What does the folder with a question mark mean?

When I power on my black Macbook a white screen appears with a folder with a question mark flashing. what does the folder with a question mark mean? I just replaced the hard drive. When I put the install disc in the cd drive makes a very loud whirring noise then eventually the disc pops back out. Any ideas?

You will need to reinstall:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
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 the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

Similar Messages

What does a folder with a question mark mean?

When starting up my computer I get a folder with a question mark inside. How can I fix this problem?

There are four general causes of this issue:
1. The computer's PRAM no longer contains a valid startup disk setting when there aren't any problems with the disk itself. This can be checked for by pressing the Option key and seeing if the drive appears.
2. The internal drive's directory structure has become damaged. This requires usage of an alternate bootable system to perform the repair.
3. Critical system files have been deleted. This requires usage of an alternate bootable system to reinstall them.
4. The internal drive has died or become unplugged. This is the most likely case if the computer took a sharp impact or there are unusual sounds coming from the hard drive's location.
(67155)

What does a folder and a question mark mean?

Upon booting up I am seeing a small folder icon and then a question mark, but after they flash on screen the computer boots up as always. I am having trouble getting my 2nd HD to mount, but that was an issue before the folder and question mark.

It means that your computer isn't finding the system folder where it expects it to be. Once it scans it eventually finds a working system and continues the boot process. As stated before make sure your startup drive is selected in the startup disk preference pane. If you're having trouble getting drive 2 to mount you should first try disk utility to repair the disk.

IMac crashed & on reboot I get the folder with a question mark

This happened last night when I went downstairs to put my computer to sleep, it was frozen. On reboot, I would get the chime, but not the apple logo—just the gray screen. Finally, after a minute or two, the folder with a question mark appeared. I tried resetting my PRAM and that didn't seem to work. I tried rebooting from the install disk to repair permissions, but my volume wouldn't even mount. It wasn't there.
Since this was 10:30 at night, I just went to sleep and when I woke up this morning, I turned it on just to see what would happen and lo & behold, it turns on, apple logo appears and ultimately takes me to my login screen. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
However, when I went to login on either my account or my husband's account, neither of our passwords will work now.
I have tried everything—typing the letters one by one. Nothing. How on earth am I supposed to login now? I'm afraid of restarting for fear of that infamous folder with the question mark appearing.
Any suggestions on how I could possibly login? Not only that, why are our passwords no longer working? Our names and avatars show up (they're custom avatars), so something is showing up on my HD, but why don't our passwords work? Weird.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Oh, my specs are below and the only thing that I have done differently is I upgraded to v10.5.6 a few days ago. Otherwise, this never happens. No, I have not installed new RAM or anything like that.
Thanks!!!
Suzanne

Thank you so much for your replies, but I wanted to give you a heads up.
After speaking with tech support yesterday morning, and trying to verify disk via install disk, it was recommended that I bring my computer into Apple to have my HD replaced. I took it to the Genius Bar yesterday and yup, I need my HD replaced. Pain in the butt, but oh well, it could have been worse.
I pretty much back up all of my work (I'm a graphic designer) on a regular basis, but hadn't backed up my recent iTunes purchases, which I was told yesterday I could easily transfer from my iPod back to my "new" iMac—since they're purchased from iTunes. What a relief.
I guess the only thing that's a pain is pretty much all of my bookmarked websites (and there were a lot) and my photos, which I believe for the most part, were backed up.
Regardless, a lesson learned—never take advantage of the fact that your computer is what you think brand new (less than a year and a half old), and thinking it won't die, because you never know. This guy that was sitting next to me at the GB had a brand new MacBook Pro and it died after one week. Ouch!
I am going out right now and purchasing an external HD and having Time Machine back up on a regular basis. What a pain, but a harsh lesson learned.
Thank goodness for Apple Care.

