Won't boot, flashing question mark on screen

My Power book G4 won't boot up, all it does is give me a small folder icon with as flashing question mark on top of it. any ideas.
It was working fine, doing a capture with FCP 4.5 then it locked up with the spinning ball, I did a force quite, but the whole system needed a reboot, It never rebooted. I need help.

See the link in posting #3 on this thread. I got a "solved" point for it, and have given it as advice before:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5261554

Similar Messages

G4 17' won't boot, flashing question mark folder with complications

I'm editing a final cut pro project, due to air on friday at noon and during conversion in compressor to dvd format, final cut quits then the computer freezes up. On a hard restart I get the flashing question mark folder.... i know what that means
I was able to boot up after a couple of tries from the os 10.4 (tiger) cd and the hard drive shows up but disk utility can't make the repair. This is the error i get:
booted with the tiger os cd and got to the disk utility. the hard drive does show up with some generic-y looking name. I try to repair the disk and get this error (in red):
Invalid node structure
Volume check failed.
Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit
then it says:
1 volume could not be repaired because of an error
g4 powerbook 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9)
so then i get the bright idea that i will change the startup disk to network drive and try to start from another drive on the network. it tries to find it then goes back to the flashing question mark. I've restarted holding the c key down with the tiger cd back in there and it is spinning but it never reads it.
any ideas? I REALLY need to salvage this film if possible.
thanks!!!!!
donna
Has anyone seen this before? What is my next step--short of erasing the drive. i really need to get this project off.
thanks in advance for any and all help!!!!!
g4 powerbook 17" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

i'd try disk warrior except that i cant get it to boot from ANY cd right now EXCEPT apple hardware test. and i have NO idea what to do with that.
I've tried booting in option mode and all i get is the little restart button and the forward arrow button but NO drive options
it won't pick up my other laptop in target mode
i've even put in Norton Utilites 8.x and it won't boot up from that either.
i've zapped the pram--nothing
know of any other boot tricks or shortcuts?
donna

IMac won't boot - flashing question mark folder

Hi, I was having performance issues with my iMac, so after searching for a resolution, I followed some suggestions to reset the PRAM and SMC....after resetting the PRAM it will not boot up at all! The startup sound chimes, then a blank grey screen briefly before a flashing question mark folder appears. Nothing happens..... I have the install cd, but there is a CD in the drive and I can't get it out. Help!!
Thanks in advance....
Andrea

HI Andrea,
To get the disk to eject, start the iMac while holding down the mouse button.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Try booting while holding down the Option key.
Carolyn

Mac book won't boot, flashing question mark

i have a mac book, dont know what OS but it says 2007 model no. A1181 on the back.
when i turn it on it just flashes with a picture of a file and a question mark inside it, it does not go away or boot up.
i have read this: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
but it does not explain what i have to do if the OS does not boot after the question mark is displayed.
what do i have to do to get it working again? if this is the wrong section please move it thanks.

this shows up when a bootable drive cannot be found, the boot drive is damaged, or the internal drive doesn't have an os installed at all.
how long have you owned the mac? pull the battery out & look for the serial tag in the battery bay. did you have a 60gb or 80gb drive?
you can try the suggestions in that KB article, but I fear that the drive has totally failed on you. there was an issue with these hard drives, the heads ruin the surface of the platters, making the drive totally useless & data recovery impossible.
hoping you had some sort of recent backup.

Macbook 2010 won't boot - flashing question mark, prohibitory sign then Apple icon

Okay so some of this is my fault. We'll get to that later.
A few months back this Macbook my uncle gave me (without the Mac OS X Installer DVDs it came with) failed to boot - displaying the spinning gear/Apple icon/grey screen so many others have experienced.
I've done everything that could be done without the Installer DVDs - reset the PRAM, the SMC, attempt to go into Safe Mode (failed - only displays the progress bar until it fills up then back to the grey screen)
I've also done fsck -fy and it would always return to either "FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED" so I'd run it again to receive the result "The volume Impala appears to be okay", but whenever I would hit "reboot" it's like nothing ever happened.
I got a hold of a(n illegal) copy of someone else's Installer DVDs from the net - not so I could install that but so I could load DiskUtitlity from a bootable flash drive to transfer files to my external HD by the restore option in DiskUtility - worked for a bit (ran verify permissions, repair disk permissions, the whole shebang) but then failed, was only able to copy the "Applications" folder by restoring the volume to the external HD I had plugged in, and nothing else.
So when just this afternoon, I was fiddling with the prompt that displayed whenever you entered single-user mode, trying to move documents from inside the Documents folder into the Applications folder (because I thought that if I did "restore" all over again it would copy needed files into my HD like it did the last time - the /Volumes directory disappeared.
What could have caused this? I know that this is what's causing the flashing, alternating icons during attempted startup, but I swear that I didn't even think of doing anything to modify the /Volumes directory. One minute I was entering files /Volumes just to fiddle with it, then proceeded to go in deeper to cp or mv files into the /Applications directory, the next it was gone.
What should I do? I contacted the local Power Mac Center nearby to check if they're carrying the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Installer DVDs but I'm pretty sure that those things are limited now to the U.S. and the U.K.?
Please send help/advice, I'm broke and pretty much very very desperate.
Thank you for your time.

