Why does a question mark appear at startup?

I started my old MacBook Pro, and a folder appeared with a question mark,and nothing else happens

I have. 2008 MacBook, was working great, now when I startup all I get a gay sreenwith question mark inside afolder that flashes. Tried holding shift key down for safe mode boot, nothin, install my snow leopoerd disc and get to disc utility but no disc is found, all I see is the disc itself in there. Hard drive shot or what else can be tried. Pretty bummed to lose everything on there but that's the way it's lookin!! Thanks forany inf

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Grey screen and file icon with question mark appearing at startup on old model macbook

We own a very old model macbook and the startup screen appears as grey and an icon appears in the shape of a file with a question mark in the middle and the startup does not proceed from there. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Athula

Some things to check/try in no particular order:
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5282

Question mark appears during startup

i recently got a new hard drive installed and now every time i start up my macbook, a blinking question mark within a folder appears for a second or two before the apple logo. dont notice any difficulties or symptoms of problems, but i remember the blinking question mark from when my hard drive crashed . wondering if it is something i should be concerned about. what is causing this? thanx

It means your computer is having problems finding a valid operating system from which to start. Have you set your new hard drive as the startup drive in system preferences? I think it is looking someplace else first before going through the standard list of alternative places to look and then finding the drive.
I'm not sure but his may also be something that would require: [Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379]

My screen has gone blank on startup and occasionally a grey folder with a question mark appears. I have tried rebooting either by pressing the start up with power or pram.. Neither attempts have worked ! My iMac is 2008. Please help :)

My screen has gone blank on startup and occasionally a grey folder with a question mark appears. I have tried rebooting either by pressing the start up with power or pram.. Neither attempts have worked ! My iMac is 2008. Please help :)

Hey Carolinearnold!
I have an article for you that seems to address this issue and can provide some troubleshooting steps for you:
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2570
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Have a good one!
-Braden

Why is there a question mark on the Startup Disc folder in System Preferences?

Why is there a question mark on the Startup Disc folder in System Preferences?
Thanks in advance.

Because there's a permissions issue with the application, or it's been moved somewhere which isn't accessible to the second user account, or its entry in the Dock plist on the second account is corrupt, in which case it needs to be located in the Applications folder and dragged to the Dock.
(61349)

Why is there a question mark on my startup disk.

When I go to apple system preferences, there is a question mark on my startup disk. Why? and what should I do to resolve it.
I don't have any problem starting my ocmputer and using it.

in the system pref.
the top line ... "Show all, Display, Sound, Network,
Startup disk
my 'startup disk' has a question mark!
Right. That's fine. It's just telling you that you can click that icon to choose a different Startup Disk. That question mark is part of the icon for that preference pane.
I click on it and I get a"select the system.."
It shows my Mac OS 10.3.9 and Network Startup which
has a question mark
I do have OS selected.
and question mark on Network.
Is that correct?
Correct.
Now, where do I go to see my startup items?
Click on "Show All" in the System Preferences. Then Accounts down in the System section. Choose your account in the list at the left hand side, then choose the "Startup Items" tab on the right.
To remove an app from that list, select it and use the "-" button below. Unchecking it just means that if the application has a window, it'll be hidden at startup.
Thanks for all your help.
You're welcome.
cheers,
charlie

Mac does not start and a cartel with a question mark appears. what does it means?

it's the second time it happens. I start Mac and a folder with a question mark appears, then I close and restart and Mac opens normally. What's going wrong? Thank you for any help

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
The question mark appears when your Mac can't find a bootable volume to start from, and it may indicate that your hard drive is failing.
Open Disk Utility, select Macintosh HD in the sidebar and verify the disk. If it finds a problem, you will have to repair the disk, starting your Mac from the Snow Leopard DVD

After reformatting drive - folder with question mark appear

I am using an iMac 2010
I was planning to reformat it and install the OS Maverick from my drive but after formatting (which delete all the files from it's hard drive) after restarting a blinking question mark appears
I have a wireless keyboard and mouse and I am trying to boot it with a CD of OS X 10.6.4
nothing is happening when i press option c , command R ,etc
what should i do?

Hi,
- Try booting with the Option key and select the Install CD in view: Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
- If the Option key does not respond with Starup Manager, try with a wired keyboard.
See how you go

I MAC SHUTS DOWN THEN QUESTION MARK APPEARS

NEW TO APPLE MY IMAC SHUTS DOWN THEN A QUESTION MARK APPEARS THEN IT RESTARTS HAPPENED A FEW TIMES ANY IDEAS IT DOES SEND A REPORT TO APPLE THANKS

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by one or more of these:
a. Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
b. Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
c. Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
d. The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Note that the information I have provided is what Apple recommends, If other users suggest different solutions than found here, then be sure what they recommend does not impact on your warranty, if any, or ability to get continuing Apple service.
Please don't start removing drives or changing cables unless you know what you are doing and have exhausted other non-invasive alternatives outlined here. If you perform any work yourself that is unapproved by Apple, then you will void any warranty you may have and lose all further Apple Support.
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.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD. Simply boot from the Recovery HD to perform the above.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
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 Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
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.

