Startup Disk Question Mark

I have a weird problem. Well I guess its not really a problem. I reinstalled a new hard drive into my Macbook Pro and I installed everything and everything works beautifully. However I noticed that in the preference panel that there is a question mark on the startup icon.
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4059/picture1dm7.png
When I reboot I see NO folder with a question mark or anything of that sort. I had tried to select the hard drive as a start up disk and restarted but the icon does not change. I do NOT have boot camp for it is a fresh install.
Is this a visual glitch or can something be done about it?

Its always been like that? Weird. I've had leopard for over 6 months now and I could have sworn that it never had a question mark. O well. So then everything is normal!! Great!
I guess the thread may be closed now.

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Initial startup with question marked folder with a disk already inside

Initial startup with question marked folder with a disk already inside

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.

Startup with question mark flashing..how to do

Hi;
mac book air startup with question mark flashing..how to do

Check the advice in this knowledge base article.

Startup issues question mark and disk appearing at startup.

Ok,
Here's my situation...Like a bone head I changed the startup disk from my Tiger to OS9...don't know why...well it's apperently missing so I only get the ?/disk icon. How do I get back to OS10 system preferences to undo this ****? This used for my music with iPod only.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
thanks

If your computer supports OPTION booting then restart and hold down the OPTION key after the chime until the boot manager screen appears. Select your OS X volume and click on the large right arrow button. After you startup into OS X open Startup Disk preference and set your OS X volume as the default and click on the Restart button.
If the computer doesn't support OPTION booting then restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the "X" key until the computer starts up in OS X. Then reset default with Startup Disk per above.
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Macbook Air won't startup, flashing question mark

Hello everyone, here's the problem:
Recently (Sep) I've bought a new macbook air (2012, 128gb SSD). After a few months of using it the following problem happened: while surfing on the web, my macbook hang up (I couldn't press anything or do anything, the system wouldn't respond), so I shut it down forcefully (by holding the power button), after this my computer wouldn't boot at all: a flashing questioning mark appeared on the grey screen. I know what it means (I'm an Intel engineer and know quite a bit on the subject), so I thought the SSD was dead. Brought it to the shop a bought it at (M-video, Russia, Nizhni Novgorod). After 21 day (sic!) they gave it back to me working fine and said that when they opened it - it worked OK, they tested it for 5 days with reboots and it was OK. After 1 month of using it after I got it back (today) it happened again: the OSx hang -> force shutdown -> question mark on startup.
Could you please tell what can it be? It's obvious that it's no a hardware problem (in this case it wouldn't happen from time to time but be a permanent defect after the first time it occurred). I tried all the recipes found on the internet (command + alt + P + R; R to get recovery mode - disk utility sees only 1 partition on disk0 of 1.8 GB (I guess it's partition with the base system) and won't let me do anything - all options are grayed out; SHIFT won't let me into safe mode - no idea why; etc.). I also don't have a CD or anything with the mac OS, however even Internet recovery won't help - no targets to install it when it comes to it.
Have tried almost anything and asked almost anyone among my IT-connected friends, but in vain. Thank you in advance for your help! Will appreciate any piece of advice.

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
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 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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
If this fails then see: OS X (Lion/Mountain Lion)- About OS X Recovery.

G5 Startup issue - question mark folder

Hello -
I am using a PowerMacG5 Dual 2.3 ghz with 1GB RAM
OS 10.4.9
No partitions or anything - just one large hard drive.
It has started having an issue on startup :
For a second, it shows the Flashing question mark folder, then starts up as normal.
Not sure how long this has been happening, or what triggered it.
It runs fine otherwise, except for not recognizing its Airport card.
Latest Repair Permissions returns only the folllowing :
Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Determining correct file permissions.
Permissions differ on ./private/var/log/secure.log, should be -rw------- , they are -rw-r-----
Owner and group corrected on ./private/var/log/secure.log
Permissions corrected on ./private/var/log/secure.log
Permissions repair complete
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
But I want to avoid this becoming a larger issue - why would it be doing this Question Mark on startup and what can anyone recommend - clean install ? upgrade to 10.4.10 ? other ideas ?
Thanks

Hi infoAP-
It sounds like it may be looking for a startup disk, doesn't find what it is looking for, and resorts back to the system drive.
Take a look at your Startup Disk preference and make sure the drive of this particular mac is selected, unless you want it to boot from something else.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

New iMac, startup failure, question mark: TH00-9.000 TH0O-9.000

Hi everyone!
My new alu iMac worked for 3 weeks. Today it suddenly crashed. Now the boot process stops with a flashing question mark.
Disk Repair didn't find any harddisks to repair.
System Profiler stated "There was an error while scanning for Serial-ATA devices."
AHT reports the following error code: 4sns/1/40000000: TH00-9.000 harddisk failure.
The error appears during (or after) the main logic board test while the fans spin up.
Looking closely the space between the zeros in TH00 is significantly smaller. So maybe it's not a zero but an upper case O.

