Question Mark / not reading hard drives

I have a flashing question mark /apple icon on the attempts to startup my G4 . Not reading the drives . I have used the startup disk & checed the profile & it reads the drives in the extensions, however not on startup

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58042 Macintosh: Flashing Question Mark at Startup
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31355 Mac OS: Flashing Globe When Computer Turns On or A folder that has an alternating flashing question mark
Cheers, Tom

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    Before asking, I found someone had asked exact the same question, but that was actually an unsolved thread.
    Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
    Level 1(0 points)sdc3gJul 5, 2013 6:24 PM Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings
    Re: Blinking Folder with Question Mark after Erasing Hard Drive to try to restore to Factory Settings 
    in response to Niel
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    Well, it was solved. I shifted to other place and tried other WIFis. One of the WiFi had the 2002f problem and another was fine, so the reinstall worked smoothly eventually.
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  • There is a question mark on my hard drive disk, how do I get rid of it.

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    Hi corimazz and welcome to Apple Discussions!
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    www.ontrack.com - 800-872-2599
    www.lazarus.com - 800-341-3282
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    Okay so I've been having this problem for a couple weeks now. My computer was running a bit slowly when I was watching videos online, and it froze so I forced a shut down. It turned back on and it worked for a couple minutes, but then it froze again and when I attempted to reset it I got the scary blinking question mark. I went through all the options to fix it, but the computer could not find my hard drive. When I tried to repair disk no hard drive came up, and when I tried to re-install ios x it also could not find a hard drive. I confirmed that the hard drive had died so I purchased a new one, but now that a new one is installed I cannot re-install ios x because the computer won't read the disc. Under the utilities menu it shows that the disc is there, but it just won't re-install.
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    Hello,
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  • Flashing Question Mark--New Windows Hard Drive

    I just installed a used hard drive that currently has windows installed on it. I just would like to verify that it works and I cannot install OS X at this time. When I start it up I get the flashing question mark folder and holding down the Option ket just gets the mouse arrow up but nothing else. Any Ideas??

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    Just seems like a lot of work, disassembling your Mac, just to check to see if a drive is still functional.
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  • Blinking Folder with Question Mark after replacing Hard Drive

    I have a 2010 Macbook Pro. It recently stopped starting up.  I took it to the Genius Bar and the guy working there told me I needed to replace the hard drive.  I did that.  Now when I start the computer up I get a blinking folder with a question mark on it.
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    Install Snow Leopard from the original discs that came with the computer. You cannot use a retail Snow Leopard DVD with that model. Update to 10.6.8. You can then redownload Lion or Mountain Lion freely if you have purchased them already.
    The first thing you must do is partition and format the drive before you can install OS X. To do that you will need an installer disc. You can purchase replacements from Apple:
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    To contact product and tech support: Apple - Support - Contact Apple Support.
    You cannot use Internet Recovery unless you had Lion or Mountain Lion already installed. In that case see:
    Install Lion/Mountain Lion on a New HDD/SDD
    Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
    Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.
    Partition and Format the hard drive:
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    2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
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    Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.
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  • TS1989 My iMac G5 has flashing question mark folder, no hard drive, no DVD-drive, no target drive - help?

    A friend has 'kindly' decided to upgrade my father in law's iMac G5 and apparently found that it ceased to work following an aborted process. I have no idea what he's done but there was a Leopard DVD in the optical drive. The iMac boots to the smiley face folder but scrolls through 2 black screens and one grey screen first. A question mark appears at first then it changes to the smiley face folder with the question mark appearing occasionally.
    I cannot get the iMac to see either a hard drive or the DVD drive. No start up disc at all. I have tried starting up in target mode and the target mode sign doesn't appear on the screen nor does the hard drive show on the other mac.
    Starting up holding down either 'C', 'X' or 'R' doesn't produce any results. Starting up with 'alt' pressed down produces a screen with a padlock image followed by a white slot to write a password in and a greyish button with an arrow. None of the passwords associated with the machine have got us past this screen.
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    Following startup troubleshooting advice has allowed me to identify that there is both a start up button inside and an SMU  reset button. Three of the four led's come on fine and there are no problems with the starter button on the back panel.
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    I'll copy what BD wrote:
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    < be sure to use a usb keyboard >
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    < I didn't think of disconnecting the peripherals. Do it. >
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    It would block usage of all the startup keys, like C, N, T, D, CMD+s, CMD+Option+p+r, CMD +v, Option boot will show a lock, and Shift, as well as booting from anything but the Hard Drive.
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    Thanks BD.
    Robert

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    Hi folks,
    I got home from a three week trip and turned on my imac, at first i realized it was running extremely slow. Then i plugged in my external hard drive, and it didn't read. I checked in disk utilities and profiler, and my hard drive was there, just not appearing in finder or desktop. I couldn't mount (it was grey) the hard drive in disk utilities either. (I tried with other hard drives, same problem; they all worked before)
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    This is not related to any kind of malware.
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  • G4 Tower not reading Hard Drives

    Hello,
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    I can start up from the OS X DVD, but disk utility shows only the DVD/CD drive. I didn't even bother hooking up ZIP drive yet. I have tried switching cables, switching master/slave/cable select on drives, but no matter what combo only the DVD/CD will show up, never either hard drive. I have also zapped pram and nvram.
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    Any hints? suggestions? Is there 1 specific way i should have all this set up?
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    Thanks
    -Sam
    G5 DP 2ghz, G4 AGP 400MHZ (upgraded 1ghz)   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  
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    Update:
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    So where do I go from now? I could just buy a new HD, but I really need the information on these two drives. One is a Maxtor, and the other is a Quantom Fireball. Is there anyone way to save the data on the drives? Can i get a new connector on back?
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  • Not Working Hard Drive

    HI~
    I bought Hp Pavillion 110-014 ( Nov/2013,  Office Depot).
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    When I Turn On it, It is preffering Fix Computer......and then after 20 minute, Monitor is Blank  
    I try Hard Drive Connect another Computer(HP 500-056)  but Not working,  
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    JHLEW, welcome to the forum.
    I suggest running the hard drive diagnostics from the BIOS.  This will tell you if the hard drive has failed.
    Please click the "Thumbs Up+ button" if I have helped you and click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
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