TS1440 Hard Drive Not Found, Flashing Question Mark Appears

I've tried all the "fixes" to this problem, but none of them seem to work.
•When I hold option, no hard drives show up.
•When using Disk Utility from the install disk, no hard drives are found. (Shows up just as "Media.")
-If I wait long enough, they do show up, but problem still persists after repairs.
•Still doesn't boot after resetting PRAM
•I can't reinstall Mac OS because my computer does not recognize that there's a disk to install it on.
What makes this all weirder is that if I wait long enough, it seems to work just fine, but then once I shut it down, it won't restart any time soon.
I also seem to have a problem taking it out of sleep. The screen comes back on, but the spinning wheel shows up if I try to do anything before my fans spin up.

Yes, based on what you have described. When hard drives start disappearing from Disk Utility one of two things is usually happening: 1. the hard drive is failing; 2. the computer is failing.

Similar Messages

  • HT1379 A flashing question mark appears when I re/start my MacBook Air 2013. At first, I pressed Power & Option button and it recovered from Internet. Then, four options appeared but none of them are helpful. Could u please help me to solve it asap?

    Hello,
    A flashing question mark appears when I re/start my MacBook Air 2013. Then, I pressed POWER & OPTOIN buttons and internet options appeared for internet recovery. After internet recovery, the OS X utilities appears with four options (Restore from Time machine, Reinstall OS X, Get help online and Disk utility). But none of them seemed helpful. On the last option Disk utility, the icon created only with 33KB and other disk 1 Mac Os X Base system. On First Aid, the icon Repair disk is disabled. So I could not click on repair disk. Could you please suggest me how to solve this problem asap? Thank you so much for your help in advance!

    You can try the following:
    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/Mountain 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.

  • Installed new hard drive and flashing question mark appears

    I bought a new hard drive for my macbook pro (mid 2009) because my original harddrive bit the dust... I purchased it off of amazon which states that its specifically for macbooks and the reviews appeared to back it up. I saw a lot of people with great reviews of the same model of macbook that I have so I figured it was the best solution.. I connected the new hard drive but I am getting the dreaded flashing folder/question mark. Is this normal before re-installing the OS x? Heres the problem, I am out of town on business and do not have the original OSx disc on hand. So my question is, is the flashing question mark normal upon installing a new harddrive? and if so, is there away to install the OSx onto the new harddrive without the disc?
    my macbook was running mavericks before the harddrive went to poo, however I did try to re-install mavericks before i ultimately realized that I needed to new harddrive. I noticed that rebooting my mac with command+r would give me the option to reinstall mavericks without a disc or anything. the next question I have is, would this still be do-able on the new harddrive? I tried the command+R option on the new harddrive but nothing happens.
    Can someone help me out here, I am getting a little desperate as I have gone over a week without my mac and theres so crucial things I need to get done! Luckily I have all my stuff backed up on an external hard drive, I just need to get the mac running again. Thanks for taking time to read!

    1. Yes, it is normal. If there's no OS on the drive, there's nothing to take the computer past that point.
    2. No, there's no way on that Mac model. You need to use an existing system(see #4).
    3. Not on that Mac model; it doesn't have the Internet Recovery system, and there isn't a recovery partition on the new drive.
    4. If the backup drive contains a bootable clone of any compatible OS, or a Time Machine backup created from Mac OS X 10.8 or newer, connect it and restart the computer with the Option key held down. If it doesn't contain either, you can't.
    (105476)

  • TS1440 A flashing question mark appeared when I started my MacBook Pro, I've tried all the suggestions and nothing has worked. How can I back up my current files so I can reinstall Mavericks?

    I recently did a manual reboot after my MacBook Pro had frozen, and instead of the usual Apple and loading icon, it gave me the flashing question mark on a folder, which I've never encountered before. I looked up some possible reasons on my PC, and after reading that there's a problem with my HD I tried looking up how to back up my files so that I can do a clean reinstall of Yosemite (latest ver.). However, I've never used anything like Time Machine or anything else that could back up all my files, so it didn't sound like I could do anything about that at this point. I've also tried going into Disk Utility and attempting to repair the disk image. There was only 2 available, disk0 and the base system. I verified the base system, and told me there was nothing wrong (it didn't give me the option to repair anything either, on both available options). I don't think this is the right thing though, since my drive was called MacBook Pro HD. So basically this is the point I'm at now. Is there anything I can do that will repair my HD without erasing all my files?