HT1379 A flashing question mark appears when I re/start my MacBook Air 2013. At first, I pressed Power & Option button and it recovered from Internet. Then, four options appeared but none of them are helpful. Could u please help me to solve it asap?

Hello,
A flashing question mark appears when I re/start my MacBook Air 2013. Then, I pressed POWER & OPTOIN buttons and internet options appeared for internet recovery. After internet recovery, the OS X utilities appears with four options (Restore from Time machine, Reinstall OS X, Get help online and Disk utility). But none of them seemed helpful. On the last option Disk utility, the icon created only with 33KB and other disk 1 Mac Os X Base system. On First Aid, the icon Repair disk is disabled. So I could not click on repair disk. Could you please suggest me how to solve this problem asap? Thank you so much for your help in advance!

You can try the following:
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard 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.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

IMAC won't start. Folder Icon With Question mark appears

it will also not take the startup disc. I plop it in , hold 'C' ket to make a disc repair fut nothing happens, now screen is all grey.

HI,
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
If nothing at the link above helps, try booting while holding down the Option key. That will prompt the Startup Manager window.
Since you can't boot from your install disk, Start up in Safe Mode
Carolyn

Audio and video files dont play on wiki only a qicktime icon with a question mark appears

I have many users on my server who upload podcasts, but the problem is that the audio file they upload doesnt always play. Only a quicktime icon with a question mark appears. What is also very strange is when you refresh the page usually the file will play and it will work on a Mac but then sometimes not on a PC, and the files always play without a problem on iPads and iPhones.
The icon looks something like this. PLEASE HELP!

The same thing happened to me last night, except for with video. Playing videos used to work fine on all operating systems. Now it will work on Windows and iPhone/iPad but only some videos work on my Macs. After searching for hours here is what I found:
1. Go to Safari preferences, Security Tab and uncheck "Enable Plug-ins". When I tried to play video after doing this the Quicktime question mark went away but the video didn't play, it just turned into background color and I can't even right click on it.
2. Run Safari in 32-bit mode. Locate the Safari file in your Applications folder. Right click it and click Get Info. Check the "Run in 32-bit Mode" box. Restart safari. This did nothing for me.
3. Try a different web browser. I tried Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera. They all do the same thing.
4. As for codecs, I updated then reinstalled Flash, DivX and Flip4Mac. Still doesn't work on Macs.
I know it's not a problem with the server because it works on Windows and mobile devices. Another weird thing is certain .mp4 videos work fine but some won't. I re-uploaded them and made sure the video worked on the server and the file is fine. All regular websites work fine: Youtube, Apple, etc.
My only guess, since this suddenly happened on all my Macs, is that there was some update that caused this. All help is appreciated.

Question mark appears on stsrtup

Macbook Pro 13" Has worked perfectly 1.5 years. Froze last night, forced quit. This morning after powering on, a question mark appears on screen. What does this mean? Can I repair it? Thank you.

I believe the question mark means the computer cannot find a viable operating system. This could be because of some disk corruption.
So, if this happened to me, the first thing I would try is booting from the Mac OS X installation disk. From there you can run Disk Utility and verify/repair the disk. Run the repairs repeatedly until Disk Utility reports no errors and tells you "The disk appears to be ok." (or something like that).
charile

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.)

Question mark folder at startup, safe boot not working

Last night my iMac froze up, Force Quit didn't work, and I used the Power button to shut it off. When trying to restart, it was getting stuck at the grey Apple.
I tried unplugging the peripherals and restarting; zapping the PRAM and restarting; safe boot and restarting. Safe boot did it.
I then ended up going through those steps a few more times as my iMac starting freezing up again. One of those times I changed all my applications in the dock that were set to launch at login to not do so, wondering if that was somehow causing a problem. I also took a folder of recent items I'd created, mostly a LOT of PDFs of newspaper articles, burned it to a DVD and deleted the folder to free up more memory if that was part of the problem (I'm running out). I then restarted from the Apple menu and it shut down through safe boot and then restarted without safe boot and did so just fine. I ran Disk Utility and very few if any permissions needed repairing. And it was operating OK for a bit and then froze up again.
Now I'm getting the question mark folder at startup and safe boot isn't working. What should I be trying next? Lion Recovery with Command-R? I'm relatively new to Lion, but it had been working OK for me for a while now.
What other things should I try? Would Target Disk mode possibly work from the MacBook I'm using now, which doesn't have Lion installed?

The question mark folder usually means that the
firmware could either not find a valid operating
system to boot, or, it could not find a hard disk
with an operating system on it.
Have you tried booting to Lion Recovery? If
you can, then go into Disk Utility and do a
Repair Disk on your OSX volume. If the
OSX volume is not showing up, you may need
to do a reformat and re-install.
Since it is a 24" iMac (from your description) it was
a pre-Lion Mac. If you still have the original install
disks, try booting with it and use Disk Utility from it
to see if the hard drive is working.
Try this first before making a road trip.

Why does a question mark appear at startup?

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