Folder with Question Mark and a useless disk stuck in my disk drive!

Hello,
earlier on today my computer crashed. I have read on a couple of posts that I should try to boot the computer from the install disk. Cool. The only problem is that when my computer crashed I had a CD in the disk drive. When I try to start the computer up I see a question mark and folder, but will not respond to any commands like "eject" or even holding the mouse button.
What do I do? I'm in Korea and going back to Canada in two weeks, but I need my computer!

Hi,
The Question Mark folder implies that your MacBook can't find a System Folder to boot from. It doesn't mean the drive is bad.
Are you holding down the C key while booting? Make sure the MacBook is shut down. Now, press the power button, hold down the C key and insert the restore disk all at the same time. Keep holding down the C key until you see the Apple logo on the screen, then let go. You should see an Installer window, select English. DO not proceed with any installation.. do this. From the Menu Bar, click Utilities/Startup Disk. When that window opens, select MacintoshHD 10.x.x and click the Restart button. That will boot your Mac back up from the hard disk, not the restore disk. If this works, don't forget to eject your restore disk and store it in a safe place.
More help for the question mark: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Similar Messages

  • Folder with question mark and smiling mac face at start up

    After I was importing some video today, shut down G5 and on start up I get the folder with question mark and smiling mac face.
    Any help?
    Power Mac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

    Boot from a drive with Disk Warrior 4, or your emergency boot drive (FW or alternate) or if you lack that, use single user mode to run fsck command. The last option would be your Tiger DVD but that may be 10.4.3 or earlier and not your best.
    I say that because it seems like it was more than just needing to reset the startup disk preference and may have a corrupt directory. It shutdown smoothly and fully?
    At the least, using the OPTION key and SHIFT key for Safe Boot. My recollection of trying to do both is that it won't. You can do one or the other, but not both. So running FSCK is just insurance to repair the directory.

  • When booting up get flashing apple folder with question mark and no sign, why?

    When booting up get flashing apple folder with question mark and no sign, why?  Computer will not open up.  I have tried resetting the Pram.  I can access the hard drive from another computer holding down the t key when starting up the Macbook Pro.  What to do next?

    The cable connecting the HDD to the logic board may be faulty.  If the internal HDD can boot the MBP when in an external enclosure, that will confirm this issue.  If not, the HDD may need to be replaced.
    Ciao.

  • MacBook Pro flashes file folder with question mark and startup manager will not run

    My son's MacBook Pro won't boot (gets the flashing file folder with question mark).  When I try to open startup manager (holding "option" key during boot does not do it).  Other posts suggest inserting the install disk, but I am pretty sure that for Lion, there was no disk, it was just off the website through the App Store.  Any further suggestions?

    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.

  • Folder with question mark and the computer is unable to detect Macintosh HD

    Turning on the computer, there is a gray folder with a question mark and it is flashing. Then, I turn off the computer, and go to boot by clicking option at the same time. After I get into the screen, I try to reinstall my computer, but it can not detect the Macintosh HD or other driver that there is no place to install the system. I try to turn on my computer when clicking left ****, left control, and left option. It does not work also. Is there any thing i can do?
    can i go to saft mode?

    There isn't anything you can do for there. If you have a 2012 MBA your solid state drive has probably failed (mine did two weeks ago). I wasn't able to get into safe mode or do anything with it. I installed the OS onto a USB to get onto the machine properly, but I couldn't get into the hard drive.
    If the SSD has failed, you will need to replace the drive, make an appointment with Apple and see if they can help you. If you are outside your warranty there is still a chance they will replace it for free.

  • Blinking folder with question mark, and disk utility doesnt recognise hard drive, please help!!!

    So today i was using my macbook pro and for some reason my CD/DVD drive was causing noise when i put a DVD inside it, and for some reason it did not recognise my DVD. I force ejected it using the restart and clicking, but after that my computer showed a blinking folder and question mark during start up. I restarted my computer to Recovery HD, but instead it took me to internet Recovery HD (i have mountain lion), and so i went to disk utility to repair my disk, but in the left it did not recognise my hard drive. Please help! Im not that experienced in computing!

    Sounds like some sort of power issue and now your drive is not working.
    You'll have to take this to Apple for repair.
    You should read this if you don't have recent backups of your data off the machine.
    My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

  • White Screen, Grey Folder with Question Mark and no USB

    Hello
    I have a iMac, that is in a classroom of similar machines, they are running os v 10.4.6 (ish).
    The mac in question had been reported with a fault so i went along to check it and this was a new fault for me.
    When the mac boots, it bongs the hdd starts up and then a black white screen appears after a few minutes this changes to a white screen with a flashing grey folder with a question mark.
    now reading on the forums, internet etc. i have found that maybe i should boot to disk. tried this but not disk activity.
    next i read to boot into verbose mode at which point i find that the USB ports dont seem to be running so i can use a keyboard.
    Anyone any ideas how i can troubleshoot this problem or why the problem occurred in the first place?
    Thanks for any help offered.

