Flashing question mark, won't boot from CD

This is a children's emac and the 4 year old put lots of things into the trash. The clock keeps losing it's correct time (perhaps needs a new battery). I tried booting from the CD and I could get through the beginning couple of okay buttons until the install on desination disk. No volume appears. It's running panther. I get the flashing question mark upon restart. I have zapped the pram. What next? unplug keyboard and mouse? Thanks,
Anne Z

AnneZ,
Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
The clock losing the time (especially if the year is being set back) is a classic symptom that the PRAM battery needs to be replaced. The 1/2 AA 3.6v lithium battery is a stock item at places like Radio Shack or can be ordered online. Battery replacement instructions are at eMac - Do-It-Yourself.
Before trying an a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120" target=_blank>Archive and Install, with the computer booted from the OS X Install disc, go to the Installer menu and open Disk Utility. From the First Aid tab, you should see the hard drive in the window pane on the left; select it and click on the Repair Disk button. Take note of any errors. If erros are reported repaired, repeat Repair Disk until you either get a clean bill of health or an unrepairable error message. Post back with the results.
If the hard drive passes Repair Disk, continue with the Installer. After the restart, you'll likely need the Panther OS X 10.3.9 Combo Update. Following that, you can use System Preferences>Software Update to check for security updates. After that restart, open Disk Utility from Applications> Utilities and run Repair Permissions on the hard drive.

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iMac G5 iSight, flashing question mark, won't boot from CD

Your hard drive has probably died. The ? means that the machine can't find any drive to boot to.

IBook G3 flashing question mark/won't boot from disc

I recently bought a used iBook, and I knew that the hard drive was bad. No big deal, just replace the HD and reinstall OS X, right? Not quite. I'm still getting the flashing question mark, and the CD won't boot. I reset the PRAM, etc. Still nothing. Held down alt/option at start up. It recognizes that the OS X disc is there, but still won't boot it. It just shows me a smiling computer with a spinning rainbow CD looking thing in the upper left corner. At this point I'm thinking it might be a failed optical drive, or the ribbon might not be seated properly (Entirely possible, since the retard that owned this before obviously took it apart at least once. Half of the screws are missing). Am I correct in this assumption, or is there something else I should be looking for?
Edit: I have 256MB of RAM, a combo drive, and am using a 10.1.3 disc.
Message was edited by: InVenereVeritas

Well, that iMac has a G3 processor and I see it's running OS X, so if you can get the iBook working, that is about what you can expect from it.
There was a later G4 processor (in iBooks and iMacs), and the end of the PowerPC iMacs had a G5 processor in them, but that processor ran too hot for a portable — a main consideration in Apple's decision to switch to Intel processors.
Surfing the web may be a trifle difficult with it, depending somewhat on the speed of your internet connection.
The MacBooks are a phenomenal improvement over the iBooks (even the iBook G4). There's no way around it — the Intel processors are just so much faster. I wince a bit when I hear someone say they're basing a future purchase decision on the performance of such an old model as this. It's simply not an accurate representation of what modern Macs are like.
Comparing Mac OS X 10.2.4 to Mac OS X 10.6.7 is a bit like comparing Windows 98 to Windows 7.

Flashing Question Mark & Won't Boot

My Mac Mini (Core Duo 1.67) will not boot, which is annoying considering it is under two weeks old.
I get a flashing question mark on a folder icon on startup and it progresses no further.
It does however start from CD unaided (without having to C-poweron).
Apple Hardware Tools (D-poweron) says everything is OK.
The reinstall CD starts and I can get to the part that asks me to install OS X, and/or use the disk checker. Both the installer and disk checker tell me the machine has no hard drive - it just doesn't see a hard drive as present.
Zapping the cmos (alt-command-p-r) didn't help.
I then gave up and handed it to the office IT people. They took the drive out (it appears to be a standard 2.5" 60GB fujitsu SATA hard drive, also used by PC laptops) and shoved it in a PC. The PC detects the drive and can view the contents (via low level disk diagnostic software; Windows XP itself just says "I don't do Mac filesystems, want me to format this for you so I can use it?")
IT guys think it's a drive controller failure, or a loose connection (though they can't see one) or some weird firmware corruption. We can't upgrade the firmware as the mac wont boot and we couldn't find a bootable firmware upgrade CD.
So, is this a "Back to apple" job or is there something we have not done? Also if it does go back to Apple, should I remove the hard drive. As far as we can tell the drive itself is fine and there's confidental data on it.
Thanks,
Sandy
mac mini intel Mac OS X (10.4.7)

... Both the installer and disk checker tell me
the machine has no hard drive - it just doesn't see a
hard drive as present.
All the indications are that the logic board has failed, and after discovering the drive wasn't recognised, your first action should have been to contact Apple since the system is new. Unless your work IT people are Apple authorised, having them open your system and work on it will certainly have endangered your warranty should Apple have any indication that such work was done on it.
I think your best course of action to have this resolved is to contact Apple and explain the symptoms that you see - the flashing question mark at startup, that you are able to boot to a valid CD, but reinstall of MacOS results in an error indicating no hard drive is present. They will likely lead you through a couple of basic troubleshooting steps to confirm that you have a hardware failure that can't be resolved, then advise you on your options which will to some extent depend on where the mini was bought and whether there is an authorised service provider or Apple store in reasonable reach.