Macbook has the folder with flashing question mark

Yesterday as I was watching Netflix my Mac froze. I was skipping around an episode and then started opening a folder to do something else while it loaded and then it just froze. I thought maybe I was clicking on too many things at once or whatever and it got screwed up a bit so I closed it for a minute or two. When I opened it back up it had a (light) blue screen that wouldn't go away so I shut it down with the power button. Then when I turned it back it just had a white/gray screen for like a minute before the folder with the flashing question marked appeared.
I've googled possible solutions but nothing seems to work. It won't boot up in safemode. One answer suggested trying to do comm-opt-P-R (can't remember what that was trying to do) and that didn't work. The screen would just go black and then start up over and over. When I just press the opt-key it takes me straight to Internet recovery. However, none of the options available work. I don't have the TimeMachine thing, I don't have a disk to reload the Lion software, and there's nothing to click on at all in the disk utility. All that's available in that is a disk0 and the Mac OS X Base System and I can't click on First Aid/Erase/Partition/Restore. I've opened up the startup disk and there's nothing that shows up.
Is there something else I can try at home or should I just go ahead to the apple store? My Mac is under a year old still, but I spilled soda on it back in like October and had to get all the parts replaced so I don't know if that would do anything to the warranty....And if something does have to get replaced will I lose all my stuff? It was bad enough losing four months worth of data, I don't want to lose seven.
Thanks for any help.

As long as the parts were replaced by someone authorized to do the repairs, you should still be fine. This error indicates that they computer isn't able to find a disk to boot to.
The "disk" to reload Lion is that internet recovery (also can be launched from command + r).
Seeing as how you don't have the startupdisk in Disk Utility, I would recommend getting it into a store to see why that drive isn't detected. It could be something as simple as a loose SATA cable, or as catastrophic as complete hard drive failure. While you're at the store, I'd look into investing in an external drive to start running Time Machine...

Why does a folder with a question mark momentarily appear at startup?

Hi everyone.
Is that normal or is that indicative of potential problems to come?
Thanks,
Al

Hi, Hank. What model is the old Powerbook?
Hi eww,
According to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24604, it is the PowerBook (FireWire) computer (M7572). As I understand it, this is a G3.
If it's a Powerbook G4 (any model), that CD can't
boot it, and in order to perform an installation on
the Powerbook, you would have had to start the PB
from its hard drive, insert the CD into the external
FireWire drive, and then perform the Clean Install
that way. I'm surprised if that was possible; the
installer should have refused to run.
Well, IIRC, this is indeed what I did...
Even if it did
run successfully, both the installed OS 9.0.4 and the
OS 9.0.4 on the CD itself would be unable to boot the
PB afterward, possibly resulting in exactly the
symptoms you see now.
...and I think you have nailed it.
If this is an accurate
description of what you did and how things went, the
solution is to obtain an appropriate OS 9 installer
disc for the Powerbook model in question — that what
disc that is will depend on which PB G4 model you have.
If it's the last of the Powerbook G3's (the first PB
that had a built-in FireWire port), it was originally
shipped with OS 9.0.2, and a retail (not
model-specific) OS 9.0.4 CD should boot it OK. If
your CD is a valid one for that model, you should be
able to boot the Powerbook to the CD now, even if the
installation was unsucessful — unless your
FireWire optical drive isn't bootable itself: some
aren't. Have you ever booted the Powerbook or any
other Mac to a CD in that drive before?
It sounds like you are describing the situation perfectly. The OS 9.0.4 CD is what we have. I did indeed boot to a Norton SystemWorks 2.0 CD yesterday via the FireWire external drive, but I was unable to change the startup disk (so as to be able to restart the PowerBook from the HD).
You mentioned that I probably can't boot to an OS CD via the FireWire drive, and it is true that I have not been able to do this. Before I decide on another (stupid) course of action, I'll wait until you comment.
My next idea is (1) to start up the two Macs -- connected via FireWire -- with the PowerBook in target disk mode, (2) insert the OS 9.0.4 disk into the iMac, and (3) choose to install system software on the PowerBook ("choose volume"). Could this work?
Thanks again,
Hank

What does a triangle with an exclamation mark mean?

In Photos I see a thumbnail. When I click to see it alone I get a black screen with a triangle with an exclamation mark in it...what is going on?

Apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Since only one option can be run at a time start with Option #3, followed by #4 and then #1 as needed.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
2 - click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
3 - Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option.
4 - In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
5 - Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

What does the cloud with a downward arrow mean?

Every morning i have a coloud with a downward arrow by a song. Sometimes it won't even let me play the song. I have synced my ipod touch and ipone to my laptop and songs are synced. But then randomly i can't play the ones that have the cloud with arrow. any suggestions?

