On boot-Receiving flashing file with question mark

Please help. Last night while on my mac it froze. I turned it off, turned it on and now I get a blank screen with no noise from the hard drive except for a small clicking noise. Then the blank screen shows me a flashing picture of a file with a question mark. No apple logo or anything else. I reset the PRAM and SMC settings, but no joy. And don't advise to try putting in the startup disk, as the ability of my mac to read cd's and DVD's stopped last month. It just spits out discs after failing to even spin them. This with my built in iSight camera dying after 1 month of purchase made me think that I was on downhill slope to it dying. Ive only had it a year and a half, after buying because of my old iBook dying. I really hope I do not have to buy another apple mac laptop, which would make it 3 in 5-6 years. Im hoping there is another method of fixing it myself rather than getting it repaired because I know I will be charged €500+ with all the problems I have and seems logical to just buy another one. Hoping someone will answer my problem!

Thats great. Thanks for the guide on replacing the drive. Looks easy enough. Ive just bought that Torx 8 screw driver for a few dollars online and im looking up 2.5" SATA drives now.
Could you or anyone advise me on drives? I really havnt got a clue as to if im looking at pc only drives or they are all mac compatable. (The links i am using will service me in Ireland) I have a few good sites but i want to make sure that I have the right drive for my mac. I have the 13" Macbook 1st generation. Im looking at a few drives from these sites, with these particular drives:
http://www.jigsaw24.com/default.aspx?ITEM=JIGSX632ANA&AD=Y
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=343402
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=341973
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/719219/art/samsung/hm16hji-hybrid-hard-drive.html.
I am hoping that someone could look these over and advise me if any, or all would work on my macbook. If so, i will buy one asap.
ALSO, as mentioned. I was thinking of getting an optical drive. My now broken one, was a standard cd-rom drive which played dvds(Combo Drive). I want to now buy an optical drive that can burn dvds(As advertised on apple.com: "Superdrive"). Is there technical limitations by fitting one of these into my macbook?
Thanks again for your advice everyone.

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I got new hard driver for my MacBook I don't have the cd but I do have flash drive that has the software I need help because when I turn on my laptop it shows me a file with question mark how can I install the software from the flash driver?

I got new hard driver for my MacBook I don't have the cd but I do have flash drive that has the software I need help because when I turn on my laptop it shows me a file with question mark how can I install the software from the flash driver?

Hold down the Option key while you boot your Mac. Then, it should show you a selection of devices. Click your flash drive and it will boot from that.

HT1752 My MacBook on startup shows file with question mark ,, what now?

My Mac shows file with question mark, what now.

Press the power button down to force a emergency use only hardware shutdown.
Press and hold the Option/alt key on the built in keyboard, boot the machine.
If MacintoshHD appears, select it and click the arrow, then in System Preferences > Startup Disk reset that. Done.
Sometimes a NVRAM reset is required then the above done again.
Folder with question mark issue
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
If MacintoshHD doesn't appear, or if it boots to gray screen or other issues, then it's more complicated of a fix, but once inside OS X then reset the Startup Disk.
Gray, Blue or White screen at boot, w/spinner/progress bar
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
You might need this if you don't have a recent backup and your problem is software related, Disk Utiltiy can't fix the drive and recommends you backup, erase and install.
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
If Disk Utility + Hardware Test shows no boot drive, then you have a dead drive or cable, or Mac issue.
My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

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.

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”.

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.

Flashing Folder with Question Mark after Trackpad 1.0 Update

My machine won't boot after installing this update. I get the flashing folder with question mark and can't even boot from the Install DVD either... I just get a frozen spinney wheel at the Apple Logo screen. I've tried resetting the PRAM and everything else that a Googling of the problem suggests. This update bricked my Macbook!!!!
Anybody else having this problem? Anybody have any suggestions or am I stuck with going to see a "genius"?

I've not seen any other posts about it causing problems, worked fine here. You've tried resetting the PRAM the only other thing you could try is:
Boot holding down Apple/S and don't let go until you see scrolling text.
When that stops and you see a root#: prompt enter
fsck -fy
Let it run through all the checks and repairs.
If it fails first time, at any time, or finds and fixes a fault - run the command again and keep doing so (some fixes can take several passes) until it says "Appears to be OK" then enter
reboot

Flashing folder with question mark comes up at startup?

it was working fine 3 days ago i try start it up and a Flashing folder with question mark.
It has mountain lion i try to boot to recovery Part but when i hold the Option key nonthing show up.
If some can tell me what else i can.

restart holding command R if it can not find a Recovery partition it will do a Internet Recovery.
Run diskUtility "repair disk" from the recovery.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

