Disk Utility can't find my drive. What can I do to fix it?

I started my computer and there was a flashing folder with a question mark. I ran Disk Utility from the disk and it can't find my drive. What can I do to fix it?

Have had this happen on a few older Macs. For me it meant hard drive failure. If you have access to another Mac, you can boot up the flashing folder one while holding the "T". This puts the computer in "target" mode. If you have firewire 400 or 800 cables, patch the 2 computers together. If that flashing folder one is any good, it will show up on the desktop of the 2nd computer as a "firewire drive". You could also try to zap the PRAM by holding the command, option, R and P keys while turning the computer on. Hold keys until you hear the chime, hold it for a second chime and then release. sometimes this has worked for me on a computer that won't turn on at all.

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  • Can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X

    Dear friends,
    I have one ibook G4 and a Macbook Pro. Two days ago, the ibook G4 failed to start up, I tried in safe mode then pass through. Then I run Onyx-automation followed by restart, after that neither my desktop nor the sidebar of the finder window show the home drive icons,( I partitioned the internal hard disk into two drives). But when I run Disk utility and found both are there correctly, including the files and capacity, usage etc. it tested both drives "appears OK". Yesterday, I tried to reinstall O.S.X Tiger 10.4 without removing previous system via a firewire to my Macbook Pro which installed with Leopard( the disc drive of my ibookG4 corrupted last year).
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    V.K.
    Posts: 20,162
    From: Toronto
    Registered: Oct 24, 2005
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 2, 2009 6:58 PM in response to: cjunxing
    Reply Email
    what happens when you enter commandshiftc in finder? that should show all the drives. if it doesn't, maybe the drive has acquired the hidden flag. run the following command in terminal
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    cjunxing
    Posts: 9
    From: china
    Registered: Jul 8, 2008
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 2, 2009 7:11 PM in response to: V.K.
    Reply Email
    dear V.K.
    When I enter commandshiftc in finder, it only shows up "network", then I followed to input sudo chflags 0 / in terminal and password, but the drives still not show up.
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    Junxing
    macbook pro Mac OS X (10.5.4)
    V.K.
    Posts: 20,162
    From: Toronto
    Registered: Oct 24, 2005
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 2, 2009 8:01 PM in response to: cjunxing
    Reply Email
    run the following command in terminal and post the results. this will list permissions flags and acls on the startup drive.
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    Mac Pro 3.2 GHz Mac OS X (10.6.1) Mac Pro 2.66GHz, powerbook G4 1.5GHz
    cjunxing
    Posts: 9
    From: china
    Registered: Jul 8, 2008
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 2, 2009 8:03 PM in response to: V.K.
    Reply Email
    I run the command as follows.
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    V.K.
    Posts: 20,162
    From: Toronto
    Registered: Oct 24, 2005
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 2, 2009 8:34 PM in response to: cjunxing
    Reply Email
    these permissions look fine. sorry, i don't know what the problem is or why the drive would not show in finder. does it happen on all accounts? make a new one and check from there.
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    cjunxing
    Posts: 9
    From: china
    Registered: Jul 8, 2008
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 3, 2009 1:11 AM in response to: V.K.
    Reply Email
    hi, V.K.
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    Junxing
    macbook pro Mac OS X (10.5.4)
    V.K.
    Posts: 20,162
    From: Toronto
    Registered: Oct 24, 2005
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 3, 2009 6:41 AM in response to: cjunxing
    Reply Email
    aha, so it was a hidden flag after all. then run
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    cjunxing
    Posts: 9
    From: china
    Registered: Jul 8, 2008
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 3, 2009 5:33 PM in response to: V.K.
    Reply Email
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    macbook pro Mac OS X (10.5.4)
    V.K.
    Posts: 20,162
    From: Toronto
    Registered: Oct 24, 2005
    Re: can't find home drive after reinstallation of O.S.X
    Posted: Nov 3, 2009 6:46 PM in response to: cjunxing
    Reply Email
    sorry, I haven't dealt with Tiger in such a long time I don't remember if it respects chflags. ask on Tiger forums.
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