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.

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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?

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?

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.

Blinking folder with question mark! Recovery mode not recognising hard drive!

So today on my MacBook Pro 13" mid 2010, for some reason a CD that I inserted inside the DVD/CD drive didn't come out, and was stuck inside. So I looked up on how to force eject it out, and I saw someone wrote that you can force eject the CD by putting a paper clip inside the hole next to the CD/DVD drive. I did this, and it did not work. After I turned on my MacBook Pro and on the startup I found the blinking folder with question mark! I went through Internet recovery mode, and I found out that it did not recognise my hard drive!
-Do I have to replace my hard drive?
Please help! I'm fairly new with computers :(

Kazmunai wrote:
I saw someone wrote that you can force eject the CD by putting a paper clip inside the hole next to the CD/DVD drive. I did this, and it did not work.
That was for very old Mac's and PC's, it's been a long time since any modern Mac had that ability.
CD that I inserted inside the DVD/CD drive didn't come out, and was stuck inside.
Press and hold the power button down to force a hardware shutdown.
Hold the trackbutton down and the option/alt key at the same time, now boot the machine.
The disk should spit out and you should eventually see a row of icons appear on the screen, this is Startup Manager and you can pres the eject key here also to get the cd to spit out.
If you see MacintoshHD (or your OS X boot volume) click it and the arrow underneath and when you get into OS X, head to System Preferences > Startup Disk and set it again. Your problem should be resolved at this point.
If you don't see your OS X boot volume and it shows RecoveryHD only, or holding the option/alt goes to Internet Recovery, then your boot drive is dead or there is some sort of other issue/power /Mac related.
Try a #1 SMC Reset and a #2 PRAM reset and see if that fixes things.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
If not, I then suspect because you couldn't eject the cd that something electrical bad happened to the Superdrive and as a result it also effected the power or something going to the boot hard drive.
The hard drive might still work just fine if it's removed from the machine and a SATA to USB adpater to another Mac.
My advice is to take the machine to Apple for a free hardware evaluation, then decide what you want to do from there.
My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

Not solved with Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive

Before asking, I found someone had asked exact the same question, but that was actually an unsolved thread.
Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
Level 1(0 points)sdc3gJul 5, 2013 6:24 PM Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
in response to Niel
Thanks for the reply, held command+R again and it is trying to pick up WiFi, but it's not picking up my network and won't accept the password even when I try to put it in manually. Any thoughts on that?
Me too had tried the command+R and failed to manually connect to my network. Can anyone help?

Well, it was solved. I shifted to other place and tried other WIFis. One of the WiFi had the 2002f problem and another was fine, so the reinstall worked smoothly eventually.
On the apple support page it says that Supported network configurations and protocols includs both WPA/WPA2, not matter what they are, but it might not be true.

My computer has a blinking folder with question mark on it at start... What is going on?

My computer has a blinking folder with question mark on it at start... What is going on?

The hatter wrote:
also that the default is no longer set asin when someone had windows as default and removed it w/o changing Startup Disk panel.
Oh yes, I forgot that people still do that

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.

HT1366 How to fix Flashing Folder with Question Mark on Mac

How to fix Flashing Folder with Question Mark on Mac

RichardEL is probably correct. I’ll go through your questions.
> there is no Mac OS partition, I assume it would be directly underneath the HD on the left?
I have not seen this particular condition where the hardware disk icon appears but the system volume that is supposed to be below it does not. The System Disk partition would be below the HD icon indented to the right. It is usually called “Macintosh HD” unless you renamed it.
> when I go into disk utility my HD appears on the left, but I can repair or verify it
Odd. It appears but you cannot manipulate it with Disk Utility.
> The S.M.A.R.T status reads verified
If it did not say Verified then it would indicate a problem. Saying Verified does not rule out problems but I think it indicates it is still breathing.
> Is the HD deceased?
If you booted the Recovery Partition (Boot, Command-R), which it sounds like you did, then at least part of the disk is still breathing. If it took a long time to boot then that may have been a Network Recovery boot which would indicate the disk is very sick or dead.
> [If I] restore from time machine [will] everything will be back as it was before?
Yes. That is the beauty of Time Machine. All your data, applications, and system preferences will be as they were as of the last backup.
> I was thinking of erasing the HD, would this be of any help or do I just need a new one?
Given what you reported from the Disk Utility steps you took it is unclear to me if there will be a way to repair the current volume, if you can erase and install from scratch or if you need a new disk. Before proceeding it may be useful to have an expert at an Apple store look at it for you. They may be able to revive it without a clean install or new disk.
As was the case above, it could be a good disk with a bad cable in which case a new disk is not going to help. To test this you can purchase an inexpensive external enclosure, remove the internal disk, place it in the enclosure, plug it in and then use Boot-Option to attempt to boot from the now external disk. Here are links to the screwdrivers and enclosure you would need.
$5 Toolkit: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/
$22 USB 3.0 enclosure: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ES2.5BU3W/
If you attempt a clean install, use the Partition tab to repartition the disk, selecting one partition and with “Options…” electing a GUID partition. Then use the Erase tab, select “Security Options…” and set it to write a single pass of zeros. This will write to every sector to map out bad blocks. (If you have an SSD do not write a pass of zeros.)
If you do need to replace it I recommend an new inexpensive (~$100) and super-fast hybrid SSHD drive that has an 8 GB SSD cache that makes the data fly. Google “Seagate 1 TB hybrid SSHD”.

