Flashing question mark/will not read disc.

So, I've seen other discussions here and tried to apply them to my own problem, but nothing seems to work so far. If anyone can offer any help, this would be great.
I was updating routine software and it asked if I wanted to restart now. I chose yes and it shut down, restarted to the flashing question mark. I tried restarting by holding down the power and c key many times. I know I need to install Mac OS X Install Disc 1, but my Macbook is not reading the disc. I tried putting in disc 2 as well but it doesn't recognise this one either.
Thanks.

Hi,
Hold the option key on startup. If a boot manager doesn't appear there may be hardware issues.
If a boot manager appears but you can't see a CD icon there may be a problem with your optical drive (or media).
Good Luck!

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My Macbook will not start up. I get a flashing question mark folder and will not startup.
Also, I have a dvd inside that will not eject.
Any suggestions?

You will need to reinstall OS X. Try this:
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.
If your drive cannot be repaired then you will have to reformat the drive and install OS X from scratch.
To eject the DVD press CTRL-E while booted from the installer disc or hold the mouse button down while the computer is booting from the installer disc.

Flashing question mark, but not drive's fault!

So I got the flashing question mark the other night....went to internet recovery, and it does not see the drive at all. I can't reinstall lion, and I can't repair the disk. When selecting 'startup' disk from the apple menu, there is no disk to select. This a sata II samsung 840 SSD in an early 2011 macbook pro 17".
I decided not to erase the disk, rather throw it into an enclosure to see if it shows up. Sure enough, it does, and everything is intact. So my question is, what has gone on my macbook that isn't allowing it to see the startup drive?

Thanks. Just saw this on youtube as well. Ebay it is and we shall see.

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Rod,
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Hello, my mother got her macbook a week ago, and while I was at school this week she hardly used it. I've come home today with my office mac 2008 disc and while trying to install I learned her macbook would rather spit the disc out than read it (does not even show up on the desktop). I know for a fact that the disc is not the problem, seeing as I just loaded it on my macbook earlier this week. I'm about an hour and a half away from an apple store so visiting is sort of an inconvenience. However Best Buy is about 10 minutes away, but I'm not sure if my apple care insurance will work there. Any ideas on how to fix it? Thanks in advance guys.

Apple has a 14-day return policy, so if the MacBook is only one week old I think it would be worthwhile to make the hour and a half journey to get a replacement, if necessary. For me, that would be better than taking it in for repair. Of course, while you're at the Apple Store they will take a look at it and perhaps they can quickly correct the problem rather than replace the MacBook.
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Flash question mark, and no disk

Hello!
I've got a problem with my Power Mac G5. After a freeze-up, I did a hard reboot, and when it restarted, all that displayed was the 'flashing question mark'.
I read through the support tips. I booted from my install CD, and ran Disk Utility. It couldn't find any partitions on the hard drive, so I reset the PRAM and tried again. Still no luck.
In PC parlance, I would say that my machine has lost its Master Boot Record. I know how to fix this, there. What's the equivalent terminology in Macland? And, what's the tool to fix this?
I'd really like to be able to fix this myself (I'm in IT at a Canadian university, and it would be useful to know this for the machines that are charged to my care), and while I'd prefer a solution that uses free software, I'd be willing to purchase if necessary.
Thanks for your help!
Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

When doing a hard reboot, my choice is to
boot into Single User Mode, run
/sbin/fsck -fy
run Applejack
Or, use the OPTION key and boot to an alternate (emergency system) drive (FireWire or partition on another drive).
You want to use the latest version of Disk Utility, which would be the fsck command, or 10.4.6 on another drive.
And to have handy a copy of Disk Warrior (and/or TechTool Pro 4.x).
You don't want to use a version of Disk utility from 10.4.2 or older to fix 10.4.3 or later.
Along with resetting PMU, sometimes you need or want to reset nvram from the Open Firmware screen - nvram can be corrupted, or the device tree needs to be rebuilt (adding or changing memory, disk drive, PCI cards).
MacGurus FAQ

EMac ejects CDs, will not read them

Hello!
I have an eMac that, it seems whatever I do, will not read discs. The disk I am working with is a Leopard install disc/DVD, but it is not the only one that does this problem. It appears to spin for a few seconds in the CD/DVD drive, then ejects it. I have tried getting it to work in Safe Mode, resetting the PRAM, and currently I am attempting to clean the drive using a compressed air duster.
My eMac, bought from eBay many years ago, is an educational model, with 1 GHz processor, an upgraded 1 GB of RAM (it appears to have originally come with 512 MB, according to the DVD drive door), and the ATI Radeon 9200 Graphics.
Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

That indeed is a special eMac version sold only to educational institutions. The good news is that it was based on the newer USB 2.0 logic board and, in spite of Apple's outdated specs, can handle up to 2GB RAM and, of course, has USB 2.0. The ATI 9200 video chipset clearly makes it as variant what Apple called a "eMac (USB 2.0)" with the model identifier "PowerMac6,4." The commercial model had a 1.25gHz processor; the 1gHz was used in the edu-model to reduce costs.
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The check BDAqua posted will tell you for sure.
Many 1.0 and 1.25ghz USB 2.0 models had a bad logic board problem. The affected units fell in these serial number ranges:
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YM412xxxxxx - YM520xxxxxx
VM440xxxxxx - VM516xxxxxx
If yours in in one of those ranges but is still working after all these years, it is probably OK.
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MacBook Pro 13 2010 running Mountain Lion: will not boot and shows a folder with a flashing question mark. Will not start in 'safe mode' i.e holding shift on start up - nor can I call up any utilities with the OSX shortcuts. Any thoughts?

