MacBook Pro starts up with blinking folder and question mark in it. Is there a fix to this issue or has the HDD crashed for good?

I startup my mac and I see a white screen background with a folder icon in the center and a question mark blinking in the center. Called Apple and the rep says this is probably a HDD crash. Only solution is to take it into a Apple store and get a replacement HDD which would cost $300 and upwards. This mac book is about 15 months old and cost $1300. Needless to say I'm highly upset. Does anyone have a fix to this?

Flashing folder with question mark?
Go step by step and test.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440
Startup Manager to select Startup disk.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
Repair Disk
Steps 2 through 8
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Reset PRAM.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
Reinstall OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10763?viewlocale=en_US

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HT1379 I have lost everything on my mac, a gray screen with a folder and question mark is blinking. i hav another mac that is running slowly, how can I boot and reinstall os x Lion, i do not have the start up disc with me.

I have lost everything on my mac, a gray screen with a folder and question mark is blinking. i hav another mac that is running slowly, how can I boot and reinstall os x Lion, i do not have the start up disc with me.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Lion uses Recovery to reinstall OS X. Press Command and R keys when your Mac starts, open Disk Utility, erase the drive and reinstall Lion. The other Mac has probably got its hard disk damaged, so take the Mac to an Apple Store

Blue screen with flashing folder and question mark on startup

Hello.
I need help with my Macbook Pro. I get a blue screen with a flashing folder and a question mark at start up. To date I have tried the following:
Apple Hardware (Extensive) Test (Results: "No Trouble Found")
Safe Boot
Reset NVRAM
Reinstall OS X via the internet (I received no discs when I purchased it). I select the StartUp Disk to reinstall. When reinstalling via the internet I get to a point of reinstalling Mountain Lion but it asks me to choose a drive - yet there are no drive options to choose from. Then a window comes up asking me to "Select the system you want to use to start up your computer" but no options appear. When I choose "Restart" a note pops up saying "You can't change the startup disk to the selected disk. Startup Disk could not gather enough information on the selected disk."
The only option is "Restart" from the Apple menu. When I choose that it goes back to the original "Blue screen with flashing folder and question mark on startup."
I have no Time Machine
I can't access the disc utility.
Are there any ideas as to what might be the problem?

Your hard drive has likely failed and needs replaced. That would explain why the system does not display it when you attempt to reinstall the OS via Internet Recovery.

HT1941 grey screen with a folder and question mark

On start up i get a grey screen with a folder and question mark- how do i get out of this?

10.8 Mountain Lion
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11046
Use Startup Manager to select Startup disk.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
Repair Disk
Steps 2 through 8
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Reset PRAM.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405

Getting white screen with file folder and question mark on it...help

My MacBook Pro starts up and only shows a white screen with a file folder with question mark on it. I have not had problems prior to this. Help!,

That means that no valid system could be found to boot from. What might have caused that is hard to say, but try referring to this document:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440
Note that if you are using Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), you don't start up from your install disk. Hold down command-R at startup instead.

Macbook Pro - white screen with blinking folder with question mark

My wife returned from a trip today. The Mac worked fine yesterday. Today it will not start up. When you press the power button, the screen goes white with a blinking folder in the middle. There is a ? in the middle of the folder. Any ideas what this means? Thanks

i dont know of its the same but this happened to my ibook g4 and i done some exploring and i was told to cheap my ram.. so i unpluged and replugged the ram stick and reset the virtual memory and it worked with no memory loss but if you have the os installition disks reinstall the os and if not ... go to apple store .. sorry if any of this is wrong but its what happend to me,
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My 2011 iMac wont boot up and stuck on white screen with flashing folder and question mark ???

Im running Lion OS and I made update after it asks me to restart the iMac when i pressed restart it never boots again :S please help and how i can get my data back

Try starting the it by holding down the shift key (safe mode) if it starts then check your hard drive with disk utility. Also repair your disk permissions. If you are unable to start the computer try Lion recovery mode.

I have a grey screen with folder and question mark-why?

When I turn my computer on I see a grey screen with a folder and question mark over it. The folder and question mark are blinking then a couple minutes later the screen turns black. Help please!

Kfrost5792,
if your MacBook Pro didn’t originally come with grey installation discs in the box, then you can substitute “booting from Recovery mode” for “booting from your grey Mac OS X Install disc”, and from the OS X Utilities menu that appears on the desktop in Recovery mode, you can select Disk Utility there to erase your internal disk, which will allow you to perform an OS X Internet Recovery the next time that your MacBook Pro is powered up.

I need to reinstall my operating system for 10.5 after seeing a file folder and question mark flashing on my start up screen. Can anyone help me with this?

