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

Similar Messages

My MacBook Pro won't start - it just displays a grey screen with flashing icon of a folder with a question mark in the middle. Help.

It started while I was using Adobe InDesign, and that program froze, then crashed. When I tried to reopen the program, the error message I received was simply "Error: 16".
I tried to take a screen shot of the error message for reference, and it gave me a message saying I couldn't because I didn't have access to the files where it would normally store the shot.
Attached to my computer at the time was my Seagate Free Agent Go-Flex for Mac backup drive.
So, I closed any open applications, and restarted my computer. But it wouldn't restart. It only displays a grey screen with a flashing icon in the middle of a folder with a question mark on it.
I have no idea what happened - I wasn't using the machine any differently than usual, and it only had a few basic applicaitons open in addition to InDesign (like Preview, Text Edit, Microsoft Word, iCal).
I have MacKeeper on my MacBook, and I keep it clean.
Does anyone out there know what this flashing icon indicates, and if there is anything I can try on my own to fix it?
Thanks.

ali har wrote:
It started while I was using Adobe InDesign, and that program froze, then crashed. When I tried to reopen the program, the error message I received was simply "Error: 16".
I tried to take a screen shot of the error message for reference, and it gave me a message saying I couldn't because I didn't have access to the files where it would normally store the shot.
For the Error: 16
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/827/cpsid_82744.html
Seems a uninstall and reinstall of CS is in order.
Attached to my computer at the time was my Seagate Free Agent Go-Flex for Mac backup drive.
May or may not be a contributing factor, may have kicked in at a wrong time or running root code.
So, I closed any open applications, and restarted my computer. But it wouldn't restart. It only displays a grey screen with a flashing icon in the middle of a folder with a question mark on it.
Computer can't find a bootable volume.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
I have MacKeeper on my MacBook, and I keep it clean.
Well that explains it, MacKeeper is almost malware.
http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/
Search the forums here for "MacKeeper" they will tell the whole story, crapware.
Disconnect all drives, follow the "Grey Screen" instructions and hold Shift key down while booting, if you get into OS X , immediatly backup your files to another drive and disconnect.
In my opinion you should first check to make sure you have a backup of your data, then just erase the entire internal drive (hold c boot off the 10.6 disk, use Disk Utility), reinstall OS X, same user name, update to 10.6.8, c boot off the 10.6 and Repair Disk (to fix a update error) install your programs and finally return files from backup into the same main user folders like before (Music, Docs, Pictures etc.)
A pain it is, but you've hosed your system and in the process you might as well rebuild everything and have a fast machine again. So happens to clear MacKrapper, uninstall CS5 and any other junk in your system at the same time. Fresh, clean, lean and mean.
Learn to Carbon Copy Cloner to a external drive that new pristine boot drive, you can hold the option key and boot from it (even update it), which is a real bacon saver when something like this happens. Also it's free to use, donations accepted.
http://www.bombich.com/
Note: if anything above I've mentioned is too complicated or your not sure, seek the services of a local computer specialist.

My laptop seemed to be frozen and I could not shut down from the menu. I held the power button for a long time and finally it shut off. When I started it again it turned on to show a black screen with an icon of a file folder with a question mark inside

Any idea what a blank screen with a flashing folder with a question mark inside of it means???

Ambinder55,
it means that the forced shutdown corrupted some portion of the internal disk’s filesystem. Which version of OS X is installed on your MacBook Pro?

HT2433 My laptop opened with a grey flashing file folder with a question mark inside it . How to to open my laptop! I have tried fir e clising several times and restArting nope nada!

My laptop opened with a grey flashing file folder with a question mark inside it . How do I open my laptop! I have tried force closing several times and restArting nope ! nada! Suggestions?

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.
With 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. 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) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
Or if you are running 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion or 10.9 Mavericks, boot from the recovery partition (Command +R on boot) and use Disk Utility to repair your OS 10.7, 10.8 or 10.9 partition.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and 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 hand list. 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. After repairing use Startup Disk from the same menu to choose your hard drive for restarting from your hard drive.
If your hard drive isn’t recognized in Disk Utility then your hard drive is probably dead.

My new mac mini (3 month) didn't start up,all that appeared was a white screen and a flashing folder with a question mark inside it.

My new Mac mini (3 month) didn't start up, all that appeared was a white screen and a flashing folder with a question mark inside it.
I followed by recommendations from 'Everything Mac': "shut it down by pressing and holding the power button for about 5 seconds.
Then hold down the Option key and press the power button again to start up the Mac mini. Keep holding down the Option key until
the Mac mini starts up."
But I got a Wi-Fi button only to chose and connect the local network. I connected to my network and I can't use this connection
becouse no icons.
Could you please help me?

