Question Mark on Bootup, Goes Away Upon Restart

Hey guys,
When I boot up my workstation I get a blinking question mark and the OS doesn't load. Upon rebooting the OS will load fine.
I've tried resetting the PRAM / specifying the boot disk in 'Startup Disks' and it still keeps happening. There are no CDs / DVDs / External drives connected and I have two internal drives (the secondary was formatted before being dropped into this system).
Can I run some magical command in the terminal to tell OS X always boot off my primary?
Thanks,
~ Jon

Try things in this Apple doc.
DALE

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Hey--
I've had trouble with my Imac that I purchasd in 2005 for a year and a half or so. I had a gray screen about a year and a half ago, went on vacation for a week, came back and it booted just fine. Another time it went down, I did a safe boot and it came back. I've tried Command-Option P+R before with some success. I had a boot camp partitioned windows xp drive on there also (I don't know if this matters, but wanted to mention that). I've also tried putting the installation disk in there with no luck (thinking it would find the software on it)
I put it away because I moved and dragged it out of storage to see if a miracle might have occured since the last time I tried 5 months ago. Well, same thing--gray screen with a flashing folder with question mark. I read in the discussions to hold the option key down to select a book device. I tried this and got an EFI Boot icon with a mouse pointer, but when I go to select it it "poofs" away (literally, the icon POOFS away) before I can select it with the mouse pointer icon.
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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, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) 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. Now restart normally.
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. 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.
If yours is an Intel model, then I recommend getting Snow Leopard to upgrade OS X, but I would recommend first erasing the drive before installing Snow Leopard.
Upgrade Paths to Snow Leopard, Lion, and/or Mountain Lion
You can upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion or directly from Snow Leopard. Mountain Lion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $19.99. To access the App Store you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later installed.
Upgrading to Snow Leopard
You can purchase Snow Leopard through the Apple Store: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - Apple Store (U.S.). The price is $19.99 plus tax. You will be sent physical media by mail after placing your order.
After you install Snow Leopard you will have to download and install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1 to update Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 and give you access to the App Store. Access to the App Store enables you to download Mountain Lion if your computer meets the requirements.
     Snow Leopard General Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel processor
       2. 1GB of memory
       3. 5GB of available disk space
       4. DVD drive for installation
       5. Some features require a compatible Internet service provider;
           fees may apply.
       6. Some features require Apple’s iCloud services; fees and
           terms apply.
Upgrading to Lion
If your computer does not meet the requirements to install Mountain Lion, it may still meet the requirements to install Lion.
You can purchase Lion by contacting Customer Service: Contacting Apple for support and service - this includes international calling numbers. The cost is $19.99 (as it was before) plus tax. It's a download. You will get an email containing a redemption code that you then use at the Mac App Store to download Lion. Save a copy of that installer to your Downloads folder because the installer deletes itself at the end of the installation.
     Lion System Requirements
       1. Mac computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7,
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       5. Some features require an Apple ID; terms apply.
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
     Are my applications compatible?
         See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.
     For a complete How-To introduction from Apple see Upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion.

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Furthermore, I have downloaded a search engine Add-on numerous times (most often, if not always, Informative Google Search) and it functions just fine, but upon FF restart, its back to having no default engines to choose from.
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See:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_search_or_add_new_engines
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Hello there!
I have an old mid-2007 imac 24 7.1 Few weeks ago i installed an SSD drive inside and OS Mavericks.
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Blinking file and question mark does not go away

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Here's some instructions for backing up, although you need a working Mac to be able to do it. Obviously, this shows how vital it is to always keep current backup so you have a recovery plan before disaster strikes:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553
Hopefully you won't need to erase your data - repairing the disk, or simply re-installing the OS should not erase anything. Only an erase and install does that. You'll need backup if it turns out your hard disk is kaput (possible).
If the Mac currently has either 10.8 or 10.9 installed does booting using Command+r not do anything?
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If all that comes to nothing I think it's off to the repair centre.

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On a Vista or Win7 machine the location is here: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects
If there are Shared Objects (Flash Cookies) saved on your PC, they'll be inside folders here. You can delete the folders for a given user. Theoretically that should mean they don't have any to interfere with the course playback. Turning on Self-Paced Learning in the Cp TOC settings results in cookies here that enable the Captivate lesson to know which slide the user got up to during their last session. I almost never use Self-Paced Learning because it results in what many users consider unpredictable behaviour, where the course jumps straight to the middle or end of a lesson they've previously viewed.

Folder with Question mark on it on a gray screen. Will not restart!? :(

While browsing online the other night, my Macbook completely froze up on me. I couldn't move my mouse and the screen froze. I decided to restart it but then the Macbook started making a whirring/ clack clack noise and I got a gray screen with a flashing question mark folder. I've tried restarting it up again since then, and I get nothing. The noise continues and I get nothing but the blinking folder with the question mark on it. The Macbook is roughly 5.5 years old Any suggestions?