    I've tried all the suggestions and nothing has worked.
    I verified the base system, and told me there was nothing wrong
    Hold the option key on boot to see if you can select your Macintosh HD.
    A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
    You can boot into Recovery and re-install the OS X on top of what you have.  It will preserve your user data.
    command R on boot.
    Recovery  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

  • Help Please: Big Bang-XPower: hard drive not found while installing Windows7 x64

    I bought an MSI Big Bang-XPower MB and was trying to install windows7 x64. I have a WD raptor 150GB and Samsung 1TB hard drives. Both drives show up in BIOS. SATA controller setting is in IDE.
    after I clicked at the "install" icon, a window showed up telling me that no hard drive was found. I have seen this problem before with my old MB. All I needed to do with that MB was to load a driver for the hard drive and problem solved. Does anyone know which driver (name and version, please) is the right one for this MB? I went to the MSI driver page and there are several of them. and some of them give me about 50 drives to choose from (I tried about 10 of them but neither worked).
    Also, is IDE or AHCI more appropriate for this MB with Windows7?
    Thanks for any help.

    i downloaded and unzipped the file to a USB drive. it instructed me to press F6 to load the driver, but i couldn't find this screen while I was installing windows7. at about what step does this normally show up. i can see this if i were installing xp or vista.
    anyway, when i click at the load driver with the IDE setting, nothing was found. There was a driver when i changed sata setting to ACHI, but the computer told me that was not a valid driver.
    does the drive package have to be loaded in a floppy disc?
    anyway, called tech support and was told that the xpower was one of their newest MB. and the tech rep told me that he had never heard of this problem before. he had no idea what he was talking about. Fail! lol

  • IN DESPERATE NEED FOR HELP flashing question mark appears MacBook

    Hello everyone, I got this White MacBook Mac OS X 10.4.11 yesturday I was updating limewire and iTunes, I was downloading some songs from Limewire when all of a sudden my macbook frozed. I was not able to do a thing. Not even minimizing nor quiting the app nor even opening another aplication, so I decided to shut it down by holding the power button until it shut down (about 8 secs). So I restart my macbook and I got this grey=blank screen whit a flashing question mark on it. I've tried EVERYTHING on this link http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US even these one http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1533 and all I was able to accomplish, was to hold the mouse (/trackpad) button to eject a Cd, and while pressing Shift during startup (in order to start in Safe Boot mode) all I get is this lock image and this space to type a password. I've tried typing every password I know and I can't fix my macbook. Can anyone please help me out on this one?

    It means certain system files needed for startup are corrupted. You will have to reinstall OS X. If your hard drive is unaffected you can try the following:
    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.) 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, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) 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.

  • Did my hard drive die? Folder Question Mark Flashing.

    When I boot up, I get a folder with a question mark flashing on the screen. I booted up using the install CD, chose disk utility, but it could not analyze the disk at all. I assume the latter is the case because the disk is flat out not working - maybe a busted motor or corrupted. I do not hear the disk working at all when I try to listen for that.

    I have to agree with Peck here, if the drive does not show up in Disk Utility it's a goner.
    Some people have found themselves lucky and it turned out to be a loose cable after a repair or replaced drive but if you had neither done on your mac the drive is dead.
    I hope you made backups.

  • Hard drive not found (3F0) error

    I have a G42-415DX notebook that I bought around a year ago.  It's been a solid day-to-day computer up until now.  It froze a few days ago, and when I tried to start it back up, it got to the HP splash screen (prompts you to hit 'Esc' for system settings) and started beeping.  It stayed this way (beeping from the motherboard, not the speakers) for a minute until I shut it down.  When I tried to start it back up, I got nothing but the system diagnostics screen.  No option to load the BIOS or any of that, it "boots" strait to system diagnostics now.  I ran all the diagnostics and the memory checked 100% fine, but the computer says there is no hard drive installed.  It gave me a "3F0" error code (no bootable device installed).  I've tried absolutely everything I can think of.  I took the hard drive out and checked the connectors for corrosion or burns and everything looked clean.  I removed re-seated the drive several times but it didn't fix anything.  I tried swapping a good hard drive from a different laptop, also with windows 7 installed, into the G42 with the same result.  Also worth mentioning, the other laptop wouldn't boot to windows with the G42's hard drive either.  I popped in my Ubuntu DVD and ran the OS live from the disk to see if the built-in disk utility could see the drive and it does not.  The DVD drive itself shows up under the host SATA controller, but no hard drive.  Also, there's a very small (maybe 1 inch long) cable on this laptop that connects the hard drive to the motherboard.  1 end connects via normal SATA ports but the other seems specific to this laptop.  Maybe this little cable is the issue, or the connection on the motherboard side?  Both connectors on that end also appeared to be clean, nothing loose or obviously broken.
    The G42 didn't come with any windows disks b/c there's a recovery partition pre-loaded on the drive (which I can't access).  
    Is this a hardware issue or do I need to flash/update my BIOS?  I have a lot of very important personal information and family photos on the G42 so if anyone knows a way to fix this problem outside of a new hard drive or laptop, or has any ideas for further troubleshooting, I'm all ears.