Please look over the following Apple Advice letter:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
My guess is the internal HD has crashed, this of course would be covered by your 1 year warranty so you should contact Apple immediately for repair. Please remember hard drives are not made by Apple and they do fail. Some last weeks some last 10 years, unfortunately they are very unpredictable. While this is frustrating this is why you have a warranty. If you have been using Time Machine then once the internal drive has been replaced restoring will be painless with TM.
If you have added an external HD or have a flash drive inserted in one of the USB slots that can confuse the machine so it doesn't know where the startup volume is. Try re-starting by holding down the Option key, if the machine sees start up disks it will highlight them, then choose the internal HD. Once the machine has started then go to System Preferences-Startup Disk and select the internal disk.
If that doesn't work please post back and let us know what happened. BTW you don't state where you are located but you may be covered by AppleCare. Look in your owners manual for the phone number in your area and contact Apple, you have 90 days of free telephone support.
Roger

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.

Startup disk question/problem

Should the startup disk always be at the top of the list of disks upon startup? Or is it now the case, with 10.5 on a MacBook, that the internal disk is at the top of the list whether or not it is the startup disk?
Situation: New MacBook Mac OS 10.5.8, new Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT 320GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive in an external MacAlly SATA FW/USB case. I erased (formated) the external drive, and, using Restore in Disk Utility, made what I expected to be a clone of the MacBook's internal drive.
Problem: After repairing permissions, using Start Up Disk preferences I selected the new drive as the start up drive. Upon restart I get mixed signals as to which is the startup drive. The original (internal) drive is at the top of the list on the right of desktop but, in the Start Up Disk Preferences list, the new drive is highlighted. (Further: I am able, after right clicking on the internal disk, to select it, to eject it.)
Questions: Have I bought a drive that won't work as a start up drive or doesn't Disk Utility Restore in 10.5.8 create a bootable drive as in 10.4 or does the internal disk always show up at the top of the list on the desktop in 10.5.8? When I swap the drives, putting the new drive in the MacBook, will it boot?
This procedure for swapping new drives has always worked with my Macs thru Mac OS 10.4.11.

Check with Western Digital (the FAQs on their website) whether that hard drive is bootable on your Mac. Not all of them are.
Quote from a Western Digital FAQ:
While it may be possible to boot your computer to an external hard drive, Western Digital does not provide technical support for booting your computer using an external hard drive. If you intend to make a copy of your boot drive, or install your operating system, please use a second internal drive (EIDE or Serial ATA), rather than an external drive.
And their list of bootable drives:
The following external hard drives are bootable on Intel-based Macintosh computers systems through USB:
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Premium ES Edition
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
The following external hard drives are bootable on Intel-based Macintosh computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b):
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Pro Edition
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
The following external hard drives are bootable on Power PC based Macintosh computers systems through FireWire (1394a/b):
• WD My Book Premium Edition
• WD My Book Pro Edition
The following external hard drives are not bootable on Power PC based Macintosh computers systems through USB/FireWire 1394(a/b):
• My Book Essential Edition
• My Book Essential Edition 2.0
• My Book Home Edition
• My Book Mirror Edition
• My Book Office Edition
• My Book Premium Edition II
• My Book Pro Edition II
• My Book Studio Edition
• My Book Studio Edition II
• My Passport Studio
• My Passport Elite
• My Passport Essential
• WD Passport
• WD Passport (Silver)
You will find a more up to date list on their website.

Startup Disk Question

I decided to make the move from PC to mac today, and purchased a MacBook. I just have a quick question regarding the startup disk menu. When it asks me to "select the system you want to use to start up your computer", I should be selecting the "Mac OS X, 10.6.1 on Macintosh HD" option, correct? I just want to make sure. Thanks.

Hi pp1987, welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes that is correct!
Dennis

Cloned startup disk question

This past June I cloned my startup hard drive, the original 320GB HDD that came with my Mac Pro new in March 2008. I used Disk Utility's Restore and erased the new drive first, selecting Mac OS Extended, Journaled. This drive, a WD 1TB Caviar Black, is recognized when I boot from another drive because it shows up as a choice using System Preferences > Startup Disk.
The question I have is that a second, more recent 1TB drive, a Hitachi 1TB drive, was sent through the same process. My Mac Pro will start up fine using this drive, but when I look at System Preferences > Startup Disk, this newly-cloned drive is not an option. The first cloned drive that I mentioned above is showing, and a second option shows, Network Startup. Why does the Hitachi drive I cloned a couple of days ago not show up in System Preferences > Startup Disk even though my system is booted from this drive?
The drives were cloned using an eSata dock, and no errors were reported during the 2 to 3 hour process.