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 (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. 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) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and 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?
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Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
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Hi All
Unfortunately this is the second time I have posted about this problem.
First of all my iMac froze and on restart I got the flashing folder with the question mark. However thankfully after 3 restarts the problem appeared to resolve itself. But I still thought it was a little suspicious.
2 days later, my MackBook suffered the same problem, froze up and on restart I got the flashing folder with the question mark. After much effort and advice (see previous question) I unfortunately had to get a new HD installed. $274 for new 160GB, not too bad but just hadnt backed up so lost a lot of data.
Today, approximately 2 more days later my iMac froze again and got the flashing folder with the question mark, but this time it took a very long time to resolve itself. I was beginning to think that it was going to be another trip to the apple shop. Obviously this time I had done a recent backup, so it wouldnt have been a huge problem (apart from financially), just starting to trouble me.
Once I got the iMac up and running again, I went to Disk Utility and ran "verify" on hard disk. Result = no apparent problems. Any suggestions why this is happening, steps I should take to prevent it from happening, what could be causing it? Both computers are relatively new, only approx 10 - 20 GB of data on each, very little interaction between the two. There is another MacBookpro in the household but it has not suffered any problems. Am I getting paranoid? I fear that this is not the last I see of this problem!!

Which iMac do you have? I take it you are no longer under warranty? If your iMac is over a year old you probably need to clean the air intake vents out because dust does build up over time and could cause your Mac to run hotter than normal. You can install iStat Pro to monitor the temperatures and fan speeds: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20364
You could use a Utility Application to test the drive for bad blocks but that does not help prevent drive failure. There really is not much you can do but to make sure the drive doesn't get too hot. You might install SMART Utility and see if it shows any errors: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24875/smart-utility
You should also run Apple Hardware Test to make sure that nothing else is wrong with your computer. Run the Extended Test. If that passes with no problems then it's most likely just a bad hard drive and you can have it replaced anytime. You don't have to wait for it to completely die.
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The other day I did some app updates and restarted my phone. After startup, a question mark showed up in the battery icon. The phone was working fine otherwise though. I power cycled it a few times and the question mark would not go away. Apparently it would not charge either, as it is now DEAD. When I plug the phone in, I just get the battery icon with the question mark symbol. I took it to a local Verizon store (2 in fact) and they were of no help. I have only had the phone for just over a year (so no warranty or insurance), and I love it. There is no way I'm paying for a brand new phone when I did absolutely nothing to damage it! After doing some research I have noticed that other people have had this problem as well. I cannot even call customer service because I am alone without a phone!

Contact Motorola and see if they will replace the battery for a fee. Since you will have to send the phone in, you should see if you can borrow a phone from a friend in the meantime.

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The finder text font is also different to how it was before.
Any ideas?
Thanks everyone.

Hi The Buckminster,
There has suddenly appeared a large grey question mark at the top left of all windows, for example,the main HD window and all the folder windows.
This is what's termed as an orphaned alias. At some point an alias was created by either yourself or someone else using your computer and the alias was placed on top of the Finder window. This can be achieved in a similar way to placing an application in the Dock. Simply click and drag the file/application to the top of the Finder window, wait a second or so and a plus symbol will appear. At this point an alias is created of the original file which can be opened by simply clicking on it; same as you would from the Dock.
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So today i was using my macbook pro and for some reason my CD/DVD drive was causing noise when i put a DVD inside it, and for some reason it did not recognise my DVD. I force ejected it using the restart and clicking, but after that my computer showed a blinking folder and question mark during start up. I restarted my computer to Recovery HD, but instead it took me to internet Recovery HD (i have mountain lion), and so i went to disk utility to repair my disk, but in the left it did not recognise my hard drive. Please help! Im not that experienced in computing!

Sounds like some sort of power issue and now your drive is not working.
You'll have to take this to Apple for repair.
You should read this if you don't have recent backups of your data off the machine.
My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

I cant even reinstall os x after a question mark folder showed up on my mac.

I opened my macbook pro this moring and this question mark folder came up. I restarted it and it came back normally and was working just fine. I came home and the same problem occured, Ive tried to shut it down and press option key on my keyboard. Os x utilities popped up and it seemed like theres nothing for the system to repair so I moved on to restore from time machine which also didnt work. I finally decided to reinstall os x mountain lion knowing that all my files will probably be gone. but then there was no disk I could select for the new installation. What's happening? Is there any ways I could fix this problem?

its a mid2012 macbook and yes theres one near where i lve. Connecting cable as in the charger? Sorry i have very little knowledge on stuff like this. But thanks for letting me know. Just out of curiosity do u know what can i do to prevent future damge thats similar to this one?

Question Mark on Bootup, Goes Away Upon Restart

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