and also we have this older MacBook (2007 I think) that flashes the prohibitory sign (circle with slash going through it) whenever I try to boot it - started doing that a few days ago and I swear on both laptops that there are no peripherals that are plugged in except for the MagSafe (this older MacBook has no batteries installed since the last one shot out two years ago and we haven't had the money to replace it..)
Could the MagSafe be the problem? Because I haven't been doing anything dangerous on this older one (even cleared out some old files/videos to free up disk space) but still, it went ahead and got into a coma.
I can only access it via Safe Boot (pressing shift right after I power it up) and thankfully, its FireWire port using Target Disk Mode.
How I wish I could use Target Disk Mode on the later (2010) model, but alas, the only solution is to purchase the Installer DVD - only the Apple Reseller I contacted hasn't contacted me back yet.

Intermittent failure to boot, flashing question mark or white screen

So, I've had two MacBooks with similar problems (I am a Mac consultant). The first one would intermittently boot to a white screen, often enough to be annoying. This current one is occasionally booting to a flashing question mark. My first thought is, of course, the hard drive, but in both cases the hard drive tests fine using SMART Utility, which is usually great at giving advance warning when a drive starts experiencing hardware errors.
On the first MacBook, the one with the white-screen boots, I tried reinstalling the system with no effect; replacing the drive eventually made the problem go away. The current MacBook, with the question-mark boots, has already had its drive replaced once, when the stock drive failed.
I will reseat the drive, which is all Apple could suggest. I just wonder if anybody else had experienced something like this and can offer any information about what might be going on.

Thanks for the reply. Aside from finding that holding the mouse button down at boot might cause a flashing question mark, I already knew all that. I will ask the owner if she is leaning on the trackpad button when she starts up her computer in the morning.
I've already reset the power manager and the PRAM; we'll see if that makes any difference. The puzzling thing here is that the problem is intermittent.
I also need to ask her if, when the computer does boot to the question mark, there has been a chime first. Somehow I think there has to be, for the system to have gotten as far as looking for a boot drive. I couldn't find anything useful in the logs; not surprising, since if it can't find a drive to boot to, it won't have anything to write a log to.
Again, the mystery is why the failure to boot is intermittent. If it happened every time, I'd know what to do!
Thanks
cavenewt

Macbook Air won't startup, flashing question mark

Hello everyone, here's the problem:
Recently (Sep) I've bought a new macbook air (2012, 128gb SSD). After a few months of using it the following problem happened: while surfing on the web, my macbook hang up (I couldn't press anything or do anything, the system wouldn't respond), so I shut it down forcefully (by holding the power button), after this my computer wouldn't boot at all: a flashing questioning mark appeared on the grey screen. I know what it means (I'm an Intel engineer and know quite a bit on the subject), so I thought the SSD was dead. Brought it to the shop a bought it at (M-video, Russia, Nizhni Novgorod). After 21 day (sic!) they gave it back to me working fine and said that when they opened it - it worked OK, they tested it for 5 days with reboots and it was OK. After 1 month of using it after I got it back (today) it happened again: the OSx hang -> force shutdown -> question mark on startup.
Could you please tell what can it be? It's obvious that it's no a hardware problem (in this case it wouldn't happen from time to time but be a permanent defect after the first time it occurred). I tried all the recipes found on the internet (command + alt + P + R; R to get recovery mode - disk utility sees only 1 partition on disk0 of 1.8 GB (I guess it's partition with the base system) and won't let me do anything - all options are grayed out; SHIFT won't let me into safe mode - no idea why; etc.). I also don't have a CD or anything with the mac OS, however even Internet recovery won't help - no targets to install it when it comes to it.
Have tried almost anything and asked almost anyone among my IT-connected friends, but in vain. Thank you in advance for your help! Will appreciate any piece of advice.