    This error indicates either that the internal HD has physical problems, or there is corruption on the drive (a failing directory or corrupt system files). You should boot from the Mac's original installation disk, run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and do Repair Disk on the internal drive. If this fails to recover the drive, you may have to reinstall the system.
    Matt

  • Blinking folder with question mark and a new hard drive: also installing Mountain Lion and 0 with a line through it appears please help?

    Okay so my harddrive failed in my 13" Macbook I used to have a WD scorpio black 250 gb for a while. I upgraded to a WD scorpio black 500 gb 7500 rpm hard drive. Okay so I installed the harddrive and ran my friends startup disc to learn that grey face discs are specific to that computer. The start up disc ran fine (minus the error stating it could not install OSX because its specific to another computer) and I looked in disc utility after installing the new harddrive and it said verified. I lost my startup disc and did not have another one. Using a friends mac I created a bootable USB drive with mountain lion on it, I plug it in and it comes up and when I choose to start up on the harddrive a 0 with a line going throguh it appears. If I do not start up with the USB or my friends startup disc then a blinking folder with a question mark appears. So my question is what could the problem be if a startup disc runs on a new WD harddrive and says under disc utility that its verified but the 0 with a line through it appears after I try to boot it with a flash drive containing mountain lion? WHats the issue here im completely lost now

    Sounds like some sort of power issue and now your drive is not working.
    You'll have to take this to Apple for repair.
    You should read this if you don't have recent backups of your data off the machine.
    My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

  • Flashing folder with question mark and SSD

    I had an issue with my native mbp HDD about a month ago. New ssd (crucial m540 with trim)  worked fine for a month, but after recent wake up it show a screen for several seconds and then a flashing folder screen appeared.
    Now I see flashing folder on every boot attempt. Safe mode doesn't work, recovery partition either.
    When I try to select boot partition different combination appears: regularly I see only recovery partition, sometimes only system one, and rarely both of them. Anyway every boot attempt results in question mark folder screen.
    The questions are:
    1. Is it possible to recover current state with the recovery partition tools from an external hdd?
    2. What the chance it may be recovered through reformat and clone of the old HDD (e.g. may it be logical OS issue, or is it hardware issue and I need to look for SSD replacement)?
    3. Is it something well known (possibly Mac os + ssd) issue and may it be avoided in the future ?

    Aaaaand.. DONE!
    I missed the fact my old "half dead" native hdd freezed in the case, but works properly in the external rack. Now I found it not only worked properly, but way faster than ssd worked (even with usb 2.0 rack interface and no additional power source).
    A funny fact: the popular Black Magic Speed Test always show stable 300/500 mbps  for my ssd, while the fact is it worked slower than HDD in the external usb 2.0 rack.
    So, I've bought a new SATA cable, and yes, it was the real problem. The old HDD works fine, and the new SSD didn't throw any errors since the cloning process start, it would be ready in several hours but I believe no unexpected issues would appear.

  • Help! Blinking folder with question mark and Mac Logo

    Out of nowhere when I turned on my Powerbook G4 laptop the other day, the sound chimed like it was turning on, however instead of loading up, I saw a blank screen with a little file folder in the middle and the icon on the folder changed from a question mark to the mac logo back and forth. I have no idea what to do here. Help please!
    Thank you.
    I already tried rebooting, taking out the battery and putting it back in. Nothing has worked so far.

    Not from doing what I've suggested. The computer has basic instructions on the chip which tell it what to do next after you press start - i.e. start OSX from a particular place on the hard drive. Hopefully, what I've suggested will enable the machine to do that and wall will be well
    It is possible that your hard-drive has failed or is about to fail - I advise as soon as you can get the machine started to back-everything up.
    If it does not start, you may have a hard drive failure. In which case you can try several tools which may manage to get the drive back up, or at least recover the data. If you are near an Apple Store, you could go in and see if they can start the machine from a Firewire External drive with OS X on it - they may be able to see some of the data and copy it for you.
    But try what I suggested first and let's see what the issues really are before going into disaster mode
    Best of luck.

  • Folder with Question Mark and I can't eject the CD

    I've read a few similar problems on this board, but I haven't gotten anything to work.
    My computer froze, and when I restarted it, I got a flashing folder with a question mark. I've heard that I should boot from the system disc, but I have a CD in the machine that won't eject.
    I have both the system disc and AppleCare disc, but I can't get the other disc out of the drive. I tried to hold down the mouse button but that didn't work.
    Is there a way to manually eject a cd when restarting? And then is there a way to save my hard drive?

    I had a similar problem - see http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6656332#6656332 - and found that after a night's rest my iMac booted up normally again.
    The underlying problem turned out to be a corrupted partition map.
    Simon

  • Grey folder with question mark and Disk Utility can't find HDD.

