Macbook dying? Question mark in a folder sign.

Was happily surfing this morning when my macbook just crashed. When I rebooted all I got was a grey screen with a flashing question mark in a folder and that's it!
I haven't backed up in a few weeks (yes, I know I'm an idiot) plus I don't know what's wrong with it. Is there any way to bypass the flashing folder and back up before I take it to the Apple doctor?
Thanks

I don't think you have to take it into the doctor's quite yet.
check this out http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US

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I was just using macbook normally when it got hanged. Nothing worked so i restarted. A white screen then came up with a 'question mark in a folder' sign blinking. Nothing's working. Please help!!

I was just using macbook normally when it got hanged. Nothing worked so i restarted. A white screen then came up with a 'question mark in a folder' sign blinking repeatedly. Nothing's working. Please help!!

Look for a solution here:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5281
Ciao.

Flashing Question Mark in a Folder

Hello All:
I have an iMac 24" (Model A1225; Mid 2007) running 10.7.3. The CPU will rarely boot up and will boot up with the Flashing Question Mark in a folder most of the time. I can start up from a OS DVD (Snow Leopard) or Lion on a Flashdrive, but the HDD will not appear when I attempt a reinstall. I was able to boot up once from my Lion Flashdrive and reinstall 10.7.3 with a normal restart. The HDD checkout fine using disk utility and I repaired my disk permissions. The CPU seemed fine and this morning the Flashing Question Mark is back.
I can start up the Target disk mode and I will see the FireWire icon, but the HDD will not appear on the desktop of the host CPU. I have a new iMac on order, but do you think it is wise to pull my data from the HDD via the Target disk mode or my Time Capsule? I guess I am not sure if it is the logic board or a bad HD.
Thanks in advance,
Irv

It sounds more like a failing drive or a drive in need of repair. Have you tried repairing it?
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion
Boot from your Lion Recovery HD. 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 quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
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.
If the drive is repairable then you will need to reinstall Lion:
Reinstalling 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. Alterhatively, 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.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
If none of this works then I would definitely backup your data, but not with Time Machine. I would make a backup to a separate drive, not the Time Capsule, using Carbon Copy Cloner.

After installing Ubuntu, I have a flciker question mark inside a folder

Hello all,
I try to install Ubuntu on a external hard drive, but when i try to boot the mac it only appear a flashing question mark inside a folder.
I have unplug the external drive, try to erase de NVRAM, try to reinstall SL, but I haven't solve the issue.
Also i have format the HDD of the Mac, and repair it. I think the problem is on the boot partition and not in the HDD, because the disc installation of SL recognise my HDD.
Can anyone help me?
P.D: Sorry for my english
I don't know what to do. Can anyone help?

Hello!
A person in another forum has told me to see this article,
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20091111185717745
I will test tonight, but someone can give me other ideas?

TS1440 Question Mark in Flashing Folder at start up problem.

After trying to fix the flashing question mark folder problem, I took my iMac to the Apple store and, naturally and a little embarrassingly, the iMac booted up just fine and everything seem to be intact.However, when I brought it home it reverted but to same problem i.e. question mark in flashing folder. I read and tried most suggestions I could find but still cannot get the iMac to startup. I tried holding down the "C" key, then the Option key, then PRAMed it and even attached the separate back up disk I use as a Time Machine for my new iMac. IThe problem Mac is a 2008 iMac though I don't exactly know which OS came with it, in any case, I cannot find the original disk. The iMac is networked with my latest iMac. Can anyone help? Thank you.

Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

HT1752 I have a Power PC G4 tower and start up is not going to OS, I'm getting a question mark in a folder icon. What do I do?

I have a Power PC G4 tower and start up is not going to OS, I'm getting a question mark in a folder icon. What do I do?

Is OS X installed?
Try a Startup Manager boot. Hold Option while starting.
Try a Safe Mode boot. Hold Shift while starting.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
If the PRAM battery is old, the system can lose it's mind.
Reset the PRAM.
resetting the PRAM - Support - Apple

I have a question mark in a folder blinking. Help please

I have a question mark in a folder blinking, what to do?

You will need to reinstall Snow Leopard:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
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 the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

I,m getting a flashing question mark in a folder on startup

When i started up earlier i verified disk and it said i should restart and hold command and r and then repair disk using disk utility which i did and then restarted using the usual startup disk. Since then every time i turn my imac mid 2011 on 10.9.4 mavs on i get a flashing question mark in a folder. I have over 800 gb of movies id like to transfer to ext hard drive before i try anything else preferably...ive read online reinstalling the osx may wipe everything so i thought id ask the experts before trying anything else.

OK, this is a little different then we started out trying to solve...the erasing of swap and other files has damaged the Mac OS X pretty seriously since we don't know all of what was removed.
If you have the Seagate external drive and it has not been formatted, and you want it to be a Mac OS X drive, attach the Seagate, restart holding the Command and R keys, go to Utilities and open Disk Utility. When that opens, select the Seagate from the drives shown in the left sidebar of the DU window. In the main window, choose Partition from the buttons across the top, center of the window pane. If you want more than one partition, select how many you want, or just keep the default of one. Name the drive (partition), keep the default format as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and the default partition table as GUID. Apply that to erase and format the Seagate drive.
When that is finished, still using Disk Utility, select Restore as the function you want to do. Now drag the internal drive (Macintosh HD, typically) to the Source box in the main window of DU, and drag the name you have given the Seagate external to the Destination box in the main window of DU. Look things over to be sure you have done this correctly, the internal drive contents is the source material and the external drive is where you want to put it...what you are about to do is clone the internal drive to the external drive. If all is correct, Restore.
That will take some time since you have a lot of material to copy. When it is done, you should have an exact copy of your internal drive and its contents, i.e., your movies.
Now that you have an exact copy of your contents, you can do what you need to do with the internal drive, such as erase the drive and reinstall Lion or whatever you want to install. After doing so you can copy your movies back if you want, but DO NOT do a restore as that will mess up the operating system.