    Hi,
     The failure ID you provided indicates that your Hard Drive has Failed & needs to be replaced.
    If your notebook is still under warranty, contact HP and arrange to have the drive replaced.
    If you are out of warranty and would like a guide on replacing the Hard Drive yourself, please let me know.
    Let us know how it goes!
    *Although I am an HP employee, I am speaking for myself and not for HP.
    ****Click the White Kudos star to say thanks****
    ****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
    Regards
    Manjunath
    Let us know how it goes!
    "I work for HP."
    ****Click the (purple thumbs up icon in the lower right corner of a post) to say thanks****
    ****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
    Regards
    Manjunath

  • IMac will not boot - flashing question mark folder

    Hi Everyone,
    This evening I did the update for Xcode on my iMac (purchased in 2012, new one with no DVD drive). I attempted to restart the iMac and the folder with the question mark inside it started flashing and would not stop.
    I have launced Internet Recovery with Disk Utility and verified the disk, and the result was "The disk appears to be OK", (this filled me with hope...). I selected the Startup Disk and I got the same result. I removed all the external peripherals and that did not solve the problem. I don't have a Time Machine backup of this Mac as it failed every time I tried to run it to my NAS drive. I have all of my iPhone app work on this iMac and don't really want to wipe my HDD. I have tried everything I can see that the forums and Google suggest... does anyone have any ideas?
    Thanks in advance
    Ed
    P.S. Disk Utility showed all available space as over 400 gigabytes... so I am pretty certain that it is not a disk space error.

    If you have a USB full installer, then you can boot from it by holding the alt key at startup and selecting the usb.  Once it loads, you'll be presented with a menu allowing you to select (reinstall the OS).  This will then allow you to select (Macintosh HD).  It will reinstall the OS without prompting you to run setup assistent or anything like that.  You'll just reboot into the login screen.
    You're on OS 10.8.5.  You'll need a full copy of 10.8.5 (it's almost 5GB) restored to a 8GB usb.
    You can do internet recovery.  It's like having a full installer but the files are downloaded from the internet.  When you used internet recovery to check your disk, there should have been an option to reinstall the OS as well.  It is doing the same thing via the internet that I described using a USB.

  • External hard drive not found in mavericks. help

    Hi
    I have a macbook air (mid 2012) running the latest version of OS X Mavericks. I had to repair my flash storage in an Apple Retail Store to get MAvericks installed. Ever since I've had Mavericks, my two 1TB usb 3 external hard drives (one is samsung, one is toshiba) are not showing up in Finder or on the Desktop.
    They showed up and worked fine in Mountain Lion but they haven't worked ever since the upgrade. I've verifyed and tried to mount the disks in disk utility but it says they can't be mounted. Anybody else had this problem and how to fix it?
    I can't really repair or rease them because they are full and I don't have a backup for them.

    In finder preferences you can hide or show the mounted disks on the desktop, is that what you need?
    What error shows when you try to mount them?

  • Internal Hard Drive not found.

    Ok so recently i was having some problems with my mac so i decided to just do a full re-install of the OS. I have everything i needed backed up. So i went along with the process. I deleted the current install, re-formated, and re-installed. Well about 60% of the way through the install the computer completely froze. I decided i didn't want to restart my computer because that might not work out well but after 4+ hours of it doing nothing i decided i had no choice. Upon turning on the computer the only thing it could find was the Snow Leopard install disc. So i booted that back up and ran the Disc Utility and again all it found was the install Disc. No hard drive.
    I fear this is the cause of Hard Drive failure but i really hope its a fixable issue.
    The only install disc i have is the Snow Leopard one. So no installing a previous OS.
    And my apple care has expired so thats out >.<
    Anyone with help / insight please help!
    Message was edited by: Ross_Jackson

    Unfortunately, yes, it sounds like your hard drive died. Exactly the same thing happened with my kids' iMac about a year ago. I replaced the hard drive and it's been working fine ever since. If you're mechanically inclined, you can buy the drive and then install it yourself to save some cash. There are guides online for replacing hard drives in just about any Mac. Then you can have some fun and open up the old dead drive!

  • Dv9500 1st hard drive not found / recognized , 2nd hard drive ok

    My Pavilion dv9500 doesn't find / recognize hard drive 1 in bios but boots and runs from the 2nd hard drive bay  if I use Hiren's Boot CD to boot to hard drive 1 . I've tried a variety of drives from 80Gb to 1Tb that work in  the 2nd hard drive bay  in the 1st hard drive bay .  I know that my 1st hard drive bay is getting power because I can hear and feel them  run .
    Update -  I suspect the sata controller for the 1st hard drive bay is dead . Is it possible to test it ?
    Update 2 - Using one of the programs in Hiren's Boot CD ,  it found the controller for the 1st hard drive bay but not the hard drive .

