Start up showing a folder with a ? in the middle
Just switched on my iMac and all I get is a grey screen with a folder icon in the middle with a ? In it. I'm assuming this is not good but is there anything I should try?
Thanks
David
That folder means that your Mac is unable to find any bootable device. It may mean two things:
Your Mac forgot which the startup disk is.
Your Mac cannot detect the hard drive.
To discard the first reason, turn on your Mac and hold the Option (Alt) key until you see all bootable devices in the display. If you see your OS X partition, choose it, and after starting up, go to System Preferences > Startup Disc, and select your OS X partition.
If you do not see any device to start up your Mac, it is a more serious problem, as it probably means that your hard drive is damaged. At this point, if you are a non-expert user, I would recommend you to take the Mac to an Apple Store or reseller. Other users may recommend you to reinstall OS X, but this will not solve anything if your hard drive is the problem.
Similar Messages
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2006 iMAC-on startup I get a white screen with a file folder with ? in the middle, what can I do?
White screen with file folder symbol (? in middle) that flashes, what is the problem? How can I fix it?
Do you have a recent backup of your iMac? If not, then, you can proceed with the following with caution.
DO NOT FORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE AT ANY STAGE.
Startup your iMac from the original DVDs.
Launch Disk Utility and run Verify Disk.
Repair Disk if advised to.
If Disk Utility cannot Repair your disk, and you don't have a recent backup, you can try DiskWarrior to rebuild your disk and retrieve your data.
Report back after running Disk Utility if you have no joy. -
Mack G4 start up with just showing a folder with a ? mark and will not start
HI I have a G4 Mac and have it for 2 weeks and I was updating software and it froze and on restart it just shows a folder with a ? mark what can I do I tried using the Control key + P+S or what ever and it did nothing.
Please help so I don't go back to my PC it crashes every day that is whey I got the used G4 so Please anyone help Me.
Thanks ErickWhen you zap PRAM like you did, or have trouble, two things:
You lost the default path to the boot drive volume;
Your boot drive needs to be repaired.
Your better off with the PowerMac forum.
G4s can't run 10.7 or 10.6. And 10.4.11 is the best OS for PowerMac G4.
Mac Pro
startup disk maintenance Disk Utility fsck
Help_ Repairing startup disk
Hard Drives Recovery -
MacBook shows only folder with ?. Replaced hard drive with same results.
In the midst of some work the machine simply clicked and showed a folder with a ?. Would not restart. Replaced the drive with a new 7200 Seagate momemtum, 320GB, installed the software, and have the same problem with startup. A folder with a ? Connect another machine via firewire and looked at the MacBook drive and it showed the appropriate system folders. Then started the other computer from the MacBooks hard drive and that worked. So the drive appears healthy but we cannot get it started on its own. In Disk Utility the new drive is indicated as not owner enabled, whatever that means. It appears most Macs that work are, in fact, owner enabled. Anybody have a clue what might be going on here? We're thinking maybe the first drive had not failed and the problem lies elsewhere.
As an FYI, here is the apparent solution. The original drive did fail. Because the disks were in Seattle and we were attempting to fix it in Dallas we connected via Firewire to a PowerPC machine and formatted the drive. That was the crucial error. the G4 did not give the appropriate Intel-based Mac formatting options. So we could look at the drive from the G4 and see everything was there, but the MacBook could not boot itself because it could not read the disk which was improperly formatted. The Genius bar in Seattle figured this out and reformatted the disk at no cost.
All's well that ends well, but have Macs really become that complicated? -
My macbook pro went black and shows one folder with a ?
my macbook pro went black and shows one folder with a ? what should i do
What that's telling you is that it can't find the operating system.
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
Try that and see if it helps. -
Upon restart from dead battery Mac Book freezes showing gray folder with blinking question mark. Help! Any guidance greatly appreciated.
Hello and welcome,
try this support site:
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
If you're lucky it just forgot where your startup disk was. If not it will be more work. -
I followed the initial steps in this post and reset pram. After restarting, the screen just shows a folder with a question mark. What does this mean?