Blinking folder with question mark

Ok so I had this macbook air for couple of months now long story short I was outside US when my issue started. While using the computer either completely freezes or becomes almost inoperable and the only course of action is to force restart it by holding the power button. Once you start it back on you get a follder with a question mark. this happens once every few days. I first took it to apple store in France they said something is wrong but since it was purchased in US they cannot do anything about it. when I came back to US took it to apple store that is about 10+ restores after. The store people test it and determine everything works as it should. Couple of days later happened again took it in the same store as is with the folder with question mark. They did a fresh install and told me should work fine. but it didn't I took it to another store they order a hard drive for it came in few days later and was quickly replace that evening computer was running very slow and eventually the same thing happen got the same wiped hard drive just the next day. I called apple few times now they keep on talking about test and what not and it is software related but i have tried it without any of my files and no timemachine restore with the same result. So what should I do I paid almost $2000 for the macbook air and another 200+ for apple care. Who should I talk to to get my issue result? This is the first time I have issue with a mac but so far I have waisted 40+ hours dealing with this macbook. My mac is mid 2013 13" i7 8GB 512gb and its under apple care until october 2016

I have been in apple store 4 times already but I will not get a replacement. Today I got a call from Bob who is part of the executive corporate relations team. He told me, he is sure my issue is fixable and they can not replace my mint condition mac eventhough I have had that issue almost since day 1. He didn't even for a moment stopped and truly appologize that even after paying $2300+ out the door I have to go through all this BS I guess I am just another pain in the behind customer, who should man up and learn to deal with his files disappearing every other day and I should make the time to restore my macbook air every other day. Mr Bob also said they didn't have time to diagnose the computer and I demanded hard drive replacement. How does a customer demand technician to replace a specific part is beyond my comprehension. The only reason I asked apple to replace my macbook air is because I have a long trip coming up and at this point I have to walk in the store and buy a new notebook and leave this one at home. He also said there is no reason to complain to BBB because those complains are handled by their department and they will offer me nothing different.

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.

Mac stuck at white screen later shows blinking folder with question mark

Today for some reason my mac froze and I had to manually start it back up. After I started it back up it was stuck at a white screen and later on a blinking folder with a question mark came up. I've tried using shortcut keys on startup but none of them are working. it just keeps on showing the white screen and later on the blinking folder with the question mark. Is it just a problem with the HDD that's supposed to read the HD? Or is my HD the problem and I lost all my data?
MacBook Pro
Late 2012 model
15 Inch

Reinstalling OS X 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.
Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
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 and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the Macintosh HD entry from the the left side list. Click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If Disk Utility 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 Disk Utility and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X 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.
Alternatively, see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Choose the version you have installed now:
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Mac doesn't boot from start volume - blinking folder with question mark

Hi,
my iMac with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 issn't booting anymore from the Hard Drive. It shows a blinking folder with a question mark. After starting, before the folder appears, I hear a two or three times "clack" sound with a following silent speed down of a fan.
So I started from the installation DVD. On the "Choose Startup Disk" Menu there appears only the DVD and network. In Terminal by using "df" i only see my external Hard Disk, the DVD, and some /private/var folders. By listing the "/Volumes" directory only the external disk and the DVD appear.
I tried to restore a Time Machine backup from the external disk. After choosing the backup in the dialog "Select for Destination" it says "Searching for disks" but it doesn't find any after waiting some minutes. It also shows "This disk does not have enough space to restore your system" but there issn't any disk selected.
For me it looks like the Hard Drive with my system is dead. Does anybody has another idea what I can try?

unfortunately I can't start the single user mode. It is always booting from the installation DVD. I tried mouse clicked at boot to eject it, but it doesn't work. Also I can't come to the Startup Volume menu by holding the option key. I always come to the installation menu. There I can't eject the disk from Disk Utility, because it is working on it. I also can't eject it using the eject key on the keyboard in the Startup Disk menu. From the Terminal I can't access my Hard Disk from /Volumes and therefore also can't access my user's home directory.

Blinking folder with question mark what does it mean?

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
MacBook

Use the instructions in this Apple article to help troubleshoot your issue.
Best of luck.

Blinking Folder with Question Mark+ No recovery disk

I've been using an original Mac Mini loaded with 10.5 for a long time, just keeping my music collection for the most part, Not too long ago, I restarted it after is froze up only to find that it now wasn't going to let me in, just give me the blinking folder with a question mark. I've done a lot of looking around and found that the obvious next step is to pop the recovery disk in and find a work around and get back in to sort things out. Unfortunately I seem to have left my disks back home in another state, so I have no access to said disk. What do I do? I don't know anyone who could have disks for OS 10.5 or anything that far back. What should I do? Can Apple help me, or do I have to hunt one down on ebay or something?
Please and Thanks for the help.

Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store. They may be able to help. The appointment is free. The hard disk may have died.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Help! Blinking folder with question mark and Mac Logo

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