White screen with question mark on iMac

I have a white screen with a file folder icon and a question mark. Anyone know what's wrong? The iMac will not load.

Besides checking out the possible solutions over in the "More Like This" thread over here----------------------->
Check out KB Article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11046 OS X Mountain Lion: If a flashing question mark appears

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White Screen with Question Mark Flashing

Hi
All the sudden I have the white screen with the flashing question mark. I have a macbook pro 2010. I unscrewed the bottom of my Mac and wiggled a couple of wires around and it actually booted up and ran for a while. Then it started to freeze on me. I put in the Mac disk, and I went to the disk Utitlity and it says disk 2 Mac OS X Base System. So it looks like it is reading the Hard Drive, but I don't know because I do not know that much about computers. The thing is it will not let me erase or repair that drive. Does anybody have any idea on what this is? I used my computer around 1:30 in the afternoon and then came home to do homework around 5 and in a matter of 4 hours my computer does not work. I am guessing that it is probably something serious and I will not be buying mac again.
Any Help??
Thanks,
Matt

Hi
All the sudden I have the white screen with the flashing question mark. I have a macbook pro 2010. I unscrewed the bottom of my Mac and wiggled a couple of wires around and it actually booted up and ran for a while. Then it started to freeze on me. I put in the Mac disk, and I went to the disk Utitlity and it says disk 2 Mac OS X Base System. So it looks like it is reading the Hard Drive, but I don't know because I do not know that much about computers. The thing is it will not let me erase or repair that drive. Does anybody have any idea on what this is? I used my computer around 1:30 in the afternoon and then came home to do homework around 5 and in a matter of 4 hours my computer does not work. I am guessing that it is probably something serious and I will not be buying mac again.
Any Help??
Thanks,
Matt

White screen with question mark

I tried to update my mac book air, to the new operating system, in the middle of the operation, I got the white screen, with blinking question mark in a middle of a file

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
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10763?viewlocale=en_US

My macbook fell and since then a white screen with question mark appears

hey guys!
i really need to know what to do, my macbook fell while it was on. it froze so i restarted it, but the white screen comes in with the apple begining sound and everything but the screen stays blank for about two minutes and then a folde with a question mark appears. i tried putting in the cd that came with it, samething happened but after a while the appe sign appears and the computer started off my installation disc, so i try re installing everything, but when i get to the screen that asks to select a destination, there is nothing available.
i realize that the best thing to do is to go to an apple store and then sort everything out, but i am in haiti where the nearest apple store is in miami, i really need your help and i'm desparate cuz i cannot do anything without my laptop... please send me your help as soon as possible.
thanks in advance

Your hard disk has been damaged. At this point, it will need to be replaced with a new one. You'll need to call AppleCare and they'll have you mail it in for repairs. I'm not sure what the usual turnaround time for that is internationally, but in the United States it's about a week. I'd tack on a few extra days to get the laptop to and from Haiti.
Either way, your computer will need to be repaired and the data that was on your hard disk will be lost. (Unless you take the machine to a 3rd party repair shop that specializes in recovering data from damaged hard disks.)

Most of the time when I turn computer on I get the white screen and question mark. Sometimes it will turn on and work but often the spinning disk starts and especially when opening Iphoto and it generally freezes

Most of the time when I turn on the Mac I get the white screen and question mark appear. Sometimes it will turn on and work. But often the coloured spinning wheel starts up especially after trying to use iphoto it freezes and a couple of times the screen has then gone black. The computer seemed pretty warm yesterday when this happened.
Any suggestions of what I should do to fix it would be greatly appreciated.
Kate

See this on the question mark when you start up: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440?viewlocale=en_US
See this on the spinning beach ball: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sbbod.html

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)

Grey screen with question mark on boot up.

My son's 2011-12 Macbook Pro displays a grey screen with a question mark and will not boot. I pulled that first drive, put that first drive in a USB cage and connected the USB cage through a USB port and could boot a different machine with the first drive. I put a brand new second drive with a formatted and journaled OSX drive in place of the original first drive in my son's macbook pro machine tand got the same grey screen and question mark. Do I need a new electronics board? If so that is a $500 repair and not worth it on a 3 year old machine. Thoughts?

