What does a picture of a file with a question mark on it displayed on the screen mean?
Hello out there,
Does anyone know what a file with a question mark displayed on screen means?
And how to get to start up, I am not able to exit the page.
Help would be much appreciated.
Follow these support documents
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
If you have OS X Lion you can hold option and select the Recovery Partition to boot off of or download the recovery
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1433
If you can hold c and boot off a 10.5 or 10.6 OS X installer disk, you can install OS X onto a external drive and reboot holding option key to select the external drive to boot off of to retrieve files too.
If that doesn't resolve the issue, use another Mac, a Firewire cable and Target Disk Mode to recover your files off the internal drive before taking it in to Apple for service.
https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
Do what you think you can handle above, just don't erase or reformat your drive unless you have gotten a copy of your files off first.
Most programs can be simply reinstalled from fresh sources, make sure you have any license keys handy.
You have one year warranty and another two more years with AppleCare.
It's possbile to take a computers internal hard drive and place it in a external drive enclosure to access your files on another machine, so if the computer is going to be replaced, ask for the internal hard drive.
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Does anyone know what's wrong with it? not booting up. instead of it a picture of a file appears with a question mark on it in the middle of screen?
Sounds like abad hard drive. The clicking sound is coming from the HD. The folder with the question mark means that your computer can't find the statrup disk or the hard drive.
Boot your computer using the install disc and check if Disk Utility can recognize your HD. If not, then it needs HD replacement. If you have AppleCare or within the 1 year warranty, then replacement should be free from Apple. Check the nearest Apple Store in your area. -
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Apple recently sent a message asking me if I would like to upgrade to Mavericks which was free. I considered installing after saving a copy of my HD to a WD external drive. I proceeded with the instalation however when it was time to reboot the programme the computer displayed a message that it could not process the request due to errors with the hard drive. The computer then requested that i save a copy and the verify disk and repair disk which i followed and the computer would not repair due to an error. At which pioint I did some research and was told by the IMac to push shift when it starts to enter disk utility and repair the Mcintosh HD. I did as asked however the computer would still not install with Mavericks.
So after many attempts of trying to start over, I was prompted to erase the Mcintosh HD and reboot using the saved copy. At this point all data was lost and all that is left on my computer is a file with a question mark with no way of restoring the HD drive. Could anyone help please?It sounds like your HD may have died.
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Hi I installed a new hard drive in my Mac mini osx lion an when I turn it on I get a flashing file with a question mark. I tried holding command and R keys when turning it on but the recovery fails to work. I can hold the option key at start up and choose my network, then Internet recovery shows up with an arrow pointing up. When I click on the arrow Internet recovery fails and all I get is a globe with a triangle on it with an exclamation mark on it, and under that it says
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Does any one know how I can fix this without a recovery disc? ThanksI just want to add to this, in case someone else searches for this error on Apple Support (google doesnt cover apple support.. how clever is that?)
I had the same error. And i had a Computer that had worked, with a SSD drive and 16GB upgrade done by the owner himself.
I tried swapping with a Mechinal Harddrive, no luck.
Kept the Mechanical drive in, and tried with some other Ram, it worked..
So for me this error and after reading the other responses can be boiled down to a Harddrive problem or Ram issue.
It was Ram for me.. -
How do I get rid of the flashing file with a question mark in it?
I wanted to start clean on my MacBook Pro osx 10.9.4. So I did the command r and erased what I thought was the right one. I restarted my computer and did the command r again and what came up was internet recovery. It can't find my internet because it's WEP and I don't know to change it to wpa. So I restarted my computer again and I didn't do the command r but just let it load itself to see what would happen and all I get is a flashing file with a question mark. I don't know what to do. Someone please help me.
Do you get this display?
If so, you have to select an Internet connection. Do not expect quick response time in this mode. All activities in this mode will be lengthy.
Ciao. -
I can't restart my mac , I get a file with a question mark? Help
Need help, what to do when I cannot restart my mac. I get a file with a question mark?
