do now is to take the Mac to an Apple Store or reseller and get your hard drive repaired or replaced. I hope that you have a backup of your files -
10.4 Blinking Question Folder/No Valid Packages
From what I have seen this is probably a mute point, but I was hoping for some help.
My computer turned back on and loaded to the blinking question mark folder. I loaded from the OSX installation disks and went to disk utilities. Under first aid my only option was to verify (the other three options were greyed out). When I selected to verify it gave me a message it could no continue because of no valid packages. Apple has up a fix on this no valid packages issue, however, it requires you to be able to get into your computer, which I can't do due to the blinking question mark folder. Is my one year, one month old, perfectly cared for macbook harddrive crashed? or is there something else to try?
ThanksYou have corrupted system files which is why you get the question mark at startup. The solution is to reinstall OS X which coincidentally will also fix the packages problem. This latter problem occurs because you have deleted your /Library/Receipts folder or its content. This is a definite no-no.
You can try reinstalling this way:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) 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, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) 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. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update. -
Blinking ? Folder at startup--PLEASE HELP!
I have a G3 iMac (500Mhz, 64M memory) that I purchased from our school when they went to all PC's. I believe that it came out in last 2001.
Mine is working fine, but I'm trying to fix another teacher's. Her computer won't start up. All I get is the blinking question mark and folder.
I replaced the battery. No luck.
I've reset PRAM. No luck.
I purchase the original system CD's off the internet and I CAN get it to book from the Software Install CD.
I've reblessed the system folder (even though it appeared to already be blessed) and hoped that would fix the issue. No such luck. I have the CD's that I COULD reinstall the system with. But I'd like to be able to save the programs and data first. Many of the programs are educational ones (from the school) that I don't have install discs for.
I can't even try to burn the applications folder to CD's (assuming that this computer will write to CD), because I can only get it to boot with the system CD, so the CD drive is always occupied.
Any suggestions on getting this to boot from the internal system folder without having to do a clean install? Or a way of "rescuing" my current programs/data?
I don't currently have it hooked up to the internet (working on it in my living room), but I could if I had to. I guess I could figure out a way to daisy chain it to MY iMac and somehow copy over the necessary files (to the working computer) and then move them back afterwards. Is this possible? What cables would I need and would it even work?
I also have a G4 Powerbook if there's anything that I can do from there. I'm hesitant to hook it to my new computer, because I once made the mistake of plugging my flashdrive into my OS 9.2 iMac and it populated it with tons of Finder files."Blinking folder icons at start up are always an indication of a hard disk problem."
Not always. See the following Knowledge Base Article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31355 Mac OS: Flashing Globe When Computer Turns On or A folder that has an alternating flashing question mark -
Blinking file folder question mark on start up!
My mac was working fine I shut it down because the mouse froze like it does some time. It turned back on with a white screeen and and a blinking file folder with a question mark on it and stays that way until it shuts down! Its a white screen behind it and it makes the start up noise. What is going on and how can I fix it? I already kept it off for a while then took out the battery.. any other suggestions?
I got this same message after using Disk Utilities to create a new partition formatted in FAT 32, booting from my windows XP CD, reformatting that partition to NTFS, and installing Windows XP on that partition. (So I can dual-boot without using Boot Camp Beta, which is expired)
I worked around it just fine by holding the "alt" key when booting, which (after entering my firmware password) allows me to select the boot partition. It's like I somehow selected "Neither" for my default startup disk.
It's possible that your problem goes beyond this.
By the way, in my Windows reformat, I did end up deleting several 200 MB partitions that appeared on my drive...it looked like this:
(partition) (size) (name) (file format)
Partition 1: 198 MB [unknown empty
Partition 2: 250000 MB [Windows FAT32
Partition 3: 202 MB [unknown empty
partition 4: 850000 MB [Unknown unknown
this one is formatted in the mac file system, but XP (of course) doesn't
recognize it....
partition 5: 201 MB [unknown empty
Anybody know what's going on here? I sucessfully merged the first three from the XP cd, but I don't know what's up with Disk Utility and why it leaves these spaces after partitioning..... -
The system is OSX10.5.8 Leopard on a 2009 imac. A new system was installed from the installation disks and the original system saved to a folder.