    Hi @Tranny 
    Thank you for your reply.
    Some older units do have the connections soldered on.  As this is the case with yours your options are to try and get it repaired.  I know that is not what you wanted to hear.
    You can try a local repair shop or contact HP support for repair options.
    Please call our technical support at 800 474 6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get a support number for your region.
    World Wide Phone Support
    Sparkles1
    I work on behalf of HP
    Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
    Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

  • External hard drive not found on macbook pro

    I have a lacie 2tb external hard drive.. It started disconnecting itself randomly. I purchased a new cable for it. The problem stopped for a short time.. then it started up, and now the hard drive won't appear on my macbook pro. Ive tried disk utility initially it was there.. but now its no where to be found. the people at lacie seem to think the drive has failed.. Any ideas?

    Hard drives can fail at any time... but, as I said, it could be that the SATA controller in the enclosure has gone belly-up. You should be able to take the drive to a standard computer repair shop and see if they can remove the drive from the enclosure, put it in a dock and see if the drive is mountable. It's a 50/50 chance but it shouldn't cost much and should be the first step before taking the unit into a more expensive data recovery facility.
    Good luck,
    Clinton
    BTW: My LaCie drives have 3 year and 5 year warranties, respectively - you may want to see if yours qualifies.

  • External Hard Drive Not Found in Finder

    I have an Oxford 120gb external hard drive that I am using with my PPC iMac G5. It is connected via firewire. My computer is not showing the drive on my desktop like it normally does. I have tried using a different firewire cord, using a different firewire port, etc. After booting up the drive, System Profiler indicates that the drive is there. It gives me all the information about the drive. What could be causing this, and are there any possible solutions? It's freaking me out, because I haven't backed up our digital photos in probably 5 months or so! Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
    PS - I've tried restarting the drive and the computer/connectng the cord in every combination I can think of, still to no avail!

    The good news is that I think I'm narrowing down what my problem is. The bad news is that I've got a huge video project due next Sunday and I'm not able to transfer video from my Canon GL2 video camera to my computer!
    I am now putting it together that neither firewire port is working. The reason I say this is because I've tried my external HD in both ports, using two different firewire cords. AND I have tried capturing video to my computer using two different video cameras, and on both firewire ports.
    I've trashed the old quicktime receipts and installed the newest version. I'm on OSX 10.4.9. I've also done the "turn everything off, unplug everything, drink a guinness (or two), sit for 30 minutes, plug it back in, plug the power cord back in while simultaneously holding down the power button, then hitting the power button". Still nothing but the good old "maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec!"
    Here's what is odd. After trying the Guinness method once, it worked. So I was finally able to start capturing video. While capturing, I hit a break in the sequence, and this somehow kicked me back off the firewire port.
    My external drive is showing up in Disk Utility, and will now usually show up in system profiler, but only in profiler if the camera is not also plugged in the firewire.
    ALL that to say, even if this is something that can be fixed by Mac's repair program, I'm still screwed on my project. Any other ways I could at least get the video from my GL2 onto my computer? In crisis mode...
    Also, are there any details available online on how to open up an iMac to reset the SMU? Or perhaps a PRAM reset? I've never "been inside", but am more than willing to try if I had a proper walkthrough on how to do it (what to look for, etc.). I know the link in the response above talks about how to do it from outside of the Mac, but I've also heard talk of opening the case and looking for the logic board...

  • Hard drive not found in Disk Utility

    Hello there. I wonder if anyone would be so kind to assist.
    Bought a second hand Macbook. Had 80gb and worked fine on Leopard. Bought a new 320gb SATA, replacing the 80gb.
    I have a Leopard upgrade disc and a Tiger full install 2-disc set. I insert Tiger and the Macbook advises that I am unable to install this software on to this hard drive. As the hard drive wasnt MAC formatted I guess I need to that first> I enter Disk Utility but cannot see my new HD (only the DVD drive where Tiger is at).
    Any ideas?

    Drive is SATA II. No jumper settings as I had already checked.
    Have eventually got round this very tedious problem. 320gb was not recognisable at all as you well know. Attached it to a caddy and used a Macbook Pro to see it. Couldn't find it. I attached it to a Windows machine and it got recognised. Re-attached it to the Macbook Pro (which now recognised it) and I formatted the 320gb into GUID format. The original 80gb which still worked had Leopard on it. I put that back into the Macbook and attached the 320gb externally via a USB caddy. Inserted Leopard DVD disc followed instructions and I let it restart. On restart it asks me the location of where to install and I chose the partition I created on the 320gb. Leopard was installed externally.
    Reattached the 320gb back onto my Macbook and it worked. 6hrs of frustration but I got there in the end.
    If anyone needs to remove the L-shaped panel from the battery bay from a Macbook I can do it free of charge. I can do that job blindfolded!

Maybe you are looking for