I am getting the dreaded flashing "?" and folder on start-up (can't start-up my MacBook). I have tried repairing with disk utility and an error occurs. Then I tried reinstalling OS X and the destination drive window doesn't show my drive! Disk Utility sees it, but no matter how long I wait, Installer doesn't offer it in the "Select Destination" step of install... any help here?
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flashing "?" and folder symbol on start-up
- Thread starter hyperfresh
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Its less than a year old and was working great. It never crashed; just started blank and moved to flashing "?" last time I started up. So you think try a different disk repair software than disk utility?
I hope this is not really stupid, but did you try an Archive and Install and see what that process does for you.?
This same things happened to me last night. I had the flashing question mark, very frustrating that I couldn't boot up, even worse I couldn't re-install Leopard. My Leopard disc is the upgrade disk so it looks for a copy of OS X in order to be re-installed. Since my iMac came with Tiger I had to use the full Tiger install disc and boot to Disk Utility and it saw my hard drive but I had to erase it and re-install Tiger first and then Leopard again.
Now I realize I need to buy a full copy of Leopard so if this ever happens again I won't need to use my Tiger disc.
So, make sure to use the full version disc of whichever OS you need to re-install and you most likely will have to hit the erase button before installing.
Now I realize I need to buy a full copy of Leopard so if this ever happens again I won't need to use my Tiger disc.
So, make sure to use the full version disc of whichever OS you need to re-install and you most likely will have to hit the erase button before installing.