Mac starts up with flashing question mark
Hi WAMUGersMy son-in-law to be's macbook pro, 3 yrs old, Mavericks, plenty of free disk space, starts up and shows flashing question mark.We've tried starting up with shift key and also with PRAM reset. No goodThen we tried Target Disk mode, but the host mac still couldn't see his powerbook, nor could Disk Utility on the host mac. He has an appointment with the Genius Bar on Wednesday. Does it look bad? taBlitto -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Settings Unsubscribe - http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug
Re: Mac starts up with flashing question mark
Hi Blitto, A flashing question mark at startup means your Mac is having trouble locating the system software. Turn off your Mac by pressing and holding its power button for a few seconds. Press the power button once to turn your Mac back on. Then, hold down the Option key on your keyboard until the Startup Manager appears. Select your startup disk from the list of drives that appear on screen. If your computer finishes starting up normally, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu. Then, click the Startup Disk icon in the System Preferences window. Select your normal startup volume (such as Macintosh HD) from the list of drives that appear in the Startup Disk window. If your installation of OS X needs repair If you don't see your startup disk displayed in Startup Manager, or if you see a prohibitory symbol (⊘) appear, your startup drive may need directory repair, or OS X may need to be reinstalled. If you only see a disk named Recovery HD in Startup Manager, select it instead. You can also start from OS X Recovery by holding down Command and R on the keyboard at startup. From the Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility. In the Disk Utility window that appears, select your startup disk (usually named Macintosh HD) from the left side of the Disk Utility window. Click the First Aid tab. Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your OS X startup disk. After repairing the disk, try to start up normally. If none of these steps resolve the issue, start from OS X Recovery and reinstall OS X. Cheers, Ronni Sent from Ronni's iPad4 On 11 Oct 2014, at 5:49 pm, rb...@iinet.net.au wrote: Hi WAMUGers My son-in-law to be's macbook pro, 3 yrs old, Mavericks, plenty of free disk space, starts up and shows flashing question mark. We've tried starting up with shift key and also with PRAM reset. No good. Then we tried Target Disk mode, but the host mac still couldn't see his powerbook, nor could Disk Utility on the host mac. He has an appointment with the Genius Bar on Wednesday. Does it look bad? ta Blitto -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Settings Unsubscribe - http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug
Re: Mac starts up with flashing question mark
Thank you RonniI have forwarded your email on.Rod - Original Message - From: wamug@wamug.org.au To:wamug@wamug.org.au Cc: Sent:Sat, 11 Oct 2014 18:05:47 +0800 Subject:Re: Mac starts up with flashing question mark Hi Blitto, A flashing question mark at startup means your Mac is having trouble locating the system software. * Turn off your Mac by pressing and holding its power button for a few seconds. * Press the power button once to turn your Mac back on. Then, hold down the Option key on your keyboard until the Startup Manager [1] appears. * Select your startup disk from the list of drives that appear on screen. * If your computer finishes starting up normally, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu. Then, click the Startup Disk icon in the System Preferences window. * Select your normal startup volume (such as Macintosh HD) from the list of drives that appear in the Startup Disk window. IF YOUR INSTALLATION OF OS X NEEDS REPAIR If you don't see your startup disk displayed in Startup Manager, or if you see a prohibitory symbol (⊘) appear, your startup drive may need directory repair, or OS X may need to be reinstalled. * If you only see a disk named Recovery HD in Startup Manager, select it instead. You can also start from OS X Recovery [2] by holding down Command and R on the keyboard at startup. * From the Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility. * In the Disk Utility window that appears, select your startup disk (usually named Macintosh HD) from the left side of the Disk Utility [3] window. * Click the First Aid tab. * Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your OS X startup disk. * After repairing the disk, try to start up normally. * If none of these steps resolve the issue, start from OS X Recovery [4] and reinstall OS X [5]. Cheers, Ronni Sent from Ronni's iPad4 On 11 Oct 2014, at 5:49 pm, rb...@iinet.net.au [6] wrote: Hi WAMUGersMy son-in-law to be's macbook pro, 3 yrs old, Mavericks, plenty of free disk space, starts up and shows flashing question mark. We've tried starting up with shift key and also with PRAM reset. No good. Then we tried Target Disk mode, but the host mac still couldn't see his powerbook, nor could Disk Utility on the host mac. He has an appointment with the Genius Bar on Wednesday. Does it look bad? ta Blitto Links: -- [1] http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310 [2] http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718 [3] http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1782 [4] http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718 [5] http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13871 [6] mailto:rb...@iinet.net.au -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Settings Unsubscribe - http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug