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: 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.
If this fails then see: OS X (Lion/Mountain Lion)- About OS X Recovery.

No Boot: Flashing Question Mark Folder

So I have had this problem before and took it to the apple store, where they fixed it, but now the problem is back again.
When I try to start up the machine, all I get is a folder with a flashing question mark in the middle, as though it does not detect my hard drive.
When I book into the OSX Install DVD, and go to Disk Utility, it does not see the hard drive.
The problem happens when my osx freezes, and I do a hard-shutdown.
I took it to the apple store once, and they fixed it, without losing any data, but I do not want to go back to them, as that takes time out of my day.
Is there anything I can do to fix the issue myself?

Hi nxd,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
It definitely sounds a bit more serious this time. I'd imagine that last time they just reinstalled the OS and had you on your way. The folder with the question mark indicates that the startup sequence can't find an appropriate boot volume (your HD). From my experience this means one of two things and more often the latter:
1.) Somehow the OS was corrupted and an archive & install is necessary to restore order
2.) The HD has failed and requires either a repartition (followed by an install) or the drive itself has failed and requires a replacement.
The fact that you can't see your HD in Disk Utility off the restore disc is not a good indication. If the OS needed to be reinstalled you'd see the HD here, at the very minimum. The good news, I suppose, is that you can at least boot off the restore disk. I've seen many a failed/failing HDs prevent the system bus from evening reading the optical drive.
With all this being said, I'd really recommend getting the machine to an Authorized Service Center (or Apple Store) and have them take a look at things. The HD may require replacement, which would also result in the very high potential for data loss.

Oh S_it, my intel iMac 2008 wont boot, flashing question mark is all I get.

Bought a friends' intel duo iMac 2008 which was working just find until a couple of day's ago and now when I try to boot it up all I get is a flashing question mark. I unplugged all components, including the electric cord and that worked the first time but now nothing. I don't have the startup or recovery disks. Must I have these...what's a girl to do? HELP!!!
Imac 2008 Mac OS X (10.5.4) previously owned, 2G

You don't need those discs, unless you need to test for Hardware, or reinstall the original operating system.
But you should get them anyway. Any software they installed on your machine, you should have the discs for as they are not their's to give away copies because of licensing restrictions.
The first step to try is zapping the PRAM:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
Then attempting a data recovery if there is no backup*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html#RECOVER
If there is a backup, initially try to repair the directory*:
http://www.macmaps.com/directoryfaq.html
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Same problem, old topic - won't boot get question mark folder

I have a G4 14" ibook that has stopped working. When I boot I get the folder with the flashing question mark. here are some specifics:
- fan starts then stops
- hard drive starts up
- pram has been reset
- booting in target mode allows hard drive to function properly on my imac (not a hard drive or hard drive connector problem)
- removed logic board and had a circuit technician inspect all solder joints under very high mag with no problems evident
- replaced logic board with a known good logic board and have the same problem
I really could care less about the computer at this point as it has run its course, but it is now one of those things that if I don't figure out the problem I'll begin loosing sleep.
If anyone has any other ideas, I'd enjoy attempting them.

If the optical drive on the iBook G4 is failing, the only way to load 10.3 on a G4 14" (assuming it came with 10.3 or less), is via another PowerPC Mac, or an external Firewire optical drive.
Three facts to keep in mind:
1. Macs can't boot an older operating system than shipped with them.
2. All Macs shipped with system specific discs, which if lost need to be replaced either by calling AppleCare, or the last seller if non-Apple authorized for those discs if Apple no longer has them.
If you lost the discs, and bought from an Apple Authorized seller, and AppleCare no longer has them, obtaining them is very difficult, and it is best to piecemeal get the separately sold operating system, and applications. Keep in mind for machines like the iBook G4 that's the only way to install Classic on them. Elements of iLife may have been included depending on age:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1490798&tstart=0
Newer versions of iLife may install depending on system requirements:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA27615
http://www.apple.com/ilife/systemrequirements.html
Appleworks never was sold with the retail installer discs, though a retail version may be available that will work on it.
Hardware Test never was sold with the retail installer discs.
3. Macs can install operating systems newer than them which are retail (non-OEM, non-Update, non-DropIn, not labelled for specific Mac).
Message was edited by: a brody

Flashing question mark on screen. Can I still backup my files and restore my system?

