Imac froze and on re load folder with question mark appeared. Now will not start up to home screen.
The other night my Imac froze during updates. I found it in the morning with the screen and mouse frozen and only the loading icon spinning. I re stared the computer from the power button.
Upon re loading the apple logo did not appear and was replaced by a folder with a question mark in the middle. I looked this up online and found the best option was to use disk utility to check and repair the hard drive. This showed an error with HFS. Used disk utility to fix the hard drive so thast no error appear. I re stared the computer but all it loaded was the folder with the question mark again, so I decided to erase the hard drive of any information (I back up quite regulary, but left it as last resort due to inconvenience), when installing again it seems to go so far before telling me it cannot install and I need to re start. I have erased the dsk again and completed disk clean too before trying again and getting the same results.
I am currenlty stuck at this point and need help, which would be appreciated.
My Imac is an early 2008 Aluminimum model and installtion disk is 10.3
The folder with ? mark mean one of 2 things.
1) The OS is so corrupted that the hardware can't find it as a valid way to boot the system.
2) Your hard drive has failed.
You can try booting from the Recovery HD partition, Commadn + r keys at startup if you are running Lion Mt Lion or Mavericks.
Or boot the system from the original System reinstall DVD that came with your Mac or an upgrade OS X install DVd you may have purchased.
With either use Disk Utility to see if the hard drive is seen and if it can be erased or repartitioned and then restore from a Time Macine baclup or reinstall OS X.
Similar Messages
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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? -
After reformatting drive - folder with question mark appear
I am using an iMac 2010
I was planning to reformat it and install the OS Maverick from my drive but after formatting (which delete all the files from it's hard drive) after restarting a blinking question mark appears
I have a wireless keyboard and mouse and I am trying to boot it with a CD of OS X 10.6.4
nothing is happening when i press option c , command R ,etc
what should i do?Hi,
- Try booting with the Option key and select the Install CD in view: Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
- If the Option key does not respond with Starup Manager, try with a wired keyboard.
See how you go -
Start the computer and only show a folder with question mark
Hi,
I need help please.
A few day ago I startup up my iMac and only a folder with a question mark was shown in the screen.
I boot from the Lion DVD, run disk utility but the only drive I get was the DVD and disk1/Mac OS X Base System.
I turned off the computer and next morning I turned on agian and this time with no problems, I use it for a few days with no problems but yesterday it happens again...
I do run disk utility again onlu turn it off, and this morning I tried to turn it on again, but the same foder appears...I run disk utility (get the DVD and disk1) and turn it off for a few hours.
Now I'm praying that when I'm back from work I could turn it on with no problems.
What I should do ? Is there any 3rd party tools that I can try do use to solve this issue ?
Many thanks!
PS: when the iMac started up with no problems I run disk utility and made a repair disk to the mac HD...leonel junior wrote:
I boot from the Lion DVD,
There are no Apple supplied Lion boot DVD's , you use command r to boot into Recovery HD partition, if that doesn't work good chance the drive is dead, it likely will have to pulled to test any data recovery efforts made.
I turned off the computer and next morning I turned on agian and this time with no problems, I use it for a few days with no problems but yesterday it happens again...
Hold Shift key upon boot to fix the drive, reboot holding option and select OS X to boot and head to System Prefs, change the startup drive to OS X.
If you can't do this, your looking at data recovery efforts or repalcing the drive, total erase & restore.
PS: when the iMac started up with no problems I run disk utility and made a repair disk to the mac HD...
The option key, set startup disk in system prefs should resove the issue.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents -
I purchased a 2011 mac mini I was having some issues and as I had already bought lion for one of my other macs and put it on a usb key I formatted the mac mini's hdd and put the usb key in to one of the Mini's usb ports and booted the mini up and held down c when the white scren appeard it stayed white for a few secnds and then a folder with a question mark started flashing no option to select my connected usb key I tried several more re boots and each time got the exact same result.
What on earth has apple done so now I can't even access attached drives during booting.
Any ideas how I can sort this out?Maybe it is not "what has Apple done" You may have jumped the gun a little formatting your system so quickly without ensuring you can actually boot via an alternate method.
The mini has a recovery partition, and instructions how to reinstall the OS from that.
USB drive. Sounds to me like you don't have a proper OSX Bootable USB drive?
