I book with question mark at startup

when start my G4 ibook I get a file with a ? flashing in it for about 2 seconds then it finishes startup and seems to work fine. How can i get rid of this ?. and what does it mean. Thank you

Generally it means the Mac isn't finding an Operating system. I would double check what you have selected as a startup disk (in system Preferances) and run Disk Repair from your OS Install disk paying attention to the "smart" status (just in case your hard drive is getting old and cranky).
Hope that helps

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Mac Shows Folder With Question Mark On Startup?

Hey Guys!
I currently own a Macbook Air First Genereation (2008) running on Lion 10.7.5 (upgraded from Snow Leopard)
Recently, when I was just using the Macbook Air, the Hard disk started spinning and was creating a lot of noise well I just ignored it and gave it a hard reboot
So the next day wehn I booted my mac it was showing a folder with question mark on startup. I tried going to recovery (holding option on startup) but neither Macintosh HD or Recovery HD was being shown. I tried a internet recovery but it was not even entering Internet Recovery. I tried Single User mode, that didn't work.
I really don't know what to do now, I am panicking cause I don't have a backup and all my schoolwork is inside there.
Please reply soon and thanks in advance if you can help me
A youtube tutorial or online step by step tutorial would be great!

My tutorial is simple: pack up the MBA and charger and head for the nearest Apple store or Apple reseller. The error you see can mean three things: (1) your drive's system files are damaged, (2) your drive's directory or partition are damaged, or (3) your drive is dead. The fact that you can't boot into the recovery mode pretty much eliminates #1. It is possible that your drive's partition table was damaged but were that the case I'd expect that Internet recovery would work. So I strongly suspect #3.

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 on startup after using boot camp!!!

im getting a folder with a question mark on startup after using boot camp. it shows up for a second, then the apple logo pops up and OSX boots normally. i wouldnt be concerned except this folder with the question mark usually shows up when the computer cant find the startup disk or OS. so in fact what is happening is that my macbook cant find the startup disk for a second and then seems to find it. is anybody else having this problem. i dont like it and want to get rid of it. help!!

This is correct.
I wonder how it can be that in the System Preferences - Startup Disk - OS X volume can become "deselected" like it was... I had to re-highlight the OS X volume and all is well.
b
MBP & Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.6) http://www.therottenapple.net/phpbb

Help. flashing gray folder with question mark on startup, then no startup.

on startup, macbook pro showed flashing gray folder with question mark, but no startup. after several retries, now shows circle with diagonal diameter, and still no startup. worked fine yesterday. suggestions?

Hi! I had the same problem as you. (I had a 2004 emac) all i had to do to boot it up was press enter and that seemed to do the trick but a grey folder might signify your missing files (Computer is broken) or its a network startup. Try it out!

Flashing folder with question mark at Startup

Here is what I know so far.
- The computer was powered off by pushing the power button without shutting down.
- The computer was then restarted and it was coming into the white screen with the Apple logo in the middle, but i noticed that it was skewed slightly (like someone took a 4:3 ratio screen and stretched it to a 16:9) and then it would show a circle slash icon and then the flashing folder with a question mark on it.
- It would not come up in single user mode (Command + S) and it said that there was an error loading kernel 'mach_kernel'
- It would not come up in safe mode (Shift)(The flashing folder came up again)
- I reset the PRAM (Command + Option + p + r) and it seemed to fix the problem with the stretched screen but did not help the boot situation (still got flashing folder)
- 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.
- I have DiskWarrior 4 if i can get the drive to show up in TDM, but nothing so far.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

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.
I then found out that the battery was not installed, so I reset the management system by removing the A/C power, the battery and pushing the power button for 5 seconds, and then reconnecting everything. It did not help, the battery is bad i guess, so I am going to call AppleCare and get a new battery.
Thanks for your help.

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?

How do I get rid of file folder with question mark at startup?

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.

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 click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left hand list. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. 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.

Blinking file icon with question mark at startup

my computer sort of froze so i forced restarted it (second time i've done that in its one year lifetime) and when it started back up the screen displayed a file icon with a question mark blinking on and off every two seconds. eventually the fan started humming too. i have since forced restarted it twice with the same results. any ideas on why my darling will not start properly?

