Question Mark/Folder on startup

I have an Imac G3 with 10.3.9 installed. I've used it occasionally over the last year or so but have recently bought a Mac Book Air and was hoping to connect it to the internet via ethernet to transfer all my music - but this time when I turned it on I just got a grey screen with a small folder and a flashing question mark.
After doing some research I've tried to use the start up disks which seems to work initially but then when it gets to the point where you have to select a location there are no possible options to select. I can't start in safe mode or using Command-S - nothing happens. When I start holding the option key I get a blue screen that has one arrow looping round and one arrow pointint to the right but neither does anything when I click on it.
I'm resigned to the fact that the computer is dead but is there any way to rescue all my music (I had previously tried to hook it up to various cloud options but none were compatible with 10.3.9 so it isn't backed up anywhere)? I was going to try chatting to someone in Apple support but the system doesn't recognise the serial number on the bottom of my machine so it won't let me in to talk to anyone or book a call.
Thanks!

Your best move would be to pull the hd out of the machine.  An attach to an adapter & see if you can read the data off the drive.  The machine is 15 to 11 years old. I've seen reports that hd's only last three to five years on the average.
Extract the harddrive.  Attach the 'bare' harddrive to the adapter. Attach the adapter to a Mac.  Try reading the data. Run a household fan on the harddrive.
examples:
http://www.cablewholesale.com/products/usb-firewire/usb-2.0-products/product-40u 2-01000.php?utm_source=Nextag&utm_medium=cpc&zmam=54972865&zmas=1&zmac=4&zmap=4 4 77
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=32765 54&CatId=3770
Check out this site 
iMac HDD Upgrade Guide (Slot-Loading) Visual Installation Guide - slot loading iMac Hard Drive
http://wn.com/How_to_Disassemble_an_Apple_iMac_G3
All the tray loading iMac g3's, models a-d, are constructed the same.
While this article deals with adding memory, you should see the pram battery on the logic board when you get to step 17.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43012
You should skip steps 17 to 20. Look for the pram battery instead.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43013
Here is a good disassembly page:
http://www.macopz.com/columns/imacrepair/disassembly.html
The second article in this series has information on replacing the battery:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2584291
How To Upgrade Your iMac
http://www.djonmac.com/

Similar Messages

  • Question mark folder at startup, safe boot not working

    Last night my iMac froze up, Force Quit didn't work, and I used the Power button to shut it off.  When trying to restart, it was getting stuck at the grey Apple.
    I tried unplugging the peripherals and restarting; zapping the PRAM and restarting; safe boot and restarting.  Safe boot did it.
    I then ended up going through those steps a few more times as my iMac starting freezing up again.  One of those times I changed all my applications in the dock that were set to launch at login to not do so, wondering if that was somehow causing a problem.  I also took a folder of recent items I'd created, mostly a LOT of PDFs of newspaper articles, burned it to a DVD and deleted the folder to free up more memory if that was part of the problem (I'm running out).  I then restarted from the Apple menu and it shut down through safe boot and then restarted without safe boot and did so just fine.  I ran Disk Utility and very few if any permissions needed repairing.  And it was operating OK for a bit and then froze up again.
    Now I'm getting the question mark folder at startup and safe boot isn't working.  What should I be trying next?  Lion Recovery with Command-R?  I'm relatively new to Lion, but it had been working OK for me for a while now.
    What other things should I try?  Would Target Disk mode possibly work from the MacBook I'm using now, which doesn't have Lion installed?

    The question mark folder usually means that the
    firmware could either not find a valid operating
    system to boot, or, it could not find a hard disk
    with an operating system on it.
    Have you tried booting to Lion Recovery?  If
    you can, then go into Disk Utility and do a
    Repair Disk on your OSX volume.  If the
    OSX volume is not showing up, you may need
    to do a reformat and re-install.
    Since it is a 24" iMac (from your description) it was
    a pre-Lion Mac.  If you still have the original install
    disks, try booting with it and use Disk Utility from it
    to see if the hard drive is working.
    Try this first before making a road trip.