It means the song was previously purchased from the iTunes store and is available for redownload. It won't play because it hasn't yet been downloaded. You can hide this by going to Settings>iTunes & App Store and turning Music off under Show All.
This should only happen with songs that are not stored on your iPod. If you synced music is somehow being deleted from your iPod you might want to post a question over in the iPod Touch forum because this shouldn't be happening.

My MacBook Pro turns on and only shows a folder with a question mark and blinks. The computer will not continue start-up. Suggestions/Advice?

I'm not sure how this screen is appearing, but I tried powering up my computer this morning and it immediately presents a grey screen, then displays a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle of it.
I am looking for troubleshooting advice and procedures to bypass this screen and allow my computer to complete it's start-up.
Thanks-
Gary D. Aston, Jr.
[email protected]

The folder with a question marks is usually an idication that the Mac can't find the system file to boot from.
Since you never told us which system your Mac was running there is nothing more to say.
Allan

What does the icon of a folder with a question mark inside mean?

After an overnight power outage I tried to turn on my iMac this morning, but all I got was clicking sounds and a gray full screen with the icon of a folder with a question mark inside it, blinking. (There's no tool bar that appears anywhere). What does that mean?
I've tried unplugging the system and waiting a while before attempting another boot. Same screen.
I recently (a month ago) upgraded to Snow Leopard from my original OS X software. Never had this sort of a problem before.The iMac was purchased around 2005 or 2006. Intel Dual Core processor.
Thanks for any help on this.

Thanks, Paul, for the prompt reply.Obviously, your answer isn't what I wanted to hear, but feared. When I get home tonight I'll try finding the install disk and booting from that. Fortunately, I still have a MacBook Pro that is running fine. Incidentally, I have a Western Digital external Hard Drive that has very little, if anything on it. But since I can't open anything on the iMac, I guess I'll have to see if the install disk works before I try to figure out IF I can use that WD-External drive temporarily rather than replace the HD on the iMac. Any clues on what a replacement drive and labor runs for that sort of iMac repair?
j

My iMac has a white screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in the middle. What does that mean?

My iMac is completely unresponsive. Whenever I restart it, it's just a white screen with a flashing file folder with a question mark in the middle. What does this mean?

this means the mac cannot find the startup disc. which more times than not means you need a hdd replacement.
try starting holding the option key, then using utilities try to repair the disc.

What does a file folder with a question mark in it mean when the computer won't start?

What does a file folder with a question mark in it mean when the computer won't start?

There are four general causes of this issue:
1. The computer's PRAM no longer contains a valid startup disk setting when there aren't any problems with the disk itself. This can be checked for by pressing the Option key and seeing if the drive appears.
2. The internal drive's directory structure has become damaged. This requires usage of an alternate bootable system to perform the repair.
3. Critical system files have been deleted. This requires usage of an alternate bootable system to reinstall them.
4. The internal drive has died or become unplugged. This is the most likely case if the computer took a sharp impact or there are unusual sounds coming from the hard drive's location.
(68976)

TS2094 After resetting the pram, the screen only shows a folder with a question mark inside. What does this mean?

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?

What does it mean when I start my computer and there is a file folder with a question mark?

What does it mean if I start my computer and there is a file folder with a question mark blinking?

That Disk 1/ Mac OS is the install DVD not the hard drive. Your hard drive is not recognized which would mean it's probably dead.
For a new hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Here are instructions on replacing the hard drive in a MacBook with a removable battery. http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=45088
Here are video instructions on replacing the hard drive on the Aluminum Unibody http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbookpro_13_unibody_hd/
Here are video instructions on replacing the hard drive on the White Unibody http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/macbook_13_09_unibody_hd/
If you don’t have the tools to open up the MacBook OWC has a set for $5
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TOOLKITMHD/

MacBook Air will not reboot. A file folder with a question mark in the center of it appears. What is the problem?

MacBook Air will not power on or reboot. A file folder with a question mark in the center of it appears. What is the problem?

Go step by step and test.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440
Startup Manager to select Startup disk.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
Repair Disk
Steps 2 through 8
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Reset PRAM.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4405
Reinstall OS X
If this does not help, contact Apple.
Best.

What does the folder with a question mark mean?

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