My MacBook Pro did the same thing last night, and I don't think this is good news.
So far I have:
-Reset PRAM and PMU
-Startup from install disks and run Disk Utility. DU doesn't even see the drive! Even Target disk mode doesn't reveal the drive.
-Archive and install; the installer doesn't see the drive
None of these worked, and from reading on other disussions, it looks like it is a hareware problem. I will be going to the Applestore this afternoon when I get off of work to see if they can fix it.

Folder with Question Mark at Startup External Hard Drive

This morning on startup I received the white screen with the folder icon with the question mark inside. After unplugging an external harddrive, the computer booted without any issues.
I tried searching, but couldn't find anything on this exact topic. Can a bad external hard drive cause this issue or was the fact that I unplugged the drive and it botted fine just a random coincidence? I had been having some problems that past week or so with the external drive (it's not used in any way to boot the computer, just to store random files). I was hoping it was just something with the external drive that I can easily replace and not a bigger issue.
Has anyone else experienced this before or have any ideas on it?
Thanks for your help.

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

Blinking Folder Icon with Question Mark at startup - Is my HD dead?

I was uploading a .Mov file to my idisk when I got an error message - not sure what it said. But the screen dimmed, and then froze. I held down the power to power down - which it did.
When I fired it back up, I heard the startup sound - then the screen went white. A gray folder icon appears with a question mark over it - and it blinks.
I tried powering down again and unplugging, and also powering on with all peripherals unplugged. Again I get the white screen, folder icon and question mark.
That .Mov was being uploaded as a freelance project for Google due tomorrow morning. Great timing! Am I screwed?
Thanks!
Gordon

I booted from the Mac OS X Install disk and opened the Disk Utility.
The options for disks to repair are
1. The Mac OS X Install Disk 1
2. A drive that's simply labeled "Media."
Is this "Media" disk my HD? I'm not getting any options to repair the disk.
Disk Description: Media
Connection Bus: Serial ATA 2
Connection Type: Internal
Total Capacity: 0 Bytes - that doesn't sound good.
Write Status: Read/Write
Again, thanks for your help.
G

Computer crashed - now I get folder with question mark on startup

Last week my computer froze when I was using it.
I waited about 15 minutes and it was still frozen. So I powered it off.
I re-started computer and ran Disk Warrior. It repaired some files. Now when my computer re-starts I get the folder with the question mark for several minutes -- and then it boots up.
What is the file it's looking for? Is there any way I can fix it?
Thanks.

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."
4. Did you write down the errors found by Disk Warrior or save the report? The worst-case scenario here is that the OS is corrupted and has to be reinstalled via Archive and Install. See my "General advice on performing an Archive and Install" FAQ for some important tips on this process if you decide to go that route as no other troubleshooting has corrected the problem.
Good luck!
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.

Mac Mini folder with question mark at startup the shuts off

I have a 2006 mac mini that is booting up with the folder and question mark symbol and then it automatically shuts off after a few moments. It won't allow me to boot from startup disk. When I hold down the C key the disk utility does not load and then I see the folder and question mark. When I startup holding down the Option key, I do not see the disk as a drive--either way it shuts off pretty quick. I have tried about everything and am out of ideas. I know I need to probably reinstall the OS but I do not have another Mac to run target disk mode....Any ideas?

When I startup holding down the Option key, I do not see the disk as a drive--either way it shuts off pretty quick
If the startup disk is not available when booting up while holding down the Option key, then the disk is failing or has failed
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

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 with question mark on startup

When turning on my MacBook, all I get is the little ding thing, a white screen for a while, and then a grey folder with a question mark flashing over and over until it I shut it down. I have tried reseting the PRAM, which just makes me get the folder again, no extra tones, safe boot doesnt work, and I can't start up from disk cuz it starts spinning (I hear it) but then eventually it just spits it out and shows the folder pic. Plus, now I accidentally misplaced the disk when I moved and now I can't do anything. Is it possible that I can get a hardware diagnostics files found on install disks from apple, burn them to these high-capacity discs I have, and do hardware tests from those? I do have a Snow Lepoard install disk, but my MacBook seems like it can't start up from that type of disk. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

That folder with the ? means that it can't find an OS to boot from. It is possible that the install is damaged or it is also possible that your HDD has failed.
You will need the OS DVDs to check on the status of the HDD. Otherwise you need to bring it into an Apple store or an Apple repair spot and have them look it over.
put the OS X disk in the drive and hold the option key at boot. Then select the DVD to boot from.
Once it has booted, launch Disk Utility and see if the Hard Drive (HDD) is showing.

I book with question mark at startup

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