Following an automatic update, the machine wouldn't boot. Screen came on (shows white) - then either showed a 'No-Entry' Sign and a spinning cog, or a folder with a qusetion mark. I tried to start the machine in different modes ( eg. holding shift after the tone ) but nothing worked. after leaving the machine alone for 1 hour. It worked perfectly again. I did a 'verify disk' check which found no problems. 2 hours later it then froze ( In - Photoshop). Could not force quit, so shut down, and have not been able to boot again since (white lit screen - flashing folder with question mark) . I have also taken the hard drive out and checked the connections which seem fine. Any suggestions? - Is the Hard Drive dead. : other info : It was also running parallels 8, with Windows 7. at the time of the update....

This article may help: A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac.

Flashing Question Mark Folder Everything I Am Trying is Not Working!

A few days ago my iMac gave me the "pinwheel of death" so I cold shutdown and rebooted. I heard the chime and then I got this flashing folder with a question mark on it. I quickly jumped on my Macbook pro and researched what it meant. I tried booting while holding the option key and would get a blank white screen with a mouse pointer and nothing else. I tried resetting my PRAM and still nothing! Then I saw someone say to restart my iMac while holding down R to start into disk utility. It worked! I went through the repair disk process and it said there was nothing to repair. I then repaired disk permissions, and bingo it had to repair a few different things that needed to be repaired. Once the repair process finished I rebooted to my main drive and everything worked fine. That night I shutdown my computer and the next morning I got the flashing folder again. This time however, after shutting down and rebooting everything worked fine. Now today my iMac froze and I cold shutdown and rebooted. I got the flashing folder and question mark again. This time nothing is responding. I tried rebooting while holding the option key, tried booting into disk utility and still nothing. The only thing that the iMac will recognize is when I reboot while holding the 'option' key and put in the Mac OS X Lion install disc It lets me click that disc and it starts the install cycle... I really don't want to do this as it would wipe everything on the drive and I do not have a lot of documents backed up. What do I do? Am I screwed? Help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks much!

I think the HD has crashed. Run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode at least 3x back to back. If it reports errors, next step is your local Apple Store or AASP. Also carefully read and apply Apple's advice in Flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac. If you had been backing up it would have been a simple matter of replacing the HD, restoring from the backup and you're back up and running. Considering you said you don't back up you're about to learn a very painful lesson on why backing up isn't something you should do it's something you MUST do.
Good luck and sorry for the bad news.

Flashing question mark no discs

before i begin i am typing this in on a phone so excuse any obvious typos and terrible punctuation i only got my macbook about three months ago and after installing windows neither windows or mac will boot and a flashing question mark sits on the screen during boot. According to google running repair on my mac disc should fix this however as i've mentioned before my macbook did not have a mac os x disc with it and i am still waiting for apple to send me one. Is there anything i can do to fix this or do i have to wait however long until apple gets me those discs. On a side note i have about 10 different distributions of linux i use on my pc if any of those can aid in fixing my macbook -thank you, Aescyr

That question mark poses a very serious problem: it can't find your hard drive, or any bootable device.
In other words, eithe you hard drive is disconnected from you computer, or your hard drive just completely died. Hopefully it's disconnected, but most of the times when this happens, it is the latter.
Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait for those discs, because you will need to boot your computer from the disc, and run Disk Utility. If Disk Utility does not find your hard drive, then it's dead.
If you have no time to wait for the discs to arrive, then get to an Apple Store. They will determine if the hard drive is dead or not, and issue a hard drive replacement since it is under warranty. Just remember, your data at this point is pretty much gone, unless you have a backup from Time Machine or something similar. (I use SuperDuper!)

Flashing question mark folder OS X 10.6.8. Issue is not the drive itself.

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Actually, it is the drive in some way.
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.

Flashing question mark, keeps forgetting start up disc

The first time I got the flashing question mark I zapped the pram and it worked for a while. Then got stuck on whirling disc when waking up. I shut it down and it forgot the start up disc again. Zapping pram didn't work this time so I resent PMU and it started. I've been trying to back up ibook data before I take it in to see what's up. My hard drive is very noisy and I suspect it's about to go. Is it possible that the whold problem is the hard drive? It's logic board had been replaced some time ago. Screen is bright and when it works everything works well, just noisy hard drive. And, how many times can you zap the pram or reset pmu before real damage is done?
Thanks folks,
Connie

Connie, is this an iBook or an eMac? (You've posted in the iBook G3 Forum.)
Whichever, as long as it is running OS X 10.2 or better, I would suggest that you try booting into Safe Mode. This will take quite awhile longer than a normal startup because it does a file check and repair of the hard disk.
You will see your normal desktop. Once completely started up in Safe Mode, restart normally into OS X (hold down the x key as the startup chime is ending), and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Click on the top hard drive icon in the left sidebar and, if you are running OS X 10.3 or later, 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 you've renamed it). What is the hard drive capacity and how much space remains available on it? Repair permissions on it.
Check to make sure that your OS X installation is selected as your startup disk, and see if it is remembered now.
Maybe a little hard drive maintenance will help things out.

Flashing question mark/will not read disc.

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