It could be anything at this point - most likely, it seems, is that you've a faulty SATA cable. If you go to www.ifixit.com you can find the Apple part number for the cable (or buy the cable at ifixit, even) and search eBay for the part number (much less expensive on eBay and I've yet to hear of one from eBay having failed).
I'm betting that's the problem.
Clinton

Mac OS X Leopard not working (grey screen with question mark appearing)

Hello. I have a Desktop Mac Running on Leopard (not Snow Leopard) and it gives me the grey screen with a question mark. It has been doing this for a month now, and i had to restart it holding the C key every time, and now it has stopped working. I am using a Logitech mouse and keyboard, and had a disk inserted so i cant insert the installation disk. What should i do?

You will have to reinstall OS X. Connect the original keyboard and mouse. Restart the computer and hold down the mouse button immediately after the chime. This should force the optical drive to eject the disc. Otherwise see the following:
Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this:
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
/usr/bin/drutil eject.
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into single-user mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.
Once the disc has been removed you can try to do 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.
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.

TS3423 my start drive not responding. getting grey screen with question mark in a folder. when i use disk utility drive wont mount

When I turn on my Mac I get a grey screen with a folder with a question mark . Have tried the disk utility to no avail as the disk has apparently dismounted and will not mount even though the mount option is available. I have recently upgraded from snow leopard go os x maverick

This could be a software/state problem or a hardware problem. In your case it sounds like the latter but you should try the steps below in case it might help.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Grey screen with question mark on folder?

Just turned on my MacBook and it opened up with a grey screen with a folder in the middle with a question mark, what does this mean? I am also hearing a clicking sound from inside the computer.

frederic, with due respect: this solution is good if the disk is good, if the disk is dying, therefore ? is not due to a corrupt system, but a dying disk, then this solution may impede later recovery of data, which is still possible, if need be and if the disk is not entirely dead. Usually they do not not die over night.

MBP has gray screen with question mark folder on start up

Hi Mac Experts,
I have a MBP that won't start up. I get a gray screen with the question mark folder. Nothing else. I tried starting without the battery and also while holding the shift key but still get the same result. Any idea what happened and what I should try next? Thanks!

Need a Vacation:
Use the Leopard disk.
Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior

My macpro has white screen wit ? Mark on folder wot does this mean

Hav a white screen wit question mark on it screen wont open can anyone help plez or is it a warranty repair as its only 10 months old thk you

The Macbook cannot find a bootable volume (hard drive).
You can attach external hard drive (with OS X installed) or installation media (USB flash drive or DVD) and boot from there.
Then launch Disk Utility and try to reformat your internal hard drive.
Always keep a bootable clone of your system on an external drive for occasions like these.

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.

Hi, I have an iMac which I just booted up and have a white screen with a blue folder with a question mark blinking on and off. Any help would be appreciated. Tommy

Hi, I have an iMac which I just booted up and have a white screen with a blue folder with a question mark blinking on and off. Any help would be appreciated. Tommy

That means your iMac could not find a system to use for startup. That may mean the internal hard drive has become faulty, or the hard drive mechanism is fine, but the startup volume ("Macintosh HD" unless you renamed it) may have some type of data corruption that makes it unbootable.
First, you should try resetting PRAM
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
and if that does not help, use this procedure to reset SMC (power management). If your iMac is from 2008, this is the procedure for Intel (not PowerPC) Macs.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
(This forum category is for "iMac (PPC)," so if this iMac is older (with a PowerPC processor), please post back.)
Disconnect all peripheral devices. When you connect it back to power, if you have been using a power strip of some type, try connecting it directly to a wall outlet, by itself (at least initially). Start up with nothing but the power cord connected, then add only standard mouse and keyboard. If it works, run it that way for a while.
If PRAM and SMC reset have no effect, you should insert your Mac OS X installation disc (for the currently installed system) in the optical drive, and restart with the C key held down. This should get you to the Installer screen, where you can run Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
In Disk Utility, does the internal hard drive appear in the sidebar? If so, select Macintosh HD in the sidebar and go to the First Aid tab. Use Repair Disk. If an error is found, note if Disk Utility was able to fix it or not.
You can then quit Disk Utility and attempt to restart normally.

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 question mark on iMac

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