Also, the new way Apple allows reinstallation is over the internet too. -
Folder With Question Mark Appears On Start Up: Computer Useless
When I turn the power on, a folder with a question mark flashes in the middle of the screen. The computer becomes useless. I can't go further. When I turn the power off and then on, the same thing happens.
This has happened to me before, but a long time ago. I forget the precise fix. Could someone advise as to the reason for this, and what to do about it? Thanks.Hi frank_ohara,
The folder with the question mark, I'd say about 95% of the time, indicates a failed or failing HD. The exact meaning of the icon on startup is that no valid bootable OS (or startup volume) could be located. To further complicate matters, I've seen machines with failed HDs lock up the system bus and prevent the unit from properly booting to an optical drive when a disc is inserted.
If you can't startup the computer (with the System Installation disc) inserted by holding "Option" to get to the startup manager, I'd then recommend removing the HD from the unit and trying to startup. You can always "insert" the drive back in on the fly to run diagnostics via Disk Utility. It's tricky to do because you'll have to have the battery removed but it might be worth a shot given where you're currently at in the process.
Do you have a backup of the data? Is there any data of significant value on the machine, currently? -
MacBook Pro won't startup - Folder with question mark appears
I have tried multiple times to startup my macbook pro (I am not sure if I have lion or not) and it will only come to a white screen. Sometimes an icon appears that is a folder with a question mark in the middle. I have an external hard drive, but everything is not backed up.
What is going on and what are some steps I can take to remedy this problem.
I have tried Command + R as well as Shift while starting up.A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac
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Flashing folder with question mark on the inside at start up
My macbook only has a flashing folder with a question mark in it and it clicks.
Flashing questions mark indicates Nac can find a valid system to boot from.
Clicking usually indicates a dead or dying hard drive.
Do you have backup?
Probably is time to take it to Apple Store to have them repair it for you.
Allan -
This morning FF would no start-up. Down loaded new version from website and replaced old version. New version will not strat-up as it says "incompatible" with Op Sys.
Firefox 4 versions and later do not run on a PowerPC Mac.<br />
Firefox 4 and later require at least OS X 10.5 and an Intel Mac.
* http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/6.0/system-requirements/
For an unofficial Firefox 7 compatible version (TenFourFox) that runs on PowerPC Macs with OS X 10.4.11 or OS X 10.5.8 you can look at:
* http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/
* http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37761/tenfourfox
Firefox 3.6.x (Mac OS X 10.4 and later) can be found here:
* http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html -
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. -
Ssd can't boot from mainbay folder with question mark
Hello I've searched for my problem but can't find anything same so I'm gona ask.
first of all I'm sorry for my English.
I'm using MacBook pro mid 2012 with samsung 840 evo ssd 500gb.
today it was working perfect it felt asleep and after wake up it restarted and flashing folder with question mark appeared on screen.
I Know it's some kind of hdd problem. So I've took it out and put in external box to connect to my friends MacBook to see if it's working and does all information is still in it. It was working perfectly. after that I connected it via usb and boot it by holding opt key and it startups normal. To check that it isint sata cable I have puted empty hdd in main bay and booted from ssd connected by usb and both drives show up in disk utility.
So hdd working perfect. Sata cable is good and can read drive.
Macbook boots from ssd connected by usb without any problems.
The only problem is that I can't boot my MacBook from ssd in mainbay it shows flashing folder with question mark.
Maybe anyone had had that issue before.?
How can I solve this problem.?
again sorry for my English. And thank you for all your answers.Do not apologize for your English. I assure you your English is better than what my facility with your language may be.
I have seen a couple of posts similar to yours where the SSD will not boot internally but a conventional HDD will. The resolution in one case was a new SATA cable even though the tests suggested otherwise.
I would take the MBP to an apple store and have them check it thoroughly and see if they can pinpoint to the cable as the problem. Obviously this just a guess on my part.
A call to Samsung technical support may also be a good idea.
Ciao. -
Installed new hard drive in imac and i get folder with question mark, put in OS install disk and it does nothing? All I have is wireless key board and mouse, is this an issue?
Other than put disc in you don't give much info about what you've done. With the install disc inserted restart your Mac while holding the C key, that should start it up from the install disc. Should also work fine with a wireless Apple keyboard.
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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 -
When I start my iMac 2008, appear something like folder with question mark inside
When I start my iMac 2008, appear something like folder with question mark inside
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. 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 installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
If you are running Lion or later:
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing 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
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 then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Mountain Lion or Mavericks
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. -
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.
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