Question mark in a folder at start up - NEED HELP I LEAVE FOR COLLEGE 2M

When I arrived home tonight my computer was frozen. So i force shut off my computer. When I re-booted the computer, the gray screen comes up and after 2 minutes a flashing question mark in a folder comes up. PLEASE HELP ASAP I LEAVE FOR COLLEGE TOMORROW MORNING! I have a cd in the cd drive so i cant insert the os x cd pleasee help

Well, if you have done all of that, and it doesn't respond to anything at all, I would imagine it has some type of hardware failure, either it can't see the keyboard/mouse anymore, or corrupt firmware of some sort.
Typically Apple only does a straight out new replacement within 14 days of purchase. You might be able to convince them otherwise, but it has a lot to do with who you end up talking to, and what kind of day they are having.
Just to be absolutely sure, since you seem to be in panic mode (which I certainly would be in in your situation).
You have done the following:
1. Remove battery
2. Unplug machine from charger - so at this point the MB can't get power from anywhere
3. Hold down the power button for 5 to 10 seconds (since there is no battery and it isn't plugged in you should get no result, there is a capacitor that holds some charge to keep the PMU running without another power source. This drains that capacitor to force the PMU to lose power)
4. Wait a minute or so to be sure
5. Put in battery and plug into the charger
6. Try starting the computer with either the mouse button down or the option key held.
I'm sure you have done that already, but just in case you missed a step it never hurts. Good luck.

After I turned on my MacBook Pro, it displayed a blinking question mark over a folder and now I don't know what to do.

When I turned on my Mac, the blinking question mark appeared and I went to the apple support pages and did everything on the lists.
Nothing worked. Then I put in the installation disk to wipe the hd, but none appeared on the list. I tried putting in a different hd and that didn't work either. Also, my original hard drive is fine because I put it in a another Mac and it worked perfectly.
Now I am at a loss over what to do. Any solutions?

Sound like a hardware failure / cable / connection
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
on-line https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
check warranty https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

My macbook has question mark flashing on a grey screen and no functions, my macbook has question mark flashing on a grey screen and no functions

Hi
My MacBook has a question mark flashing on a grey screen and no functions, help?

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'llsee 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.

My MacBook has question marks on all folders and won't run ANY program. Help!

A week ago I was editing some photographs in Photoshop CS 5 extended. My computer has been running slow for a while so I thought that I would finish these files and then clear it of some photos since I know I've recently uploaded several gbs onto it.
The next day it was frozen. I had to shut it down and restart. It came on and now every folder has a question mark on it and none of the programs will open. They just bounce up and down and then the menu bar says Application not responding.
I have no idea what I need to do. I was going to update to Lion but I'm unsure if that's what I should do or if it needs some TLC from the apple store.
Help?

A professional will image your drive and attempt a bit by bit file recovery method directly from the drive itself.
You see when you delete something, it's not quite erased yet, but the space the file took is available to be overwritten, so it's only a matter of time before that occurs and the file is really gone.
So they will recover what they can, and then restore your machine and it's software and return the recovered files.
The TimeMachine is certainly going to assist, good thing you got it.
The trick is to hire someone and quit using the computer until they rescue you, show you in person how to rescue yourself .
Good Luck

Question mark on download folder

A question mark has appeared on my download folder. The folder will not open. What does this mean? How do I work around this?

williamfrombridgeville wrote:
A question mark has appeared on my download folder. The folder will not open. What does this mean? How do I work around this?
Do you mean the folder itself or the icon in the dock?

Flashin question mark with a folder at start up

I recently purchased an old imac g3 from ebay. When starting up the computer I get a flashing question mark inside of a folder. I do not have the original software that came with the computer, I do however have 4 other mac's ranging from a perfoma to an Imac g5. My question is; how do I get original software for this imac? Or I guesss more importantly is this a software issuse or a hardware issue. Do I need to take the computer to an Apple repair shop.
imac g3

"how do I get original software for this imac?"
Contact the seller & get the CDs from them. They are not suppose to sell the computer without them! Are you aware you can notify eBay about this? I believe it's against eBay's procedures.
Never purchase a used Mac w/o the original install & restore CD that came with the computer unless you only want the Mac for parts or a glorified door stop.
You can get replacement System Install & Restore CDs from Apple's Customer Support - in the US, (800) 767-2775 - for a nominal S&H fee. You'll need to have the model and/or serial number of your Mac available.
If you're not in the US, you may need to go through the regional Apple Store that serves your location to find the contact number. Here's a list of links to all of those -
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/intlstoreroutingpage.html

My computer shows a blank screen and a question mark in a folder when I turn it on

my computer shows a blank screen with a folder and a question mark in it I wonder what is wrong with it?

this means that the computer can not find the operating system on the hard drive. try booting the computer from the disc it came with.

Macbook dying? Question mark in a folder sign.

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