I need to use my Adobe programs, rescue my email, i-tunes and iphoto data. The disk utility indicates that my Time Machine back-up disk is damaged and I don't want to take a risk of having Time Machine erase my hard drive and try to reinstall the exact system existing at the time of the crash. There was over 650 gb of stored files that I was copying and removing from the drive at the time it crashed. The total size of the original system file is still about 650 Gb.
I would prefer to go back in Time Machine and only rescue the programs as most of the files have been copied to external hard drives, but I can't access the back-up hard drive from the new version of the Time Machine. Or by I don't want the Time Mchine to start copying the new operating system which would include all the data in the old system file. Time Machine was working fine at the time of the crash.No, the disk was backed up with time machine a few hours prior to the crash. I was unable to open the computer when I tried to restart it- got a grey screen with the spinning disk- after a few minutes the screen would go black and would reboot continuously, but not load any images or programs. I started the computer from the 10.5.4 installation disks and checked both the time machine external hard drive and the Imac internal drive with the disk utilities. Both showed as damaged --the internal drive and permissions were repaired, but the external drive (time machine back-up) was damaged and not repairable by disk utilities. I don't believe that the external drive for Time Machine was connected to the computer at the time of the crash as I was copying files to a different hard drive drive. And I was not having any problems with the TM back-up drive prior to the crash.
I accessed the Imac internal disk by firewire (as a target disk) and copied as many data files as I had room for on my external hard drives available. And I deleted quite a few files from the imac internal drive (mostly just jpegs, duplicate tifs, etc--nothing that was used by i-photos, i-tunes or the Mail program).
Then I installed a new OSX10.5.4 system from the installation disk and the old system was moved to a folder on the hard drive. I previousy had had the option to reinstall the complete system from Time Machine when I connected that drive and booted with the installation disks with the C key depressed. But it didn't seem like a good option because I was unsure of the condition of that external disk and whether it would be able to reinstall my data correctly, once it had erased my internal hard drive.
I'm considering buying some new external hard drives and backing up the present system to time Machine (so I'll still have my old data in the old system folder). And then I would try using the old Time Machine back-up to try to reinstall the sytem previous to the crash. That back-up would reinstall about 700gb of data and operating software and programs which sounds like a lengthy back-up. Since I have never used Time Machine to do a full reinstallation (I've only used it for individual files), I'm reluctant to do anything rash.
I'm a professional designer (with a deadline) but I can still use my Illustrator and Photoshop by opening them from the old system folder and saving the files to an external drive. So it's not neccessary to do anything hasty except to delete some of the excess art and document files that were causing the computer to run slowly and the Adobe programs to crash when I tried to save my work. I have quite a few books on tape in the i-tumes folder which is probably talking up tons of space but I don't where the i-tunes files live.
Thanks for any help. Peggy
Message was edited by: peggy toole -
System Folder errors after I changed all permissions on HD to read & write
Hi,
Two things may have caused probs on my new 2010 iMac (Snow Leopard), and Applecare is shut so I would really appreciate some help as I have urgent work.
1) INCORRECT PERMISSIONS
I have been stupid. I clicked on Macintosh HD and changed all permissions to read & write because I wanted to be sure I could open and edit all documents on other computers.
I ran Disk Utility Repair Permissions from the install disc, but I am still getting system error messages, and my HP printer won't work.
The first message, in Repair Permissions, said: Warning: SUID file System/Library/Cores has been modified and will not be repaired. I have read a support doc on this which says no need to worry but I don't like it and would like to fix this.
More importantly, my HP printer won't work, displays error beside the document in print dialogue box.
Deleting the printer and readding it didn't work, so I downloaded new drivers and tried to install them, which is when I got the second system error message: System extension System/Library/Extensions/BJUSBLoad.kext was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it or contact product's vendor for an update.
I checked the permissions on the file and they were still wrong despite Repair Permissions, allowing everyone to read & write. So I have now clicked on the entire System folder and changed the permissions to: System read & write, admin read only, everyone read only.
Will this fix it or do I need to do something else, such as check ownership, to make sure all permissions on the computer are now correct?
2) MEMORY STICK SHUT DOWN MY IMAC
Additionally (though I don't think this had anything to do with my problems), I inserted a Sandisk USB memory stick the other day and it immediately shut down the computer. When I inserted it into my Macbook it initially rejected it and gave me a message saying the device wanted too much power so it had ejected it to prevent damage to my computer. When I tried again it was OK. I totally reformatted the stick in case there was something harmful on it, but should I now bin the stick as faulty? Scared to use it again.
