folder with question mark blinking

A

alphamac818

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i held the power button to shut off my computer because it was lagging badly. upon my start up of my computer i received a folder with a question mark in the center blinking icon (after a little delay).


i need to get this sucker up and running. i have some imporrtant information on it.

its basically a brand new macbook 2.0ghz 2 gig rram

osx installed 10.5.1 i think because i remember seeing it somewhere (i have updated) , but i have cd's for 10.4.9


plese help ASAP

thanks
 
I just did used the disk utility on the macos cds to verify my hdd and it came up with an error and told me a repair was required. so i selected the repair option , and later it came up with an error "underlying task failure" and then "1 HFS volume checked - 1 volume could not be repaired because of an error" "repair attempted on 1 volume - 1 volume could not be repaired"

what next? is my hdd screwed? i dont have a backup image, but i need some information off of there.
 
That error is basically informing you that you can't repair your startup disc unless you unmount it first. To do this, just boot from the Installation disc and after going through a few options you'll notice Utilities in the menu bar. Click it and select Disc Utilities and run the repair. While you are booted from the Install Disc, your internal Hard Drive is unmounted therefore able to hopefully be repaired.

*EDIT*

My bad, you already did this ....
 
Last edited:
Your Hard Drive is dead with a small change of last minutes. The trick now is to get a new hard drive and install it (picture guide & video of replacement.)

Then get a blank external for the hard drive. Then get a big waterproof freezer bag. Put you hold drive is the freezer bag and seal it good so no moisture gets into it. Then pace the drive if the freezer and freeze it. The get the external ready already plugged into the Mac. Now you have to be quick (before the drive thaws)!!!! Take to old dive and quickly install it into the external that's already plugged into your Mac. You should be able to get data off the drive before it thaws, this is an old trick if your drive has ANY life in it.

Or take it to the nearest Apple Specialist to do for you. Also there is the expensive Drive Savers.


Lastly, please don't take this the wrong way, you have learned the first lesson of computing. After all is done get a good big external and do regular backups. Remember it is not if a hard drive will fail, it is rather WHEN the hard drive will fail. Always BackUp, BackUp & Back Up!!!
 
Before Drive Savers or just giving up completely, you might consider DiskWarrior (hard drive repair utility) or FileSalvage(file salvage utility). Both are close to $100.

I've seen the underlying task failure before with Disk Utility. My assumption is that DU runs into a problem it can't fix it. *Edit* Apparently, that's correct. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302411

** Best advice for people with serious hard drive problems: DON'T allow Disk Utility to attempt a repair. It might make the problem worse. Buy DiskWarrior or TechTool Pro. Consider File Salvage for seriously fragged drives.

Good luck.

Doug
 
I was using my system this morning, no problems noted. Left it running at 10am, returned at 11am to find a gray screen with an icon of a folder with a question mark, blinking.

I forced power off, waited about 30 secs, powered on and it started up OK. I then performed a normal "restart" and, again, it looks OK. And I'm writing this post.

I can't find anything suspicious in the console logs. It looks like it crashed, tried to restart, and snagged on something.

Any advice?
 
OS X doesn't restart on its own after a crash, although there is a setting to automatically restart if you lose electric power completely, and restart when power is available again. Is that what might have happened? Or, do you have extra software installed that would automatically attempt to restart your Mac in the event of a crash? Do you have a UPS connected to your iMac?
Usually, a problem that results in a system shutdown, will not continue with a restart. Your Mac would simply remain shut off.
 
Then, you lost power this morning...
How long do you think the power was off?
Most UPSs will not protect you for more than about 10 minutes, and if UPS software is used, should shut your Mac down safely.
If your power simply dropped off (because the UPS battery ran down, or is simply bad), then it's the same as yanking the power plug. The next reboot may be goofy because of improper shutdown. A restart (which you did successfully) would take care of that issue.
You should probably boot to your installer disk to run through a disk repair with Disk Utility, which will help assure that there's no problems with the drive directory.
 
No wall power loss. I have several electric clocks that reset themselves. So perhaps the UPS is the problem? I managed to locate the 2-page user's manual for my APC Smart-UPS 700. It contains:

The 5-LED display on the right of the front panel ... When the LEDs are flashing, the battery can supply less than the “low battery warning interval” time for the load.​

That's exactly what's happening. Too bad I don't have a replacement battery.
 
I replaced the 700 with an APC Back-UPS Pro 650 and, so far, so good. The 700 with no load has returned to normal, with regard to LEDs. I suspect the aging battery reached the point where the load was too much for it.
 
Interesting. I just realized that after changing UPS boxes, my freeze problem has not recurred! I see this text in the old one's user's manual:

The UPS performs a self-test automatically when turned on, and every two weeks thereafter. ... During the test, the UPS briefly operates the loads on-battery.​
 
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