Question mark on "file icon" appears on startup screen

I need some help, when I turn on my iMac 9 out of 10 times it makes a "clicking" noise and then a "file icon" with a question mark on it appears, it doesn't start. Some times it starts just fine, please let me know if there's a solution. Thanks in advance...

Welcome to Apple Discussions
First do you have and iPod or external HD connect, if so disconnect them and restart to see if that helps.
If not use the article in link below to help you repair your startup volume from the Install Disk 1 that came with your iMac.
[Mac OS X - Using Disk Utility to Repair a Disk|http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=3810]
Message was edited by: den.thed
Hi elmac an OS X reinstall is a little drastic at this point in time, shouldn't the OP try to repair it first!
Dennis

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TS3423 17" macbook pro won't start blue file with question mark is all that appears on the screen

My old macbook pro will not start up. Worked fine yesterday, today all I gat is the startup sound and a blank blue screen. After a while the screen shows a file folder icon with a question mark in it. Any ideas

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by:
Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
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.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD:
Boot From The Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
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 Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. 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 main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Question mark in file icon

In the middle of class my friends macbook froze and shut down. Upon restarting it for her, the blue screen flashed a question mark in a folder icon. Listening closely, there seemed to be a clicking noise coming from the hardware. The computer is a 3 year old macbook.
This has happened twice to me, both times with my MBP. Each time I had to completely replace my HD and I lost everything. Could this mean anything differently for her? Losing 6 months of law school notes and outlines isn't really an option at this point so if she is going to lose the HD is there any way to save any of the files?
Thanks for any help.

Back up, back up, back up your data. For crying out loud, who in their right mind, going to law school, would not take the time and spend a little money on a back up hard drive?
It does sound like the HDD is dead.
Good Luck.
Adam

HT1553 I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error...

I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error... Help!!

If you have installed a new hard drive , you will need to have formatted it in Disk Utility correctly. This may explain your problem.
Boot into your 10.6 Install disk again at the top menubar > Utilities > select Disk utility and in there select your new hard drive, and select the tab Erase and choose to make the format as Mac OS Extended Journaled. When that is finished look in the main window to make sure that the partition map scheme says GUID Partition Table.
Now go to the Restore tab and reinstall from your backup.

Question marks instead of icons in the dock.

Hi,
can anyone suggest why my macbooks have question marks instead of icons on and off in the dock. When clicked the icon will re-appear and the application will launch. There is no pattern to which icons will be replaced by question marks or how many. Sometimes all will be question marks, and other times only one? Any ideas?
Also - just a general question - of less importance, but with Leopard looming, historically how well does a server cope with new software versions on clients? Will I really need Server 10.5?

With regard to the questionmark issue, check out this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1137292&tstart=0
No answers yet, but it's being explored.

I got home today and got a message on Messages or IMessage and the Messages app would not open i restarted my computer and it had a question mark as the icon for the app. Help!?!?! What does this meen how can i prevent further damage or fix damage delt

I got home today and got a message on Messages or IMessage and the Messages app would not open i restarted my computer and it had a question mark as the icon for the app. Help!?!?! What does this meen how can i prevent further damage or fix damage delt

Is this what you see when you start up your MBP?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440
Ciao.

Boot error with question mark on folder icon

Hello.
This is very newest iMac (2014 late).
It worked very first time with basic way.
But 3 days later, iMac doesn't boot at all.
I've tried everything about reinstall and boot
Internet recovery, P+R+Alt+Cmd, recheck and verify hard drive.
However, sometimes There's no show hard drive on disk utility mode.
Can't even erase or format because I don't see it on hard drive list.
And now after power on, there's only [question mark on folder icon] and
it looks like warning me something.
Should I refund it? Or try something else?

Hi
Given Solution
1st check Hard Disk Working or Not
2nd check Partition table
3rd check reinstall Mac Os
and
after any problem vist ; [email protected]

Question Mark on Safari Icon - it won't start

I'm a newbie to Mac. I purchased my iMac in March. Last night I clicked on the Safari icon in the dock. A question mark overlaid the icon and it wouldn't start. Through Finder I found a command to start (or run) Safari but I got a message that Safari was either disabled or (I believe) deleted.
Sorry for the faulty memory but I have to use my work computer to post. Without Safari, I can't get on the internet at home and I can't seem to download Safari. I'm at my wit's end.

To all who responded,
Thanks so much for your suggestions. It ended up I kind of lucked into an easier solution. I was smart enough to buy a backup drive so when I went into Time Machine I was able to go back a few days and restore Safari.
Still can't figure out what happened. Time Machine told me the last backup (prior to my restoring Safari) failed for some reason. After I restored Safari I instructed Time Machine to do an immediate backup and it went fine.
Don't know if the two are related.
BTW, I'm going to download Firefox so I don't have to worry about this again. Thanks for the suggestion. Two nights I was ruing the fact that I neglected to do so earlier.

Flashing question mark on mac book pro,with grey screen when turned on?

flashing question mark on mac book pro,with grey screen when turned on?