Since I see no way to edit this question, I am adding some more info.
When I restart my Mac and hold down the option key, both cloned drives (mentioned above) are shown as options for startup - the Hitachi and the WD drives, both clones of the original 320GB drive. Also, a third option is Windows. Since I chose the Hitachi drive as my startup drive, the Mount Point shows it is the primary drive.
When I select System Preferences > Startup Disk, the Hitachi drive still does not show up as an option.
One more observation is that when I used About This Mac > More Info, this Hitachi drive has
Partition Map Type: MBR (Master Boot Record)
even though I selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled) when I erased the new drive.
All the other drives (four of them) show
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Do I need to re-format the drive to ensure it is partitioned as GPT?
Message was edited by: Leon Smith

Won't boot from alternate startup disk

I have 10.1.3 on my 366 firewire clamshell and I am trying to install tiger. I connected my external firewire dvd burner which showed the contents no problem, but when I chose it as the startup disk and rebooted, it just displayed the alternating mac/disk question mark icon then booted from the HD anyway.
So I installed Tiger on an external firewire HD and tried to boot from that, but this time it shows the mac/? icon but doesn't boot even from the HD.
I then realised I had Panther on cds so I tried to boot from that (hold C when powering up), but again it refused and just had the mac/? icon.
How can I reset it or do something to get it booting again ?

Hi Neil -
If your 'target disc mode' install runs along fine and then quits ...that to me is a bad sign.
Have your tried resetting the PMU?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449#faq4
I did a Jag. install via target disc mode from an iMac G5 and that went fine. My drive is partitioned with X and 9.
Does your OS 9 disc give you the same problems as you're having with X? If not, maybe boot into 9 and use its 'disk first aid' and/or 'drive set-up' utility to check your drive?

Question mark in battery symbol

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.

Question mark folder, but can use it as startup disk for other machines

I have an old iBook G3 which I have put a new hard drive in, reformatted and installed Tiger. I installed Tiger off another iBook as the combo drive in this book is currently broken. When I attempt to boot the computer I get the folder with the alternating question mark and finder face. However, if I put my iBook in Target Mode, I can use it to boot my other iBook and a PowerMac G4 no problem.
I have tried resetting the PRAM, tried holding down the X key, tried holding down the option key (the boot volume does show up, but when I choose it nothing happens).
I'm completely lost as to what to do. I don't really need this computer, but I was going to keep it around for my friends' kids to use when they come over. Any help would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks!

Oh yes, I know, I did that too. Let me recap:
I have put the iBook G3 in Target mode, put the Tiger disc in my G4, installed Tiger to the G3. The computer completes the install and setup just fine and enters into the OS without issue. I then shut it all down, disconnect the firewire cable and reboot and G3 gives me the flashing folder/question mark.
I have put the G4 in Target mode with the Tiger disc in the drive and attempted to install to G3. No joy there either. And, actually, now that I think about it, I can't remember if I could ever get it to choose the install disc as a boot option...
If I hold down the option key, my drive shows up as a boot volume, but it will not boot. I can click on the drive, but nothing happens.
I have zapped the pram, as well as following all the other advice given on the Apple site, and still nothing.
If I put the ibook in Target mode, connect it to another computer and hold down the option key on the other computer, the iBook's startup disk shows as an option and, if chosen, successfully boots the other computer (so clearly the issue is not with the hd or with any physical connections within the computer).
This is making me insane! I appreciate any and all help on this.
Thanks!

Why is there a question mark on my startup disk.

When I go to apple system preferences, there is a question mark on my startup disk. Why? and what should I do to resolve it.
I don't have any problem starting my ocmputer and using it.

in the system pref.
the top line ... "Show all, Display, Sound, Network,
Startup disk
my 'startup disk' has a question mark!
Right. That's fine. It's just telling you that you can click that icon to choose a different Startup Disk. That question mark is part of the icon for that preference pane.
I click on it and I get a"select the system.."
It shows my Mac OS 10.3.9 and Network Startup which
has a question mark
I do have OS selected.
and question mark on Network.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Now, where do I go to see my startup items?
Click on "Show All" in the System Preferences. Then Accounts down in the System section. Choose your account in the list at the left hand side, then choose the "Startup Items" tab on the right.
To remove an app from that list, select it and use the "-" button below. Unchecking it just means that if the application has a window, it'll be hidden at startup.
Thanks for all your help.
You're welcome.
cheers,
charlie

Startup Disk Question Mark

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