Flashing folder with question mark on start up + many other issues

About 6 months ago I first encountered the flashing folder with question mark on startup. I fixed the issue myself by unplugging the mouse and keyboard and rebooting. I also did the cmd S fsck -fy before that and all was well.
The other day I had the flashing folder again...I got it going a couple of times but it happened again. Right now I seem to be in deep trouble. Please read the following:
1. I booted up from the leopard dvd and no hard drive was there to run a disk utility on
2. Booted up again from the dvd and hard drive was there. Ran the disk utility and everything was fine...for about 5 minutes. Then the computer froze and I had to hard power down. Rebooted to the flashing folder.
3. Did command s and fsck but at the end I get the message failed to issue comm reset after 3 attempts.....failing....
4. I powered down, vacuumed out the vents, sprayed compressed air to make sure it wasn't over heating from dust buildup as I read somewhere.
5. Booted up...worked for about 5 minutes again.
6. Now I can't get to the hard drive from the install dvd at all...I tried 100 times. Cmd s won't work at all!! So it looks like I am out of options. Does anyone have ny radical solutions that i can try to fix this. There are some very important things on my hard drive that I would be very upset about loosing.
Please reply

Sorry to bear bad news, but most likely the drive is already dead or dying. I hope you backed up everything when the first symptoms appeared.
There are data recovery services, but might be very expensive.
EDIT: Some (a few) people have had success putting the drive (sealed very well in a plastic baggy) in the freezer overnight and then quickly putting it in an external enclosure and getting the data off it that way.
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Flashing folder with question mark on screen

flashing folder with question mark on screen

This is the first time I have joined the support forum for MacBook - I tried the after Power Off - then while you turn it back on again your hold the "Command + R" - This has worked for some people - this was obtained on YouTube - see www.youtube.com/watch?v=flv2ebQMMtE. This however, did not work for me. I remember having a problem with my PC a few years ago - when I experienced something like this on it. I fixed it by taking out the battery. I was going to check the cable between the hard drive and the motherboard to make sure it was secure. I removed the Battery on my MacBook - blew it off, and put it back in again and surprisingly it booted up normally. Thanked the Lord for the quick fix. Back to Normal.

Flashing folder with question mark (MacMini)

Hi there,
I diagnose my Mac Mini (1.83Ghz, Intel Mac) and know that the HDD is failing, so I decide to change the HDD before the HDD totally fail.
But after I change the new HDD, and trying to install the OS back to the new HDD, I get a flashing folder icon with question mark in it, when I boot it up and press on the C key to boot from CD. So I decide to take the new HDD back out, put in an external enclosure to make sure that the new HDD is not a bad one, and I can read fine with it inside the enclosure, put it back in the Mac Mini, still the same old flashing icon.
What happen? Could someone help me please?
Thanks!

Hi Everyone,
Just for future reference for anyone who encounter this same problem, the reason that I go the flashing folder with question mark is first of all, the MacMini doesn't recognize the new hard drive. No doubt about that since the hard drive has no OS and not formatted yet. Second of all, it's because I don't have the correct Installer CD put in. I didn't know if there's any difference in the Installer CD between PowerPC MacMini and Intel MacMini, but obviously there is, since the Intel MacMini doesn't recognize the PowerPC Installer CD.
After putting the correct Installer CD in, everything works just the way it should.
Thanks for all your help, everyone!
- NyCCD

My macbook won't strat and show file with question mark on it?

Hi
is there anyone can help me please my macbook can't boot and show file with "?"mark on it.

Restart and hold command + R (both keys) down. The screen will show four options. Select Disk Utility. Next click on the name of your drive, and run Repair Disk.
After that is done, restart in the usual way.

Flashing folder with question mark only on sartup.

Flashing folder with question mark only on sartup. Won't recognise ANY startup key commands (tried different keyboards) and won't recognise OSX startup disk. Any ideas??

The first thing I'd do is look at the silver side of the SL installation disc and check for finger prints or scratches and gently clean the disc with a lint free cloth. Also, instead of formatting the hard drive it would be worth deleting the partition(s) and repartitioning.

Can't log in white screen with flashing file and Question mark

I've been have trouble with getting on line and screen freezing up. Now I have a solid white screen with a icon of a file and question mark on it flashing. Iv tried unplugging and resetting with no luck.

Have a look at > A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Dennis

Flashing file and question mark symbol

My Mac is alternating between displaying a flashing file with a question mark and the prohibitory symbol. I tried holding down the option key after restarting but nothing is working. I updated my OSX Lion last night, but I don't know what update it was. I need this computer working in the next 3 hours. Please help!

Are you able to boot into Single User Mode?
Mac OS X: How to start up in single-user or verbose mode
If so, perform a disk check via the command line:
Start up your computer in single-user mode to reach the command line.
Note: If necessary, perform a forced restart as described in the Emergency Troubleshooting Handbook that came with your computer. On desktop computers, you can do this by pressing the reset/interrupt button (if there is one) or holding down the power button for several seconds. On portable computers, simultaneously press the Command-Control-power keys. If your portable computer doesn't restart with this method, you may need to reset the Power Manager.
At the command-line prompt type:
/sbin/fsck -fy
Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found:
** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OKIf fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message:
***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
When fsck reports that your volume is OK, type reboot at the prompt and then press Return.

On boot-Receiving flashing file with question mark

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