    I have a 2010 MacBook Pro and for some reason the OS X does not boot up. Therefore I see the grey folder flashing. I tried booting into Recovery from holding options button but there are no available startup disks. So I installed Apple recovery on my USB and I boot up with that. I opened disk utility but it does not seem to find the hard disk. I also tried reinstalling Mac OS X and it gives me an error. Is there another bootable software except for Disk Utility that can check the HDD and see if there are any errors or is the HDD just dead?

    Try the steps in this support article:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
    Have you tried installing the original Snow Leopard installation disk and access Disk Utility from the Utilities menu?
    Ciao.

  • Switched on my imac 24inch intel based and all I get on screen is a folder with question mark flashing,I had backup on external hard drive but when I try to reinstall it can not find my mac hard drive

    Hi when I started my intel based imac this morning all I am getting is a folder with question mark in the middle flashing,I have external hard drive with backup,but when run disc utilities it does not show my mac hard drive.hope someone can help.(it's running mountain lion, well it was)

    Try starting up your Mac while holding down the Option key. That should prompt the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk then click Restart.
    The question mark folder indicates your Mac cannot find a system folder to boot from.
    A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

  • Boot up shows folder with question mark...

    So my imac from 2006 (i think...20 inch plastic intel) booted up today to the blinking folder with a question mark on it. I rebooted into the osx disc to set the hdd as the startup disk, but it didn't show up in the list. Then I tried to see if I needed to repair the hdd using disk utility but the hdd wasn't showing up. So, do I have to replace the hdd? Not looking forward to it if I do.
    Message was edited by: gescamil

    Hi,
    I have had similar issues, you will have to restart it and press and hold the eject disk on the keyboard right away and it will force it out.
    Also to answer you question on way you are not seeing the Hard Drive and way you have the folder with question mark on the start up: is because your Hard Drive is dead.
    You will need to buy another Hard Drive install it and then fresh install the OS X.
    I have seen this issue too many times and every time is resulting with bad Hard Disk Drive...
    Look at the bright side, Hard Drives are cheep now and you have iFix it to assist you on step by step installation. (this is unless you have Apple Care).

  • Help:  Got the dreaded grey folder with question mark

    Hey folks,
    I was working in Chrome on my 13" mid-2010 MacBook Pro running OSX10.6.8, plugged in the mains charger and instantly had an unusual (not the beachball- the daisy from start-up and shut-down) freeze-up of the computer.  I couldn't force quit and so shut the computer down using the power button (something I have done perhaps four times in its life-time).
    On start up I got the dreaded flashing grey folder with question mark and know that this is serious.  Last week I had a half hour with the U, I and O keys not working and that despite being very, very nice to my machines and repairing permissions and not unduly installing rubbish.
    So I have inserted the start up disk for the MacBook Pro to see if I could use Disk Utility.  And got it started (unusually load "whirring" too but I attribute this to heat) and Disk Utility cannot find the disk to repair permissions.
    Now-  from what I understand it means the hard drive is gone, right?  Anything that can be done to save it (I cannot afford a new one)?
    If not-  how do I get the bits of data on there which I had yet to back up?  CAN I?
    Please and thank you.

    So I fitted a new 500GB solid state drive from Samsung (easy enough- only a few screws on the lid, four screws holding it down and four more for the "pins" to hold it in place) but now, when I start up (bearing in mind that the install disk is stuck inside)- I get the Apple logo, then the daisy clock and then, woe is me, the "no entry" sign and eventually the install disk kicks in only to reveal that there is no hard drive to install to.  Disk Utility and Start Up Disk both do not recognise it.
    Any ideas what I can do, given that it is not rocket science to install one of these, given there is just one cable to connect and the rest is just to keep it in place?

Maybe you are looking for

  • Immutable and mutable object

    Here I want to post some solutions to immutable and mutable objects. First I'll brifely discribe the case when only one type (immutable or mutable) is need accross the application. Then, I'll describe case when both types is using. And finally, the c

  • Does old equipment need to be returned?

    My parents have been BT Internet customers for quite a long time, but are thinking of stopping the BT connection quite soon (due to getting FTTP from another provider). I am fairly sure they are not currently within any minimum contract period. They

  • Regarding validation

    Dear All, I have a question regarding validation (tcode OB28). While postinf a document I got to know that a validation rule is set on document type KX and KE that "Posting Date lower than Last Posted Document is not allowed". I check in tcode OB28 a

  • Proposal of partner function and related master record in sales order

    Hi Gurus, As we know, a partner determination procedure is used to propose partner functions and the master data tied to them in the sales order. I need to confirm the following if understanding is correct: 1. 1st a customer master record is entered

  • How many query possible in 1 second at Sql Server ?

    Hello I have 30,000 records. Table have 10 columns. Columns have indexes if column at where condition. And select question will give 20-30 records as result. (select column1, column2,...... column10 from table where columnSecondID=2I. I will use host