Folder w/Question Mark at startup ?????

Yikes,
All of a sudden I have a folder with a question mark in it when my MBP starts up, however it does actually boot after a very brief delay, just long enough to see the folder w/question mark on it.
What has happened to my machine ? I thought I read something about a keychain at startup but that would mean that the system wouldn't boot and mine does.
So anyone got any ideas???
TIA,
Peter

Nothing to worry about. The system is looking for the default start folder.
Once it starts go to system preferences and click on startup disk - in system and select the os x folder on your hard drive.
Best of luck.

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Hello.
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Safe Boot
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Reinstall OS X via the internet (I received no discs when I purchased it). I select the StartUp Disk to reinstall. When reinstalling via the internet I get to a point of reinstalling Mountain Lion but it asks me to choose a drive - yet there are no drive options to choose from. Then a window comes up asking me to "Select the system you want to use to start up your computer" but no options appear. When I choose "Restart" a note pops up saying "You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk. Startup Disk could not gather enough information on the selected disk."
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Your hard drive has likely failed and needs replaced. That would explain why the system does not display it when you attempt to reinstall the OS via Internet Recovery.

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This is correct.
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Here is what I know so far.
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- I did the start up where you can select the hard drive to boot with, it owed the HD and i selected it, but then i got the flashing folder with question mark.
- It would not come up in Verbose Mode (Command V) Error loading Kernel again.
- I bought a FireWire cable and hooked it to another MacBook Pro, and booted the faulty Mac into Target Disk Mode, the FireWire logo came up on the screen and bounced around like all forums said that it would, but the drive would not show up on my host. I checked the System Profiler on the host and it did acknowledge the Target Disk Mode was there, but the drive of the target would not show up on the host. I restarted the host, nothing. I checked all of the connections, nothing. I replugged all of the connections, nothing. I even reversed the FireWire cable, nothing.
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Thanks for your help guys. I managed to get the computer started by holding down C at the Start Up with the Install Disc 1 in the computer. The disc was really kindof unnecessary, as the newest version of Mac OS X (10.4.10) became available via the hard drive.
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Following a force quit, at startup I get, first the startup audio followed by a profile of a file folder with a question mark on it.

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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'll see 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?
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You can also reference this if you need more help then just a repair:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440

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Hi, Sean.
This indicates the system was having problems finding the startup disk.
1. In System Preferences > Startup Disk, be sure the desired disk is selected as the Startup Disk.
2. As a general check, run the procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.
3. See also "A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac."
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Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Blinking folder with question mark at startup

I found an old, unlabeled CD at work in our file backup book. I put it in, and tried to copy the zip files to my HD to see what it was. It wouldn't read the disk, and everything slowed to a crawl. After waiting for it to come back, it didn't, so I force quit and relaunched the finder. When the finder came back, I shut down the iMac and restarted. Now I'm only getting a blinking folder icon at start up. Tried to access the install CD, tried Option+startup, even tried Firewire Target startup, reset the PRAM a bunch of times. No joy. Any ideas on what's happening or how to fix?
Thanks! Andrew

Sorry.
I really wouldn't have expected that (though zip files are sometimes automatically decompressed by a Mac, let's hope they weren't firmware updates). Perhaps someone else will come up with an idea before the shop. Was there a big scratch on the optical disc? Optical drives reflect laser light, so that's shouldn't have damaged the drive.
Your problem has me mystified.
Was there a little folder with a flashing question mark (yes!) in the middle of the screen? You had apparently done everything correctly. What kind of Mac have you? The PowerMac G4 takes a little battery to keep NVRAM stored, but that would be an absurd coincidence.
If Firewire Disk Mode works at all, you can use a second Mac's 'Disk Utility' to see if something happened to your Mac's file system.
If your Install Disc is a DVD, try the 'c' trick on a bootable CD, if you have one. (It's hard to fit MacOSX on a CD, but some utilities will do it.) If you have a bootable GNU/Linux for your Mac, you can try that optical drive.
Your, or a friend, may have a bootable USB Flash drive (if you have an Intel Mac).
In any case, you can try booting with the 'Alt' key held down and see whether your NVRAM give you a menu of bootable drives.
In all cases, hold your hands .-) on your computer to see what disks spin, and in what order.
No need to reply, for you seem most competent. However, these are some ideas to think about.
A shop is far less trouble, unless someone here recognizes the problem. Help here from anyone else?