Okay, so yesterday evening, I received a message from my teacher that I had to redo one of my papers because a program she used detected some copy paste information that was about 39% more than what she accepts and asked me to reword some of the information. When I started working on my paper to resubmit it to her, My laptop was freezing a lot in the middle of me working on my school paper. After a while, it completely froze to the point where I could no longer do anything and stayed frozen for hours on end. I couldn't even save my work which was very frustrating considering I wanted to get that done and out of the way. I felt that I had no choice but to force it to turn off and turn it back on. In the process of me doing so, a flashing file with a question mark came on in which I took the time to look up to see what it meant and how can I fix it. However, after many reading, I realized that if I reboot the system I will lose everything I have that's important to me (which technically is my school work, some photos, and licensing application). I never used the Time Machine when my laptop was up and running because I never understood it or knew how to use it. One of the things I read is that I am able to restore my laptop with Time Machine. But I was curious to know if I can still use Time Machine to backup and restore my laptop? I'm hoping I can as I really do not want to lose the information and files I have saved. Below are the basic information of my laptop. Please help!!!!
Screen Size
13.3 inches
Screen Resolution
1280x800
Max Screen Resolution
1280x800 pixels
Processor
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
RAM
4 GB DDR3
Hard Drive
500 GB HDD 5400 rpm
Graphics Coprocessor
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Chipset Brand
Intel
Card Description
Intel HD 4000
Graphics Card Ram Size
128 MB
Wireless Type
802.11 a/b/g/n
Number of USB 2.0 Ports
2
Average Battery Life (in hours)
8 hours
Expand
Other Technical Details
Brand Name
Apple
Series
MacBook Pro
Item model number
MD101LL/A
Hardware Platform
Mac
Operating System
Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Item Weight
4.5 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H
8.94 x 12.78 x 0.95 inches
Color
Silver
Processor Brand
Intel
Processor Count
1
Computer Memory Type
DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface
Serial ATA
Hard Drive Rotational Speed
5400 RPM
Optical Drive Type
DVD+R DL
Audio-out Ports (#)
1
Power Source
DC
Voltage
100 volts

The fact that you can boot into Recovery Mode, which is a hidden partition on your HD, means your HD is working, at least somewhat. Since your main concern is retaining the files that are important to you, what I'd suggest is creating a clone on a separate, external HD. You can do that by booting into Recovery again, partitioning the external with a GUID partition table and creating at least one partition for a clone (3TB externals are pretty inexpensive these days and you could have plenty of partitions large enough to hold what's on your internal drive) and using "Restore" in DU with the internal as the source and the external partition as the target. With that done, see if you can boot from that external clone. If you can't, go back to Recovery, and, instead of Disk Utility, choose Reinstalling the OS but with the clone you just made as the target. When that's done, see if you can boot from the external, and if you can, you will have a working bootable backup of your internal and all your files. You can then wipe the internal and Restore to the internal by using Restore in Disk Utility in Recovery Mode with the external as the source and the internal as the target. Normally, I'd suggest just reinstalling the OS on the internal, but if there's something wrong with the drive, you may risk making things worse, and first priority is to protect your files.

IMac will not boot - flashing question mark folder

Hi Everyone,
This evening I did the update for Xcode on my iMac (purchased in 2012, new one with no DVD drive). I attempted to restart the iMac and the folder with the question mark inside it started flashing and would not stop.
I have launced Internet Recovery with Disk Utility and verified the disk, and the result was "The disk appears to be OK", (this filled me with hope...). I selected the Startup Disk and I got the same result. I removed all the external peripherals and that did not solve the problem. I don't have a Time Machine backup of this Mac as it failed every time I tried to run it to my NAS drive. I have all of my iPhone app work on this iMac and don't really want to wipe my HDD. I have tried everything I can see that the forums and Google suggest... does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Ed
P.S. Disk Utility showed all available space as over 400 gigabytes... so I am pretty certain that it is not a disk space error.

If you have a USB full installer, then you can boot from it by holding the alt key at startup and selecting the usb. Once it loads, you'll be presented with a menu allowing you to select (reinstall the OS). This will then allow you to select (Macintosh HD). It will reinstall the OS without prompting you to run setup assistent or anything like that. You'll just reboot into the login screen.
You're on OS 10.8.5. You'll need a full copy of 10.8.5 (it's almost 5GB) restored to a 8GB usb.
You can do internet recovery. It's like having a full installer but the files are downloaded from the internet. When you used internet recovery to check your disk, there should have been an option to reinstall the OS as well. It is doing the same thing via the internet that I described using a USB.