Press the power button down to force a emergency hardware shutdown and hold the option/alt key down and reboot
If you see your OS X boot partition, then click it and the arrow, head to System Preferences > Startup Disk and reset it. Done.
Folder with question mark issue
If that doesn't it, then do a #2 PRAM reset and try the above again.
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
If no OS X boot volume appears in Startup Manager, then OS X is corrupted.
Try more of the Steps above (like 1-8) then if that doesn't work.
Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Once you got your data off, erase and reinstall OS X onto the MacintoshHD partition and then restore from TimeMachine or bootable clone if you have it. or build new and return users files from the data recovery drive.
Most commonly used backup methods
If the drive doesn't appear in Disk Utility it might be dead or there are further complications let us know for further assistance.
Install/upgrade RAM or storage drive in Mac's
My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/?p er_page=50

A sad or unhappy iPod icon appears on the screen

I have had my ipod mini f0r 2 month A sad or unhappy iPod icon appears on the screen and the hard drive is making sounds when turn on

You could try restoring the iPod, but quite honestly it sounds like a bad hard drive and it needs service.
See: What does this icon mean?

My ipad was in the process of updating (ios7) while at the same time syncing with my laptop. suddenly the screen turned black and after few seconds the new itune icon appeared on the screen. the same icon appears even after i reset it.

I was updating my ipad (ios7) while syncing with my laptop. suddenly the screen turned black and seconds later a huge itunes icon appeared on the screen. the same icon appears and not the usual interface even after resetting it several times.
please explain whta's happening.
thank you

See Unable to Update or Restore > http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4097
You may need to try this More than Once...
Be sure to Follow ALL the Steps...
Once you have Recovered your Device...
Re-Sync your Content or Restore from the most Recent Backup...
Restore from Backup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766

Flashing Question Mark on Folder Icon on Startup: Not Yet Fatal

I running into a potential problem with my White, 13" MacBook. I'm running 10.5.6 (upgraded from 10.4).
I recently bought a new, larger capacity hard drive. I used the Applications "SuperDuper" to clone my existing drive onto the new drive. My computer runs (as far as I can tell) the same as it always did. However, whenever I startup the computer, it briefly flashes the dreaded "giant folder with a blinking question mark". However, this is quickly replaced with the Apple Logo, and the computer boots normally.
I have repaired permissions, and verified the disk using disk utility. The disk verified with a message along the lines of "The disk appears to be ok".
While my computer's working now, I'm concerned there might be a deeper problem, and I'd like to catch it before it becomes critical. Also, if this is something standard that happens when you replace a hard drive with a new one, I'd like to know that as well so I can stop worrying.
If your answer is "put your old drive back in", pretend I did that and am still seeing the problem. What now?
Possible data point, I opened the console and saw the following two lines right before the "got boot device" line
4/29/09 5:00:07 PM kernel Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
4/29/09 5:00:07 PM kernel AppleYukon2: 532111ab,00000000 sk98osx_dnet - CheckDictionaryEntry failed, expected vs. dictionary
Thanks in advance for your help.

Open Startup Disk preferences, select your startup volume from icon list, click on the Restart button.

I think I trashed my chess game that came installed on my computer. The Icon is on the dashboard but when I clicked on it there was a question mark within the icon and the game did not appear. How do I get it back without paying for it?

I think I accidently trashed my chess app. that came installed on my computer, how do I get it back, it isn't in my apps but on my dock and when I clicked on it a question mark showed up in the chess icon. Really dumb I know. But I am a novice at computers.

Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
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 Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Folder with Question Mark, to Apple Icon, to Kernel Screen at Startup.

At startup Folder with Question Mark, Followed all steps to resolve it to no avail, I try to re-install Snow Leopard and Apple Icon with Grey screen appears, then Kernel screen.
I cannot get past the Kernel screen. No options to click anything, like system preferences or anything. I have a Macbook, with Snow Leopard. Any help would be much appreciated.
I tried Pram Reset and everything.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply Mende.
I tried that, it goes to the apple icon, however after about 10 seconds of the apple it goes straight to the Kernel screen. It doesn't give me the options of opening anything. Infact it doesn't even have a mouse curser.
If I hold "option" it gives me the option of choosing only the "Leopard DVD" but that's it and then it goes to the Kernel Screen
Again, thanks for the taking the time to help me out.

Strange globe and folder with a question mark on it icons showing at start up screen, PLEASE HELP!

I got a PowerBook G4 tonight from my brother's friend. His friend said it's works fine, but he thinks it needs updated. It powered up fine at first. I looked around and found files that belonged to the previous owner (pictures etc) so I dragged them to the trash and deleted them from the trash. I couldn't get the wi-fi working. It recognized that it was there, but when I clicked on it and typed in the password, it wouldn't connect. So I took it out to our BTHomeHub and took the Ethernet cable out of the computer and plugged it into the PowerBook. I tried going onto Safari but nothing happened so I restarted it. When it loaded back up there's a globe icon that flashes and then a folder icon with a question mark on it, the first time it loaded past it. I held the power button down to turn it off and turned it back on again (hoping it would've disappeared) Now it won't load past that. I've looked around trying to find a solution, but nothing I've tried has worked. I even tried turning it on and off again, countless times. I'm really worried I've done something wrong and that it's broken! PLEASE HELP! (I'm not brilliant with computers, so simple instructions please!)

The globe icon means the Mac is trying to find a Network system to boot. Startup but depress the Option key. This will activate the Startup Manager window. Hopefully you hard drive will appear. Select it & click the right arrow.
 Cheers, Tom

Question mark on "file icon" appears on startup screen

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