  • Question mark folder at startup

    When I start up my computer, there is a question mark folder at the start and then it pops to the apple icon. I was wondering if anyone else has this problem and is it a software or hardware problem?

    That symbolises no set startup disc, its often a tricky one to fix, but your mac starts up so be grateful my mate with a black macbook had to have the whole hard disk re-imbersed, if the problem is bugging to such an extent its driving you insane the only things i can think of are: Re-Install Mac OSX, Do a hardware test ( insert disk 1 and hold D on startup) or goto system preferences>startup disk and make sure the hard disk osx is installed on is set as the very first it looks for.
    Hope i helped
    bob
    2.3Ghz Macbook White_Late 2006   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   I build comps for a living and have a custom P2 in my room

  • Question mark folder on startup, Question mark folder on startup?

    Have startup problem with question mark folder flashing on startup. How do I fix it?

    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/.

  • Blinking question mark folder upon startup on a 2 month old Pro?

    Hi I had the grey screen on my macbook pro. I tried reinstalling maverick os x, but my wifi connection got interrupted and so did the download. I now have the blinking question mark folder upon start up. What can I do since I know it's probably not a hard-drive problem?

    Startup Issues - Resolve
    Startup Issues - Resolve (2)

  • OS X Insall crashed halfway. Now getting question mark folder on startup

    I was in the process of wiping my wife's old MacBook so that I could give it to my daughter. I inserted my Tiger install disc and proceeded to erase and install (didn't need wife's old data and I wanted the system to be fresh). Unfortunately, the process froze-up halfway and now I cannot start the MacBook. I get the flashing question mark folder.
    I tried repeating the process again, but when the install process begins, it scans the CD for file integrity. When it does this, it says that there's a problem and that the disc needs to be cleaned. I've cleaned it to the point of being able to eat off it, but it's still not working.
    The CD drive in the machine has always been flaky so I'm wondering if it's the drive rather than the disc. Is there a way to install OS X from a firewire drive or another mac tethered to the MacBook? I have a Powerbook, an iMac and a LaCie firewire drive that I could use.
    Thanks for any help!
    .g

    Sure, use either Mac... but it all depends if your old MacBook will boot into Firewire target disk mode.
    If it does just pop in the DVD (in the good DVD drive) and install. I'd suggest a reformat also, under the circumstances.
    To use FireWire target disk mode
    1. Make sure that the target computer is turned off. If you are using a PowerBook or iBook as the target computer, you should also plug in its AC power adapter.
    2. Use a FireWire cable to connect the target computer to a host computer. The host computer does not need to be turned off.
    3. Start up the target computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until the FireWire icon appears. The hard disk of the target computer should become available to the host computer and will likely appear on desktop. (If the target computer is running Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you can also open System Preferences, choose Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. Then restart the computer and it will start up in Target Disk Mode.)
    4. When you are finished copying files, drag the target computer's hard disk icon to the Trash or select Put Away from the File menu (Mac OS 9) or Eject from the File menu (Mac OS X).
    5. Press the target computer's power button to turn it off.
    6. Unplug the FireWire cable.
    If the target computer's hard disk does not become available to the host computer, check the cable connections and restart the host computer.
    -mj
    Message was edited by: macjack

  • After upgrading HD, "question mark" folder on startup

    Hi,
    I recently upgraded my Macbook Pro Core Duo 15" harddrive. Everything went fine and still is. The only problem is the following : when turning on the computer, the infamous "question mark" folder will show up, blinking. Nothing else will happen... Unless I turn it on while holding the option key (ALT). In that case, the new HD shows up and I can select it : the boot sequence then goes on as usual. And everything else is fine. The HD was correctly formated (I have two GUID partition on it). I did not made a new install of Leopard : I cloned my old HD on the new one before installing it.
    Any idea how I can get ride of the question mark? How I can get the computer to boot without having to hold de ALT key and then chose the internal HD installed in it?
    Thanks a lot.
    P.