Help..Flashing question mark, won't boot,clicking sound. Whats happened?

I was using my macbook (Intel Core Duo) to watch some Quicktime trailers and whilst waiting for the movie to load (which was taking a long time as I have a slow internet connection), the fans started whirring away, then the spinning beachball started. A clicking sound started from somewhere inside, I tried to force quit but couldn't get the force quit screen so ended up having to shutdown using the power button. When I tried to startup again all I got was a clicking sound and a flashing question mark. I used the cd to do a hardware test and tried disc utility but the hard disc is no longer there..! I tried resetting PRAM but still nothing.
Does this mean my hard drive has failed? What is the clicking sound? I have most of my stuff backed up and my itunes library, photos, and movies are on a external drive. If I have to have a new hard drive will I be able to access these again?

Thank you. I have now read many other reports of hard drive failure in Macbooks and as mine has exhibited exactly the same sypmtoms as everyone else I can see that it means it is dead. Luckily I had backed up but I am very angry that this has happened to a 16 month old, well cared for computer..and an Apple one, not some cheap PC!

IMac dropped, now flashing question mark, won't boot up

I been searching for days on this forum trying to find a solution. After I dropped my iMac it won't boot up. I get the folder question mark flashing thing. Using the installation disk, I can boot up and run disk utility. There I can see the hard drive, but I can't verify it, unmount it, or anything other than erase it. Did the hardware test at start up and says everything is fine. Tried to boot from external hard drive and view the internal hard drive but it doesn't recognize it.
All I want to do is recover some files. Tried the transfer option by holding down the T button but the firewire icon doesn't show up unless I have the install CD in or the external hard drive attached.
I can see it in System Profiler as disk1 when I boot from the external hard drive.
HELP!!!

Hi Holly
Welcome to Apple Discussions
"Ouch"
The good news is that it still boots from the Install Disk and an External HD and you may get off light if it only needs a new Internal HD.
The bad news is that there is no way for us to tell exactly which component was damaged? It could be any thing from a loose STAT connection, a busted HD or worst case the Drive Controller on the Logic board.
*It really needs to go to an Apple Store or a good Apple Service Provider to be tested and serviced.*
If your in the States see this link > http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/
If outside the States use this link > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1434?viewlocale=en_US
Dennis

My Mac Pro flashes the question mark and wont boot from hard drive, flash, or Cd... Please help!

My Computer froze so I shut it down... When I tryed to boot up again it wouldn't power up. After a few tweeks I got it to power up but now it wont boot from the hard drive, flash drive or a cd. It want to start, then, after a few seconds it stops. Not sher what to do. Can anyone help?

Have you tried Safe Boot?
You also might reset PRAM and reset SMC.
Have you tried booting with the Recovery System? See its possibilities here.
From there you can make repairs to your primary startup partition.
Do you have a backup? If not, do you have an external drive large enough to back up your primary drive? It would be good to have one in case your drive needs repair or replacement.

Flashing Question Mark Folder--after repair of "Office Database damage"

I received a dialogue box message reporting "Office Database Damage--would you like to repair?"
I said "yes" --BIG MISTAKE.
The machine froze and now on boot-up will only give the dreaded Flashing Question Mark Folder".
Booting from the Installation CD is possible, however, when running the Disk Utility, no Mac HD appears in the window of drives you may check. Also, if I proceed to try to do a Clean Installation, there is nothing in the window offering any possible Destinations for Installation ...NOTHING.
When holding the "D" key down and booting from the Install Disk, I am able to run the Hardware Test which shows NO PROBLEM.
Also, if I try to access the computer as a FireWire harddrive from another MacPB connected via firewire, the only thing that shows up is the Install Disk. No HD shows up.
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ANY IDEAS?????
MacBook Pro 17, 2GB RAM

A friend of mine is having the same problem. This is why I am searching the boards now.
Anyone have an answer?

Flashing question mark at boot

so it seems my hard drive won't mount... flashing question mark instead of booting.
I've read the discussions, which seem to lead to either a bad HD or logic board...
I've run both disk warrior and tech tool -- both show that the hard drive is okay -- disk warrior re-built the directory, which showed all the data where it was supposed to be... nevertheless, after running both, still the dreaded Q mark
(incidentally, or perhaps not so, all the tech tool tests were passed except the "surface scan"...?)
But the symptoms for a logic board issue that are outlined in these discussions (i.e., bad video or other display issues) were not problems prior to the failure. The only issue that presaged the crash was a recurring error box (over about two days) which i'd never seen before (and the content of which was somewhat cryptic and the text of which, I regret, I can't really recall)... the box was the full width of the screen, and in alarming all caps offered three buttons, side by side, which were in essence a quit option, a re-try, and a third ... sorry, I know that sounds lame, but it's the best I remember on that matter.
wrt that error box, the other salient (or perhaps not) point was that the box remained through a force quit of all apps, and even a relaunch of the finder...
thanks for any insight... for me, a $600 repair bill is simply not in the cards.