Blank screen with flashing folder with question mark on startup of 13" macbook

Hello world, my daughter's 13" macbook upon startup opens to a blank screen with a flashing folder with a question mark in it... If anyone could help us resolve this issue we would greatly appreciate it... Thanks!..

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'll see 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 select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. 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.

Folder and question mark at startup

Using the posts here I was able to get my Powerbook G3 Pismo to start up after three years in the closet! Thanks for that. I had to pull the PRAM battery, wait a few minutes and reinsert it, then reset the PRAM. But now when I try to start the computer, I get the system folder followed by the question mark, then it shuts down about a minute. A can boot from Apple Hardware Test and I ran that and everything checks out fine. I've tried to run Software Restore, but it doesn't recognize the HD.
So, where is my internal system?? I could try reinstalling the original software, but I'd like to boot up the HD and get my data off first. What could I try to get the HD to appear?
Thanks,
TH

tharring:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Glad you decided to revive your Pismo. It is a wonderful machine, and, hopefully, you will having going, again, before too very long.
As Tom noted, the problem is likely your HDD. Being able to boot the computer from the optical drive is an excellent sign, and suggests that the computer itself is sound and the problem may be in the startup volume.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac indicates that your computer is unable to find a bootable volume. This may be due to a corrupted or no OS installed, or failing or failed HDD. Here are a few suggestions in addition to Tom's:
• When you hit the Power button and computer powers up to the flashing ?/folder, put your ear close to the keyboard on the top right, where the Hard Disk Drive is installed in the Pismo, and listen for any sounds that will indicate the the HDD is turning. If it is turning, we will need to figure whether it is sound or not.
• If you hear no sound, check to be sure that the HDD is in place. Pull back the tabs to the right of the esc key and between F8 and F9 keys. Lift the keyboard and lay it face down on the palmrest without disconnecting it from the computer. Check to be sure that the HDD is in place and that the ribbon cable is connected to the drive.
• You said that the AHT reported everything was OK. Sometimes a single run of the test is not sufficient to detect intermittent problems. You will need to boot from the AHT disk and run the tests in a loop by holding down Command + L during the tests. Sometimes it has to run for several hours to detect some intermittent problems.
• You can try to see if you can boot into Firewire Target Disk Mode, following the directions in the article and connecting it to a firewire Mac. If it is able to mount the disk, you may be able to rescue your data in that way.
Check out these additional suggestions and post back with what you find.
cornelius

Blinking file folder w/ question mark at startup

This morning I opened my 2009 MacBook and it was business as usual. Then safari froze, which happens a lot, so I force quit the app and started it back up. Then the whole computer froze, so I force shut it down and when I restarted it the apple logo appeared on the blue screen as usual but the wheel that indicates that it's loading kept spinning. So I restarted again, and every time I've tried to reboot since, the blinking folder with the question mark appears. And after a while the computer shuts itself down. I know this has to do with the hard drive, but I don't know how to fix it. I have it charging right now and a friend suggested I try shift+R, but are there any other fixes? I'm super concerned because I'm studying abroad in France and I don't know of any apple stores that provide the care that the USA ones do, and I'm also broke (the student thing, again), AND I'm here until the end of June. So I definitely can't just wait till I get home to get it fixed. Thanks for any and all help and suggestions!

The flashing qustion mark on boot means the system can't find a device to boot from.
You didn't say what operating system you have, so if 10.5 or 10.6 see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US .
If it's 10.7 follow the steps in the note above. You may also need to use Lion recovery, see http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/ and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Folder w/Question Mark at startup ?????

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