Thanks Niel, I tried using Option and nothing happened so I next tried inserting the Leopard disc and rebooting while holding C. Nothing happened until the disc was ejected and then the folder with question mark reappeared. I inserted the disc again and at this point and it booted OSX. I tried to acess disc utility to repair but my harddrive wasn't listed, only the CD drive and the OS disc. Does this mean I'm lost everything?
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Help please! My macbook air (2015) startup showed a folder with question mark so i tried "Command R" for internet recovery but after few minutes it stopped and showed error.. Please hepl me!
Startup – Question Mark
Startup Issues - Resolve
Startup Issues - Resolve (2)
Startup Issues - Resolve (3) -
My iPod Classic has started to display a folder with an explanation mark on it-no tunes! Is there an easy fix?
Exclamation mark!
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(PC) When I sync a folder of photos, they sync to the generic photo library on my iPhone, but it creates another folder with duplicates of the pictures. How do I prevent/get rid of this second folder?
Um... that does not contain "duplicates".
It's just a view that shows you everything that's in your other albums and events in one place... -
I turn my Mac on the screen is white and has a folder with a '?' In middle?.
I turn my Mac on the screen is white and has a folder with a '?' In middle?
•A Flashing Question Mark appears when you Start your Mac:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
Read through & follow the instructions; if the problem goes away after completing
any of them, you need not continue through all of them to resolve this issue.
This also helps troubleshoot some of the main possibilities.
Short of some hardware failure requiring major parts.
Good luck & happy computing! -
I can not get into the iTunes store for the past two days. I can do a search on the music in upper right corner and get a drop down list. However, the screen is then white with "iTunes" in the middle. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Check out this Apple article -> iTunes 10.5 for Windows: May see performance issues and blank iTunes Store
If your computer has one of the LSPs listed you may have to reset winsock.
If not, you may want to give this article a shot -> iTunes for Windows Vista or Windows 7: Troubleshooting unexpected quits, freezes, or launch issues -
I downloaded upgrades available. The installation of those took a long time after re- initiatin the system and had to off. After this I could not get it to turn on again. Just stays in the gray screen with apple in the middle. What's wrong?
Sorry to hear of your problem, but any hardware in a computer can fail - that includes the hard drive, the logic board, etc, etc. Fortunately, it usually doesn't happen that soon; however, I've read of hard drives failing within 6 months.
So, since you did not purchase the extended Applecare Protection Plan (3 years coverage), you will need to make a decision to repair or sell it as is. I would always purchase 3 year coverage for an all in one or a laptop because repairs are expensive and at least I'd be covered for 3 years.
We can't speculate on whether there should be a recall or not; these forums are for user to user assistance with technical problems. In your case, there is nothing we can help with since you've already gotten a diagnosis. -
My I ph 5 once I start downloading anything it stops by itself in the middle or after some time ..
My I ph 5 once I start downloading anything it stops by itself in the middle or after some time ..
Hi Ravi4477,
I apologize, I'm a bit unclear on the exact nature or context of your question. If you are talking about downloads from the iTunes Store, you may find the troubleshooting steps outlined in the following articles helpful:
iTunes: How to resume interrupted iTunes Store downloads - Apple Support
iTunes Store: How to delete a downloading purchase on iOS - Apple Support
Regards,
- Brenden -
Following an automatic update, the machine wouldn't boot. Screen came on (shows white) - then either showed a 'No-Entry' Sign and a spinning cog, or a folder with a qusetion mark. I tried to start the machine in different modes ( eg. holding shift after the tone ) but nothing worked. after leaving the machine alone for 1 hour. It worked perfectly again. I did a 'verify disk' check which found no problems. 2 hours later it then froze ( In - Photoshop). Could not force quit, so shut down, and have not been able to boot again since (white lit screen - flashing folder with question mark) . I have also taken the hard drive out and checked the connections which seem fine. Any suggestions? - Is the Hard Drive dead. : other info : It was also running parallels 8, with Windows 7. at the time of the update....
This article may help: A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac.
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