3) IS IT BEST TO REINSTALL ENTIRE SOFTWARE?
If I do a reinstall of all the software from the install disc, will it wipe out all my data, such as Mail, documents, bookmarks and other apps?
I would back-up, but if I try and back up files on my external drive it will automatically do a Time Machine back-up and I don't want to do that in case it backs-up all the corrupted files. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind starting again just to be sure all is well.
Expert advice would be very much appreciated.
Thank you
SarahOh, silly really. I was in a hurry and working on docs that I needed to take to the office and open on another computer there.
But when I checked the permissions on the doc it said I could read & write but everyone else was read only.
I thought if I opened it on another machine I'd be stuck with read only access and not be able to work on there. I think I couldn't change it, so I thought to avoid any future problems like that I would change everything on machine!
Yikes. Won't do that again
Sarah -
OS 9.2.2 system folder not recognised in tiger
Hi,
I'm a bit lost here. I'm trying to get Classic to run in OS X 10.4.11. which has no previous copy of OS9 on it. The OS X was a clean install.
I installed a copy of OS9.1 onto a USB dongle and then managed to boot the G3 through this and install OS 9.2.1 and then 9.2.2. It had to be installed on the dongle so that I could boot the iMac into OS9 and then install the updates.
Now, when I start Classic from System Preferences it will find the OS 9.2.2 system folder on the dongle and quite happily run, but it is obviously a lot slower than if the system folder was on the OS X HD.
So I copied the contents of the USB dongle to the root of the OS X HD and now it will not find the folder.
Do I need to do anything to enable the OS9 folder now it is on my hard disk. I thought maybe the disk is formatted differently if it is set up exclusively for OS X when carrying out a clean install.
Interestingly, the machine found my OS9.1 system folder on the HD and tried to run Classic from that, but it just hung on start-up which is a known error between OS 9.1 and Tiger - Hence why I updated from 9.1 to 9.2.2Don't worry. I've managed to resolve it.
I restored my OS9.1 system folder and then copied the contents of the 9.2.2 folder into this. Classic picked it up and work fine.
The only problem is that now I have discovered that iMovie 2 is not supported in a Classic environment. That was the only reason I was attempting this anyway.
Oh well.... -
How to open local system folder from the browser
Hi All,
I'm working on some stuff, wherein the user downloads the files from internet to his local machine. I'm able to catch the path of the folder where user wants to download the file from SaveAs prompt. Now my requirement is , i want to provide a link button or
a button on the web page and assign this is folder path dynamically so that when the user clicks on it, it should open the local system folder where he has downloaded the files.
string myDocspath
=Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
string windir
= Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("WINDIR");
System.Diagnostics.Process prc
= new System.Diagnostics.Process();
prc.StartInfo.FileName = windir + @"\explorer.exe";
prc.StartInfo.Arguments = myDocspath;
prc.Start();
Work fine with local system, if i host the application in IIS , the above code snippet wont work
Thanks in advance,
Suraj Kumar
Software EngineerHello,
local resources is disabled in all modern browsers due to security restrictions.
if the reply help you mark it as your answer.
Free No OLE C#
Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint Component(Create,
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System folder no longer recognized! Please Help!
Hello,
I'm usually able to handle all my mac related problems, but this time I'm stumped. I'm writing this from my old ibook, as my main iMac is now very sick.
Essentially, my system folder is not recognized anymore. I get the flashing "?" symbol at start-up. So I start with the Apple CD. Disk utilty diagnosis: no problem at all, all permissions alright.
I set the start-up folder to the one on my main HD and restart. It works.
But as soon as I have to restart again, same problem.
So I tried the old trick of resetting the start-up disk in the system prefs. No help.
(((I'm writing now because things went from bad to worse. After restarting with the CD 10 mins ago, I went to Disk Utility and discovered that the main HD is not even recognized. -- But while I was typing this, after another CD restart, the HD finally appeared in Disk Utility. Some problem were found and fixed. Restarting now.)))
So, can anyone offer some advice?
Thanks
LoaDoesn't sound good. FIrst, back it up if you possibly can.
Then boot from your Leopard install disk (insert it, boot while holding the "C") key.
Once it starts, choose your language, then select Utilities from the top menubar, then +Disk Utilitiy+ and do a +Repair Disk.+
Then try again.
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