    Well, that was as fast as it was efficient. Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction. Everything work just fine now.

  • Keyboard Not Working and Question Mark Folder on Startup

    I've got a question for a Mac Genius: What is the cause of my keyboard not working and a grayscreen coming up on startup? I'll give you a little background. I have a 1.83Ghz Macbook that is two years old now...almost exactly. I came back from work yesterday and it was in a semi-frozen state. Two apps were frozen but the finder was still alive. Within 10 seconds of trying to navigate through the Finder, it froze too. I went ahead and tried to restart it, but nothing happened. I held down the power button and it shut off. When I tried to start it back up a gray screen comes up. It makes the chiming sound but goes no where. After about half a minute the folder with the question mark will appear. The first few times I tried it, it seemed like the optical drive was trying really hard to work, but it doesn't try so hard anymore. None of the keys work and the Caps Lock and Num Lock don't light, so I can't use any of the keyboard commands to work my way around (resetting PRAM/using startup disks). The CD is stuck in it because I can't force eject it. I believe the trackpad is also not working, but I couldn't be sure.
    Previously I had noticed that when I came back from work I would find Mozilla Firefox using tons of the CPU when it wasn't really doing anything. This heated up the computer and made the fans spin at crazy speeds(6000RPM). I will try the Hard drive in another computer tonight probably because I'm pretty sure that's not the problem, but I would like to be sure.
    Any ideas would be helpful! I'm just about to tear it open and see if anything has been physically fried.

    I went ahead and tried to eject the CD with an external mouse but it didn't work. What I ended up doing is swapping my hard drive into my friend's computer and discovered that that was the only problem. It appears that my HDD was totally fried because after I booted off of the start-up cd, the HDD was nowhere to be found within disk utility. My computer starts up fine and the keyboard works fine when I have someone else's HDD in mine. I'm really surprised that the Macbook needs a good HDD to operate it's trackpad and keyboard. Thank you for your help! Although now I have a new question; is there any way to salvage the data trapped on my old HDD? Cheers!

  • G4 ibook question mark folder on startup

    Put a logic board and new hard drive in g4 1.33 12inch ibook.  Trying to load tiger ,I get a folder with a question mark on the screen.  What does that mean ?

    Is it 10.4.0? If so, it's too early to work.
    Do you have the original system discs that came with the iBook when it was new? It should include Mac OS X 10.4.2.
    http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/stats/ibook_g4_1.33_12.html

  • Question-mark folder upon startup? what's going on!?

    hello users,
    when i turn on my IMAC, instead of booting up, it gives me a screen with a blinking folder with a question mark. i don't need to save any data, i just need to boot up and do an erase and install with leopard. how can i do this? any help is appreciated, thanks.

    Power on the Mac. Immediately after turning on the power, hold down the option key.
    Continue holding the key. Eventually, the screen will turn blue, and a number of disk icons will appear. (equal to the number of disks in your system, including any indserted CDs) There will be an additional image of an arrow (pointing to the right.)
    If any disks have what the system considers to be valid bootable OS's installed, the OS logo (either the OSX logo, the windows logo, or the OS9 logo) will be superimposed on the disk icon.
    Click on the OS of choice, then click the arrow.
    The system should boot to the chosen drive and OS.

  • How do you fix the question mark folder on startup?

    My mac keeps showing a question mark when I turn it on.I am not able to even able to run a hardware test.I think this problem happend when my friend tried to update my computer.Any Solutions???

    It sounds as if your drives partition structure and/or volume structure may have been fatally damaged. Assuming that is the case you will have to boot from another drive to effect repairs and recovery. If your mini is in warranty or covered under Applecare by far your best option is taking your mini to the nearest Apple Store or Apple Approved Service Provider. (Be sure and phone ahead for an appointment and save yourself a long wait in line until they can work you in.)

