White screen, flashing folder, no hard drive?

My 2009 macbook pro recently stopped working.. It suddently froze so i forced a shutdown.. I turned it on and it got stuck on a flash folder with a question mark.. I attempted to reinstall mavericks via boot usb and it was working but when asked where to install it on my mac hard drive was not coming up which is really weird.. Has anyone else had this problem before? Any idea what it could be?

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9), i7 500GB 16GB RAM iPhone5 iOS7.0.4

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Can I retrieve files off my MacBook Air that has crashed (White screen flashing folder)?

Besides a few freezes here and there, my MacBook Air has worked fine. However when I opened it the other day, It wouldn't power on. I pressed the power button a few times, and it finally powered on with a completely white screen. I powered it off and on a few times but nothing changed. I figured if I let the battery die, maybe it would work when I charged it again. I left the screen open, but after 10 min, a flashing folder with a question mark popped up, And it's been flashing ever sense. I took it to apple, they said it was a software issue. They plugged it into a g-drive to reinstall, along with other cords and got their apple account up, although none of my information showed up. They said the Mac forgot its software, and nothing of mine would show. They said I have to replace the lap top and gave me prices/options. I never got my question fully answered on if I can retrieve my photos, notes, garage band, music, etc. I left apple with out any trade. Does anyone know of any way I can get my pictures, music, voice memos, and notes, back? I'm desperate and have lots of important stuff that I can't access. I'm also losing work not having access to my computer. But I'm not trading it in until I try/or know there is no way to get my stuff back. I will pay anything to get my stuff back! I honestly would rather have my stuff then the computer. And just get a new one. Any advice will help. Thanks!

a flashing folder with a question mark popped up,
Can mean that your Mac can't find a system folder to boot from.
Try restarting while holding down the Option key. That should prompt the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk and restart.
Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
If the disk is not available, then it's failing or has failed.
If you did not backup your important files, an alternative would be data recovery but it's expensive.
One suggestion > Data Recovery by DriveSavers

TS1989 My iMac G5 has flashing question mark folder, no hard drive, no DVD-drive, no target drive - help?

A friend has 'kindly' decided to upgrade my father in law's iMac G5 and apparently found that it ceased to work following an aborted process. I have no idea what he's done but there was a Leopard DVD in the optical drive. The iMac boots to the smiley face folder but scrolls through 2 black screens and one grey screen first. A question mark appears at first then it changes to the smiley face folder with the question mark appearing occasionally.
I cannot get the iMac to see either a hard drive or the DVD drive. No start up disc at all. I have tried starting up in target mode and the target mode sign doesn't appear on the screen nor does the hard drive show on the other mac.
Starting up holding down either 'C', 'X' or 'R' doesn't produce any results. Starting up with 'alt' pressed down produces a screen with a padlock image followed by a white slot to write a password in and a greyish button with an arrow. None of the passwords associated with the machine have got us past this screen.
I can also get a command line on screen by holding down the startup button, hearing a loud beeeeep (firmware update signal?) keep holding down and a white screen with very small text invites me either to write 'mac-boot' or 'shut-down'. Both commands require a password to be effective and so do not work.
Following startup troubleshooting advice has allowed me to identify that there is both a start up button inside and an SMU reset button. Three of the four led's come on fine and there are no problems with the starter button on the back panel.
I'm loath to change the hard drive at this point as I'm not sure if the HD is duff or something is wrong with the hardware and that another HD would be damaged.
Stumped.

I'll copy what BD wrote:
Is it a USB KB or flakey Wifi?
< be sure to use a usb keyboard >
Your suggestion of removing the PRAM Battery and all power & peripherals was great.
< I didn't think of disconnecting the peripherals. Do it. >
I think also, removing all RAM, Iif possible), then trying to start it a few times, might do it to.
Firmware password protection in Mac OS X ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352
It would block usage of all the startup keys, like C, N, T, D, CMD+s, CMD+Option+p+r, CMD +v, Option boot will show a lock, and Shift, as well as booting from anything but the Hard Drive.
Force Removing Password Protection
1) Add or remove DIMMs to change the total amount of RAM in the computer.
2) Then, the PRAM must be reset 3 times. (Command + Option + P + R).
http://www.securemac.com/openfirmwarepasswordprotection.php
Thanks BD.
Robert

My MacBook was acting weird so I restarted it and when I login a white screen flashes and goes back to the login page. Help?

My MacBook was acting weird like sometimes I would log on and I wouldn't be able to type my password for a couple seconds,but it usually logged in after that. Then I left my computer open after installing the recent update after that all my applications were not responding. So I shut it down, when I turned it back on about an hour later it went to this loading screen and then to the login like usual. After I tried logging in a white screen flashed and it went back to the login/ password screen like nothing happened. Any ideas on what happened and what I can do to fix it?

Reinstall OS X;
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.