The "flashing question mark" at startup is not all that uncommon a topic;
and it usually has some cures depending on exactly what caused it.
Apple Support documents about it are in the online archive and there also
may be some reference to this in a Mac's Help viewer.
"A Flashing Question Mark appears when..."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042
"...The possible causes and solutions for this symptom appear in the order
that you should try them. If any step resolves the issue, you don't need to
continue to the next one..."
Since you mentioned another screen with dialog box on it, that
may have been related to a "kernel panic" and that is covered
here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227
With some more general -and lengthy- information about ways of
"kernel panic" resolution does continues over at a different site, here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
Sometimes, if you don't see a different dialog box (like you said
you saw, prompting restart, etc) you could go into the System
Preference panel in the OS and be sure your Startup Disk is
selected in the so named panel. Occasionally that can cause
a minor error in which the computer later can't see the boot
volume on the hard drive. - Routine system maintenance helps
to keep on top of system health (and familiarity) ahead of time.

10.3 Server new install won't boot from Mirrored RAID - HELP!!

Hi all,
I had 10.3 Server running fine on a 450 MHz B&W G3 (home server use, nothing too demanding), when I decided to add a 2nd HD and run the server from a RAID mirror (both 80GB drives). I had problems enabling RAID on the boot drive with diskutil in Terminal, so I decided to rebuild the server. I didn't have much besides the system on it, so backing up data and re-installing isn't a big ordeal (or so I thought).
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I've searched through this board and didn't really see this particular situation. Any of you smart server folks seen this before -- any ideas or suggestions??
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Brad
B&W G3 Mac OS X (10.3.4) 450 MHz, 10.3 Server, 80GB RAID mirror

if you backup your data from a NON-RAID Drive (Single drive), create a RAID array and then Restore from the backup you created... you will find you cannot boot from the drive.
Apparently the sector or drive header information in a non-RAID drive is different than in a RAID array... so when you restore the backup data from the non-RAID drive to the new RAID Array; you effectively corrupt the RAID array not allowing it to be booted from.
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Flashing question mark folder drives have been swapped

Hi there thank you for taking the time to read this. Spookily within days of each other 2 friends MBP's have succumbed to the flashing question mark folder upon booting. The first we swapped the drive out ran internet recovery saved what we could from the old HD and away we went.
Oddly when getting into disc utility Macintosh HD didn't exist only a tiny 1.53Gb partition called Disk0 which I assume is the recovery program????
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Sort of a bump of kinds
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If your 'target disc mode' install runs along fine and then quits ...that to me is a bad sign.
Have your tried resetting the PMU?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449#faq4
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G4 17' won't boot, flashing question mark folder with complications

I'm editing a final cut pro project, due to air on friday at noon and during conversion in compressor to dvd format, final cut quits then the computer freezes up. On a hard restart I get the flashing question mark folder.... i know what that means
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Invalid node structure
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
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1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
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any ideas? I REALLY need to salvage this film if possible.
thanks!!!!!
donna
Has anyone seen this before? What is my next step--short of erasing the drive. i really need to get this project off.
thanks in advance for any and all help!!!!!
g4 powerbook 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

i'd try disk warrior except that i cant get it to boot from ANY cd right now EXCEPT apple hardware test. and i have NO idea what to do with that.
I've tried booting in option mode and all i get is the little restart button and the forward arrow button but NO drive options
it won't pick up my other laptop in target mode
i've even put in Norton Utilites 8.x and it won't boot up from that either.
i've zapped the pram--nothing
know of any other boot tricks or shortcuts?
donna

G4 Won't Boot Up and Shows The Flashing Question Mark Folder Thing

Ok so I bought a Quicksilver G4 from this guy and he said that he took is info off it and now it won't boot up. So I have a Tiger Disk and I tried the to boot from the disk by pushing C down while it was booting and it still goes to that Flashing Question Mark and Folder thing. What should I do? Should I take it in or is there something I can do without taking it in?

Hi! It should boot from the install disc by holding down the "c" key at startup with the disc already inserted as long as it's a retail disc and not one for another model of computer. If it won't boot from a retail install disc then you have hardware problems. Tom

Hey, I just installed ML on my OCZ Octane SSD, everything went ok, However, it got stuck while rebooting and now I can only see flashing question mark icon and ML won't boot at all. Only in safe mode...

Hey, I just installed ML on my OCZ Octane SSD, everything went ok, However, it got stuck while rebooting and now I can only see flashing question mark icon and ML won't boot at all. Only in safe mode...

It looks like ocz is aware of the issue and trying to address it via firmware:
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?103700-Mountain-Lion-and- OCZ-Octane-Petrol-and-Octane-S2-SSD-s
It's a shame because apple is clearly the party that changed something.

Flashing question mark, won't boot from CD

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