That indicates that your Mac is unable to find a system to boot from
This is usually caused be either a corrupt system file, corrupt ot dead disk drive
Allan -
I've got a 15" white macbook which I bought about 2 years ago. It froze the other day and wouldn't respond so I shut it down. When I turn it on now it comes up with a flashing file with a question mark on it. How can I fix it? I've tried a few things i've seen online but the futhest ive got is to put the start up disk in when you makes it go to a grey screen with an apple logo and the spinning wheel which then stops spinning. Can anybody help?
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 and reboot. 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). That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Just 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?
If it is then click on the Mac OS partition of your hard drive in the left handlist. Then select the First Aid Tab and run Repair Disk. The Repair Disk button won't be available until you've clicked on the Mac OS partition on your hard drive. If that repairs any problems run it again until the green OK appears and then run Repair Permissions.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead. -
Macbook pro starts up but i see picture of some files and a question mark
So I was on my laptop today and it just outta nowhere froze , the song i was listening stopped and i couldn't change the page, i could move the trackpad but nothing else.
so i clicked on the off button and turned it off.
then i tried to turn it on again but while loading it just stayed blank and this picture of some files and a question mark on them appeared, i have no idea what's going on.
I turned it off again and turned it back on and the little apple appeared and it was loading but then a sign appeared like one of prohibited (the one that's a circle and has a slash across it) and idk what to do! i'm so frustrated all my school files are there and idk why this happened in the first place.
i turned it off and just put it to charge.
lately i've been using it a lot and i had a few things on when it froze , so im just gonna leave it off for a while but what can i do?
how do u solve this? has anyone had this happened to their macbook pro already? i bought it just last year idk why this is happening.The folder and question mark means it cannot find a valid OSX Boot Volume, you need to Boot from your original install DVD (hold c at start) and then run Disc Utility from the top menu bar and run both 'Repair Disc' and 'Repair Permissions'. If it still doesn't boot from the internal hard drive then you need to boot from that install DVD again and do an archive (re)install of the operating system. (Your User data will be saved that way)
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I need to reinstall my operating system for 10.5 after seeing a file folder and question mark flashing on my start up screen. Can anyone help me with this?
Hello,
That means it can find the Hard Drive, or can't find the things needed for booting.
See if DU even sees it.
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.) -
I have a white intel i mac and when i boot up a file with a question mark shows up
i installed wnow leopard and then attempted to use boot camp to install windows (thats a whole other story though) after i got windows on it and then got it back to the mac side i found i could not get back to the windows side so i attemted to delete the windows partition and recreate my full mac partition (thats not as easy as i thought it would be, anyway i ended up with a partition that said it was the alloted mac partition space and another one, that apperead smaller in disk utility, that said it was 160 gb (my total disk size) while i was trying to fix that i hit the power strip switch with my foot and the whole thing shut down when it booted back up the only thing on the screen was a file with a question mark on it, i think it is just booting from the misconfigured parition but im not sure ive tried inserting my snow leopard and xp system disks but it doesnt seem to be booting from them.
At startup hold down the Option/Alt key t bring up the One time Boot Selection, Startup Manager, screen and then select the OS X install DVD. Give it about 30+ second for the DVD drive to read and display the OS X install DVD.
Then use Disk Utility to Repartition the drive as one partition and then try installing OS X.
Could be you simply killed that drive with all the new installs of OS X and then Windows and then using Disk Utility to erase the Windows partition. If that is the case you'll need to replace the drive before you'll be able to reinstall any OS on it.
In any event Never use Disk Utility to erase a Windows install. Use the Boot Camp Assistant a second tim to Remove Windows and the partition it is installed on. -
Hi can anyone help with a mac that had magnet put on it. I turned it on and then off but a white screen appears with a file with a question mark on it?
File icon with ? mark on it means it can't read from the hard drive. The hard drive is now wiped or bad. If just wiped then you will need to reinstall your operating system, OS X. If bad you will need to replace the drive.
Start with booting the computer from the OS X install DVD that came with your system. If the Mac came with Lion Pre-Installed then you use the Lion internet recovery system to reinstall (Hold down Command+r keys or Command+Option+r keys to boot the computer from over the internet to the Lion recovery HD system).
Good Luck. -
During start up I get a file with a question mark. I ran Disk Utility and it said Hard Drive is fine. Any suggestions?
This Apple support article might be of assistance:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
Ciao.
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