Gray screen, flashing folder with question mark

My macbook pro was working normal in the afternoon... I closed the computer lid and returned a couple hours later to a gray screen & flashing folder with a question mark. When I hold the option key down at startup I only get an internet recovery mode. I plugged in my airport time capsule and was able to boot from it. I used disc utility check and everything checked out ok. I used my ESET NOD32 Antivirus and it checked out ok. Finally, I went to start up disc and restarted my computer from the Mac HD. This also worked without problem. Afterwards I disconnected my airport capsule and restarted the computer as a final test. Unfortunately I am back to the flashing folder with a question mark. What do I do?

See:
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support
Seems like your disk is failling.

I have forgotten my administrator password, and there are no hints. I have a Mac OS X Mavericks. When I get to the reset password screen, it has no hard drive to select. What now?

I have forgotten my administrator password, and there are no hints. I have a Mac OS X Mavericks. When I get to the reset password screen, it has no hard drive to select. What now?

If you're using FileVault, you first have to unlock the startup volume in Disk Utility. Select it and click the Unlock button in the toolbar. Of course, this is only possible if you know another password to unlock the volume. If you don't, follow instead these instructions.

Logic 9 keeps crashing with white screen flash!!!

Hi all,
Lately Logic has been crashing consistantly every 15-30 min since updated to 10.7.4. It has become absolutly unbearable now and is constantly ruining work and flow. Everytime it crashes a white screen flashes up and if im lucky i can save just in time before it completely freezes and the rainbow ball of death starts spinning. I have to then force quit logic. The crashes happen randomly in time and in task. The one reocurring act that i've found it tends to crash alot on is when trying to move some in the arrangement or the piano roll. I have no idea what the problem is and would post a crash report but since im force quiting EVERY time i am unable to obtain one.
Is anyone else experiencing the same problems and if so is there a fix.
MRADERZ

Repair Disk Permissions did not work but so far so good on reinstalling the update.
Seems to be working fine on my macbook pro.
No crashes since reinstall so will do this on my imac when i get home from work.
Fingers crossed works the same as it is my main producing computer.
Thank You AnaMusic unbelievably appreciated.
mraderz

Issue with usb flash and removable hard drives in Lion. (also an install tip)

Having an issue with my usb flash and removable hard drives. I plug them in and Lion does not display all my files/folders, I take it out and plug it into my snow leopard machine and all the files/folders are there, does anyone have this issue?
It does it on my macbook pro which was a snow leopard upgrade to Lion and it does it on my macbook which was a clean install of Lion via a bootable flash drive.
The computers both work great in all other aspects, so there were no errors on installation. It's plain and simple, some files/folders are not showing up that are present on the drives and viewable on all other non-lion OS's mac and PC.
Also a word on installs, I highly suggest doing a clean install (delete and reformat drive them install Lion vs a snow leopard ugrade) my machine that was a clean install (macbook) runs 50% faster and smoother than the upgraded one (macbook pro).

Yes, you can use your backup disk drives in the manner you describe, but Apple provides conflicting information on the subject.
From Mac Basics: Time Machine
Time Machine can’t backup to an external drive that's connected to an AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule, or a drive formatted for Microsoft Windows ...
From Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Extreme AirPort Disks
Time Machine in Mac OS X v10.5 or later can be used to back up to many kinds of Mac OS Extended-formatted drives, but you cannot choose an AirPort Extreme 802.11n's AirPort Disk as a Time Machine backup volume.
However, you can choose Time Capsule AirPort Disks or internal disks as a Time Machine backup volume.
They have yet to resolve this discrepancy.
All other available technical details regarding Time Machine's use seem to indicate that a USB HD connected to Time Capsule should meet Time Machine's requirements. For what it's worth I have been using an external HDD connected to the Time Capsule's USB port and it seems to function just fine.

My ipod makes a strange sound when on ans nothing appears in the screen, is it a hard drive problem?

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it is disrespectul not responding not responding to my request. anyone i can report that to?

TS1440 iMac freezes, no choice but to hard shutdown, turn back on, white screen with folder and question mark appears

Hi,
so my iMac (it's not the most recent iMac if it makes any difference, and I'm running mountain lion 10.8.3) often freezes and I do a hard shutdown as I cannot force quit the applications or click on the apple in the top left to shut it down. When I come to turn it back on, I'm greeted with a white screen, in the middle of which is the dreaded folder with the flashing question mark in it. I've noticed that just before a freeze occurs, it starts running slowly and if I try going onto Facebook for example, it says that it cannot connect to facebook.com despite the internet connection being fine as I can browse things on Google. I have also noticed that before a freeze, in Finder, in All My Files, no files show. I went through this http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440 and the problem still persists. Sometimes it does load fine if I shut it down again but when I eventually open up safari, if I had been on youtube for example, it will reload the page from a few videos before and not the one I was on when it actually froze.
Any help would be hugely appreciated,
Thanks
Side note: When it says I must choose a community in order to post this, it only gives me a choice of 3 which are Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, v10.5 Leopard, v10.6 Snow leopard, so apologies if this is posted in the wrong place - is there any way to get it moved to the correct place?