Flashing Question Mark
I have a G4 Mac running OSX 3.9, we have a flashing question mark and grey screen, does this mean the hard drive has died? Thanx Rosalyn -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Flashing Question Mark
No not necessarily ! It does mean that the Mac cannot find a workable OS . Do you only have OSX 3.9 on it ? Do you have your system disks ? You can use those to run a diagnostic on it . Mail me direct Bob On 03/06/2008, at 12:12 PM, William Crabb wrote: I have a G4 Mac running OSX 3.9, we have a flashing question mark and grey screen, does this mean the hard drive has died? Thanx Rosalyn -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Flashing Question Mark
On 03/06/2008, at 12:12 PM, William Crabb wrote: I have a G4 Mac running OSX 3.9, we have a flashing question mark and grey screen, does this mean the hard drive has died? Thanx Rosalyn Hello Rosalyn, If you see a flashing question mark when you start your Mac, it's probably because it can't find the system software it needs to start up. 1.Turn on, or restart your Mac 2. Immediately hold down the Option Key. After a few seconds, the Startup Manager should appear. 3. Click the startup volume you want to use, then click the right arrow to start up the computer from the volume you have selected. Cheers, Ronni -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Flashing question mark
Hi all A friend of mine has a G4 (? silver and grey) that will no longer boot. It comes up with the flashing question mark on a folder which we know means that it can't find the startup system. She thinks it may have been OS 9. She has flashed the PRAM but it still refused to boot. It will not boot from any system CD. She has tried Norton Utilities without success. Anyone got any ideas? Or can anyone point in the direction of a way of recovering this machine? thanks Jude
Re: Flashing question mark
The last time this happened to me it was a hardware problem. A visit to the local Apple Centre sounds good, or a visit from Daniel Kerr! Daniel F. On 17 Dec 2004, at 11:49, Jude wrote: Hi all A friend of mine has a G4 (? silver and grey) that will no longer boot. It comes up with the flashing question mark on a folder which we know means that it can't find the startup system. She thinks it may have been OS 9. She has flashed the PRAM but it still refused to boot. It will not boot from any system CD. She has tried Norton Utilities without success. Anyone got any ideas? Or can anyone point in the direction of a way of recovering this machine? thanks Jude -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] WAMUG is powered by Stalker CommuniGatePro
Re: Flashing question mark is no more
On Tuesday, October 2, 2001, at 12:21 , Shay Telfer wrote: Try reselecting your startup disk from the Startup Disk control panel, that may help. Yes, it worked! No more flashing. Many thanks Shay. Wendy Wendy Austin Thomas Oswin Coastal Road, Pomponette Beach Mauritius Island Tel/ans/fax 230 6257399 Mobile 230 2560182
Flashing question mark is no more
Greetings All You may remember my flashing question mark woes with the iBook. I downloaded DiskWarrior and had planned to burn DW to CD using my TiBook to use on the iBook but got some very scary messages about kernals and panic (they weren't wrong there) when I plugged the firewire burner in to the TiBook. Decided to leave that alone so copied DW to an Imation super disk and went from there. Extremely pleased to report DW fixed the iBook in no time at all. I then had to re-load the System software and everything appears to be there (I can't quite believe it and keep opening the iBook up just to make sure!). Upon restart though I get the flashing question mark for about two seconds then everything goes okay from there. Is there anything to worry about with that? Many thanks for everyones help with this! Wendy Wendy Austin Thomas Oswin Coastal Road, Pomponette Beach Mauritius Island Tel/ans/fax 230 6257399 Mobile 230 2560182
Re: Flashing question mark is no more
Extremely pleased to report DW fixed the iBook in no time at all. I then had to re-load the System software and everything appears to be there (I can't quite believe it and keep opening the iBook up just to make sure!). Upon restart though I get the flashing question mark for about two seconds then everything goes okay from there. Is there anything to worry about with that? Try reselecting your startup disk from the Startup Disk control panel, that may help. Thanks, Shay -- === Shay Telfer Perth, Western Australia Technomancer Sponsor WA's Solar Car Opinions for hire [POQ] Sungroper [EMAIL PROTECTED] fnord http://sungroper.asn.au/