I need to reinstall my operating system for 10.5 after seeing a file folder and question mark flashing on my start up screen. Can anyone help me with this?

Hello,
That means it can find the Hard Drive, or can't find the things needed for booting.
See if DU even sees it.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)

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Mac won't boot up..get gray screen with a folder and ? mark what do i do?

my mac pro won't boot up..get gray screen with a folder and ? mark on the folder..help

Hi,
Rather than write up what I did, here is a link to an Apple support document with the instructions to follow.
I hope this is helpful. Good luck.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440

What does a white screen with a file folder and question mark indicate?

what does a white screen with a file folder and question mark indicate upon start up?

That the computer can't find a useable boot volume.
Boot from your grey installer DVD disc 1 (hold down the C key on startup or hold down Alt/option on start and choose the installer disc).
OK the language page (if present). From the installer screen, go to the menu bar and choose Disk Utility; depending on the OS version it may be in the Utilities menu or Tools menu.
In DU, select your internal drive in the sidebar (the top item with the makers name and serial no.). Run Repair Disk (not Disk permissions). If problems are reported as repaired, run it again until you get a message in green "the volume seems to be OK".
If it says it can't repair the disc, you may need heavier guns such as DiskWarrior or TechTool to attempt a rescue.
Hope you have backups; retrieving data from adead drive can be expensive and tricky.

Flashing Folder and Question Mark, no installation disc

Yesterday, Safari froze up while I was it which I have never had happen before. So, I manually shut my Macbook off and tried to restart. When I did so, I received a gray screen with a flashing folder and question mark. From my research, I have found that usually this means that my laptop can't find the operating system and this issue can usually be resolved by inserting the installation disc. Problem is, I bought my Macbook secondhand and never got an installation disc. Does anyone know of a way around this issue? Or if buying the Snow Leopard upgrade for $30 instead of buying a whole new package for about a hundred dollars more might resolve this issue?
Thanks so much,
Kristin

Yes, quite a quandary. You have some options:
1. Call AppleCare and ask for customer support. You can order replacement discs for the model you have.
2. Purchase an OS X retail installer suitable for your model, like Snow Leopard, that you can use to determine if you can repair the hard drive or will nee to reinstall OS X. If the latter and you are using Snow Leopard, then you just install it. The installer will determine whether to upgrade or not automatically. As long as your drive is OK Snow Leopard will not erase the drive so all your files are safe. If you use an earlier version of OS X then you want to choose the Archive and Install option. See the following:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
An Archive and Install will NOT erase your hard drive, but you must have sufficient free space for a second OS X installation which could be from 3-9 GBs depending upon the version of OS X and selected installation options. The free space requirement is over and above normal free space requirements which should be at least 6-10 GBs. Read all the linked references carefully before proceeding.
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) 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 installer.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.

Folder and Question Mark

I asked this question earlier but the problem keeps reoccuring. Every morning my iMac is flashing a folder and question mark. I just push the button in the back to turn it off, turn it right back up and it runs perfect all day. But the next morning it will be on (rather then sleeping) and flashing this question mark and folder. I understand it may have something to do with the startup disk? But I keep selecting the correct startup drive and it works fine all day and into the night but for some reason come morning it is always flashing. I do not understand. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to lug my iMac into the apple store, its out of apple care warranty by now anyways.

Hi Cookie
I occasionally get this if one of my External HD's is left on or if I have left a device +(iPod, iPhone, FlashDrive, Camera etc.)+ connected during restart and startup.
1. Repair your Startup Disk with your Install DVD > http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3810
2. Go to: System Preferences > Startup Disk > select the Mac OS X on Macintosh HD > Lock the Lock.
Then if your still having the problem:
1. Eject and turn off any External Hard Drives
2. Eject and disconnect flash memory devices prior to shutting down and reconnect them after startup.
Another consideration if you must keep devices connected for whatever reason, is to sleep the iMac instead of starting up every morning.
Dennis

PDF prints with little boxes and question marks

I prepared a document in Microsoft Publisher 360 and created a pdf with creative cloud.
Looks great and prints great for me.
I emailed it to a few people and it looks great on their screens. However, when they print it,
it comes out with little boxes and question marks.
If I email them the publisher file it is fine.
How I can get them the PDF file without all the odd markings?

You probably used a font that is not on their system and did not embed the font in the PDF when you created it. Don't feel bad. We all have done it. Just make sure to embed your fonts in the Joboptions settings before you recreate the PDF.

MacBook Pro starts up with blinking folder and question mark in it. Is there a fix to this issue or has the HDD crashed for good?

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