Yes,easy fix but difficult to buy,think you can get them from the states (off the top of my head about £15).When you go to the apple store,tell yhem what you suspect and they will test if it is the cable or if its the hard drive,dosn't take that long and it's free.If you know what to do you can take the back off and with strong magnifying glass you might be able to see the fray look at the bend of the cable.

White Screen With Folder Question Mark At Startup

Last night I was downloading some pictures and posting a status on facebook. Firefox locked up so I forced quit it. When I tried to reopen it the icon in the dock would bounce a couple of times but not open. I went ahead and used Safari, finished what I was doing and went to bed. When I woke up the screen was black. I tried to wake it but to no avail. I shut it down by holding power button down and restarted. When it came on it dinged and a white screen came up but no apple icon or spinning circle. After a few minutes a folder popped up with a ? in it. I booted from my DVD and ran disk utility. The hard drive shows up but the partition underneath now says disk0s2 rather than untitled. When I try to repair it I get an error:
Verify and Repair volume "disk0s2"
Catalog file entry not found for extent.
The volume could not be verified completely.
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
I am going to try and connect it to my mini via firewire to see if I can copy some files. My questions are (1) What do you recommend I do? (2) When it tells me to back up as many files as I can, what does that mean? How do I do this? Can this be done from Disk Utilities?
Thanks for your help.
Danny

(1) What do you recommend I do?
You could try repairing it with [DiskWarrior|http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html] or [TechTool Pro|http://www.micromat.com>. Either of those will cost money, but if you don't have a backup, that's your best shot at getting your data back. If repair fails, you have two options: 1) reformat the hard drive with Disk Utility or 2) replace it. If #1 doesn't work, #2 becomes your only option. If you have data that wasn't backed up, you'll need a file recovery tool like [Data Rescue|http://www.prosofteng.com>, [File Salvage|http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?mainpage=product_info&productsid=1] or Stellar Phoenix. None of those will guarantee success, and I suspect you won't get back anything close to all your data.
(2) When it tells me to back up as many files as I can, what does that mean?
Just what it says, but the how is your choice. Disk Utility can do backups from the Restore tab, but I suspect that won't work with such a badly-damaged disk. Connecting to another machine via Firewire is a good idea, but may not work if the disk is too badly damaged to mount, which I suspect might be the case since Disk Utility doesn't show you the normal volume name. First step would be to repair if you can't access the drive.
Ultimately, from the sounds of it, your drive may be too badly damaged to recover much, or any, data from it. In which case, you will have learned a hard lesson on the necessity of backups.

White Screen, Grey Folder with Question Mark and no USB

Hello
I have a iMac, that is in a classroom of similar machines, they are running os v 10.4.6 (ish).
The mac in question had been reported with a fault so i went along to check it and this was a new fault for me.
When the mac boots, it bongs the hdd starts up and then a black white screen appears after a few minutes this changes to a white screen with a flashing grey folder with a question mark.
now reading on the forums, internet etc. i have found that maybe i should boot to disk. tried this but not disk activity.
next i read to boot into verbose mode at which point i find that the USB ports dont seem to be running so i can use a keyboard.
Anyone any ideas how i can troubleshoot this problem or why the problem occurred in the first place?
Thanks for any help offered.

This error indicates either that the internal HD has physical problems, or there is corruption on the drive (a failing directory or corrupt system files). You should boot from the Mac's original installation disk, run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu and do Repair Disk on the internal drive. If this fails to recover the drive, you may have to reinstall the system.
Matt

White screen with folder

So i turn on my computer and the screen goes white. The only showing is a blinking folder with a question mark in it? Virus?

chadillac444444 wrote:
Am i able to attempt to save or atleast locate the hard drive if i use the Mac OS X Install dvd? I've found a similar discussion on here with steps as to how to "attempt" a a first aid recover. Basically if you go through, and the hard drive is recognized, it may be salvagable.
If you boot the system from the system install DVD and use Disk Utility the drive will either show up or not. If it doesn't show then one of the first 2 things I mentioned is the problem. Failed drive or failed drive cable. With either you will need to replace the part that has failed.
You can remove the hard drive and connect it to the system with a SATA to USB adapter, or a SATA to USB drive enclosure, ad try booting the system from that drive connected to one of the USB ports. If it boots then you know it is the cable that has failed. If it doesn't then it is the drive that has failed.

White screen flashing question mark

My internet froze for a long time so i turned my mac pro off but when i turned the laptop back on i got a white screen with a flashing box with a question mark on it. computer won't start up, how do i fix this?

Restart with the Option key held down, tab to the recovery drive, and either use the Disk Utility to repair the hard disk or the Installer to install a new OS. If the Option-key method doesn't show the recovery partition, the drive needs to be plugged in or replaced.
(68210)

HT1199 my MAC has white screen with folder and question mark anyone have the same issue?

My mac has a white screen and a file folder with a question mark...anyone else have this issue before?

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.
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White screen, flashing folder, no hard drive?

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