Your Mini (running 10.6.4) should have come with grey-colored install disks. Now is the time to put them into service. Turn on your computer so that there is power to accept disk #1 into the optical drive. Once the disk is in the drive, shut off the computer by holding the start button down until it powers off. Then turn it on this time holding down the "C" key to make the computer boot from the disk. The question mark that you saw indicates that the computer cannot find a bootable volume. This can happen due to corrupted system files or an improper shutdown etc. Once you are in the "Installer" you can choose Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu in the menu bar. Use it to repair the disk and to see if that can solve your trouble.

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?

When turned on MacBook a icon of a folder with a question mark in it keeps flashing, what does this mean?

MacBook turns on but doesn't go to home screen, instead a folder icon with a question mark on it keeps flashing.

It means that your mac is unable to boot, try doing a safe boot http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455 first, if that does not work insert your OSX disc (the one that came with your mac) and boot to that, post back with a report.
Is your backup 'bootable' (Carbon Copy or SuperDuper) or non-'bootable' (Time Machine)
Message was edited by: Csound1

HT1338 MacBook Pro 13.3: Desktop screen will not come up when turned on. Screen is blank except for an icon of a folder with a question mark on it, in the middle of an otherwise blank screen, laptop making a clicking noise.

My MacBook Pro 13.3 MAC OS X v10.7 laptop will not come up. Blank screen comes up, no color/desktop, etc., only an icon of a folder in the middle of the screen with a question mark on the folder. Laptop making a clicking noise. Suggestions? Thanks!

It's under warranty. Take it in to have Apple fix it.
The "flashing ?" means the machine can't find the start up disk. The clicking noise is a give away that the drive is damaged.

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.

White Macbook has folder with a question mark inside when powered on.

My brother has a white macbook given to him from a friend and when it is powered on it shows a folder icon with a question mark in the inside flashing and it doesn't boot. He has sent me on a quest to get a power adapter and a new hard drive, He thinks the hard drive is fried. Does anyone know for sure if thats the case, I just don't want to buy all that stuff to figure out that the logic board is dead or something else irreplaceable. There is no backup disks, all I have is a replacement leopard disk from apple used for my mac mini.

If it is a retail Leopard disc--black with a giant purple X on it--then yes, you could use them, with a couple of caveats. One, it would technically be a violation of the license to use that install of Leopard on more than one computer, and terms of use on this forum forbid me from encouraging such an action. And two, depending on how old this used MacBook is, your install of Leopard may pre-date manufacture of the MacBook and, as a result, not be able to boot the MacBook anyway. However, judging by the info in your signature, that is probably not a problem.
If the disc for your Mini is gray and shipped with or was meant to ship with the Mini, then no, the disc will not work.
I still encourage you to get the system discs that came with the MacBook originally, as they have the Apple Hardware Test included, and, as I suggested above, running any OS (or other Apple software) on a Mac without the discs means technically it's an unlicensed copy.

Does anyone have any idea what a folder with a question mark inside at boot up means? Or what the NO sign?

Does anyone know what a question mark in a folder, or a NO symbol at startup means?

"OS X Lion includes a new feature called Lion Recovery that includes all of the tools you need to reinstall Lion, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine backup without the need for optical discs."
See: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
If this doesn't work, it is likely that your HDD has failed, or is failing.

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)

It has a folder with a question mark. Did I break it?

I accidentally bumped into my Macbook a few days ago and it fell...I thought it was fine until later I tried to turn it on and, to my dismay, it has a blank screen with the exception of a folder with a question mark on it.
Is it an invalid now? What do I do?

Try this:
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 and Leopard.) 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. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) 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.
If the above doesn't help, but otherwise shows the drive is OK, then you need not replace the drive. However, you will need to reinstall OS X. You may do that without erasing the drive:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
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.
Now, if the drive is toast but still mounts you may be able to recover some of your personal data before replacing the drive:
Basics of File Recovery
Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using data recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.

My MacBook Pro turns on but not all the way, it gives me an icon of a grey folder with a question mark in the middle, and won't go further that that. Anyone knows why, or what's the problem?

My MacBook Pro turns on but not all the way, it gives me an icon of a grey folder with a question mark in the middle, and won't go further that that. Anyone knows why, or what's the problem?

If these do not resolve the issue or if you are not comfortable with proceeding through these steps then take your Mac to an Apple store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. An Apple store will perform these initial steps, diagnose the problem, and give an estimate for repairs (if needed). If the Mac is less than one year old or is covered by AppleCare any repairs would be free.
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ .
or find an Apple Authorized Service Provider https://locate.apple.com/country

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for