Emac won't boot up - question mark folder

An emac (G4/1.25ghz/256/combo) that I am borrowing will turn on with a chime but will not start up. I have a gray screen with the purple folder flashing a question mark / finder icon. I tried starting up in safe mode and command-option-p-r mode but same thing. I tried target disk mode. The e-mac showed the target disk mode logo but I could not see it on my macbook pro. The original owner doesn't have the original disks and knows very little about the computer (as his it was his office assistant's). What else should I try? Will taking the battery out and resetting possibly help? Will I lose any data if I do this?
I only need to pull the photos off the computer (and the owner says I could recycle the computer if need be). There are thousands of photos that are only partially backed up due to a recent corruption of that iPhoto library. In fact, I was in the midst of repairing this file and almost done. Help. Apologies but I don't have all the specs of the computer as I was borrowing it and may have inadvertently killed it!

It could be the dreaded logic board failure that affects many USB 2.0 eMacs except for the 1.42G versions. See if the serial number is in the ranges listed in this Apple article:
http://www.apple.com/sg/support/emac/repairextensionprogram
The program expired last summer so the owner is on his own if he wants to pursue it. The cost of the repari probably exceed the value of a used eMac.
If he plans to recycle the computer, the only option is to remove the HD and connect it to another Mac. This gadget is what I use for that procedure:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NV2SPATA/

IMac DV SE 400 chimes, gives flashing question mark. Hard drive bad?

My G3 iMac DV SE 400 will not start up. This is what happens:
1. Startup chime
2. Hard drive starts to spin
3. Hard drive "clicks" once
4. Flashing question mark on screen
I tried resetting the PRAM and disconnecting everything like it says in the manual. I have booted up from CD and used Disk Utility (OS X) and Disk First Aid (OS 9) to find out if the computer "sees" the hard drive. No luck with either one - the drive does not mount. I have also tried System Profiler and the computer does not recognize the presence of any hard drive there either.
Is the hard drive really "dead?" Can it be resurrected - at least to the point where I can retrieve my files, pictures, etc.? I'm confident that the drive is receiving power because it actually starts to spin up (see #2 above). Am I overlooking something easy here? Could it be as simple as replacing the battery? I haven't tried that because the hard drive does "attempt" to start up.
Failing all else, is it possible to retrieve the data using my other Mac even though the hard drive will not boot?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Well if it spins up you might be able to salvage your data with Data Rescue II (free demo) or Disk Warrior. You could also try Target mode but if disk utility didn't see it then that's probably not going to be any better.
If those two don't see it then your only option is data retrieval via a pro company but that will be very expensive.
Richard

Imac G5 won't start white screen and flashing question mark

tried every key combo recomended - erased HD using target mode/firewire with laptop - but won't boot up from install disc...

The white screen with flashing question mark means that it cannot find a bootable volume.
The iMac G5 will not boot from just any install disk. Ideally, use the grey restore disks which came with the computer. If you've lost these, you can order them direct from Apple. Alternatively, a Mac OS X 10.5 retail install DVD will work provided the iMac G5 has also 1GB RAM (minimum requirement for 10.5).
Sometimes, if the internal drive is faulty, it can take a long time for the computer to recognise other disks. I would suggest holding down the option key on the keyboard (labled alt on some keyboards) and turning the computer on, keep holding alt until you get to the early boot menu, insert your DVD/CD, and click the circle arrow to refresh, wait a bit and the DVD/CD will show up and you can click on it to select it and boot from it by pressing the straight arrow.
After a little while it will get to the install menu, select your language, then on the next screen go through the menus to find "Disk Utility" (it's in different places on different versions of Mac OS X).
You will want to check that the internal hard drive is detected, and that it doesn't have a SMART error (it might be red, or say that the disk is failing). If you get that far, then (assuming you have erased the disk previously, as this will step really will erase the drive and take all your data with it) partition the drive, making sure that under 'Options' you select Apple Partition Map (this will be the default on earlier versions of Mac OS X, but might not be if you've erase the disk from an intel Mac like a MacBook).
Once, you done all that, and there haven't been any issues, you should be able to quit Disk Utility, and carry on with the sytem install as usual, and a 30mins to 2 hours and reboot later you should be booting from the internal drive again.

Won't boot, flashing question mark on screen

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