  • MacBook shows grey screen and question mark folder on startup.

    Have tried different things that have been suggested....reboot PRAM holding down option command P R etc but nothing yet has worked. Don't have installation disk as MacBook is 9 years old so must've thrown disk out years ago. Any ideas?

    Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
    and since you'll probably need it http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard

  • Question Mark Folder at Start up. Tried Everything!

    Hello I have a mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro. I am getting the question mark folder at startup.
    I have read many message boards and tried all of the following things.
    1. Tried to go to boot into safe mode via the shift key at startup. Continues on to question mark folder.
    2. Tried to go to startup manager via the option key at startup. Goes to blank white screen with usable mouse pointer.
    3. Tried to clear PRAM via the Command / Option / P / R at startup. Restarts but still continues to question mark folder.
    4. Used OSX install usb drive to get to install screen. Could not find hard drive to install to.
    5. Put hard drive in external inclosure and successfully booted from it.
    6. Put in a new hard drive in computer just to check and attempted number 4 again. Same results.
    7. Purchased and installed new hard drive cable.
    8. Installed original hard drive. Still went to question mark folder.
    9. Put in new hard drive and install still could not find it.
    10. Returned and got another cable just to make sure that one was not bad. Same results.
    Please somebody help me. What am I missing? What else can I try?

    You'd better take your MacBook Pro to Genius Bar and tell them about your problem.

  • ?-mark folder on startup WITH cd stuck in slot - PLEASE help!

    Hi!
    I have a power Mac G4 cube with Mac OS 9.something. I'm not currently using it because we have a newer computer, but when I went to use it last night it showed me a question mark folder at startup and now I have a CD stuck in it that I can't get out.
    I've tried holding the mouse down at startup to no avail...
    Please help! How can I get my computer working again?

    if option doesn't work startup while holding down the left click on your mouse.
    is it trying to eject but it wont make it all the way out or is it simply making no noise at all?
    at one point i had to completely remove the dvd drive on my cube and remove a cd, hopefully your drive isn't completely dead.

  • Frequent startup with question mark folder icon--a diagnostic challange!!!

    I recently obtained a 500 mhz G4 Cube; I transplanted memory, video board, video riser board, and DVD/CD drive from my old (dead) 450mhz G4 Cube (logicboard and DC-DC board were fried) to the 500 mhz Cube AND I added a Western Digital 80gb hard drive. The problem involves frequent startups with the question mark folder (Mac OS logo alternates with question mark).; Eventually the system folder is found and OS 10.4.11 starts up--sometimes in 20 seconds and sometimes in 3, 4, 5 minutes or longer..........I have tried 2 brand new batteries after numerous PRAM (via keyboard) and CUDA resets (depressing the CUDA button on the motherboard just once and then installing the new battery). The battery terminals in the Cube look perfect--no corrosion. With the new battery, startups were fine for a day but now 4 out of 5 times, I will get the question mark folder. Using Disc Utility, I fixed any errant permissions and the hard drive checks out with zero problems. Once running, the Cube works great, but these startups are maddening. One other issue; if I start up with the G4 Cube 9.1 installation disc, the install program DOES NOT recognize any bootable discs; whilst starting up using the Tiger Upgrade install disc, my 2 bootable discs (partitions of my Western Dig. hard drive) ARE recognized. Any ideas would be greatly welcome!!

    I believe I have solved the problem regarding the question mark startup---> after rechecking all cable connections to HD, OD, and logic board, I revisited the jumper setup on the HD; it turns out that I set the HD up to be the MASTER, but what I should have done was set the HD to be the MASTER with attached SLAVE. Since reconfiguring the jumper, all startups have so far been normal. Also, I did install OS 9 drivers, but I the OS 9.1 install disc still does not recognized my 5 gig partition when starting up from the CD; this is minor in retrospect as I can still use the classic mode with a earlier version of OSX that does not hog so much disc space.

Maybe you are looking for