2010 mac mini hard drive failure..external HD?

[jettilton]

Hello,

New to forums, need some advice.

Have a 2010 Mac Mini, has been working good for last couple of years, but the other day upon login got the flashing folder with the question mark. Tried everything I could find on the net, did internet recovery, etc. -- still hard drive not discoverable.

Question: Extremely low on funds this month, read somewhere that you could connect an external hard drive to the mac mini and it would then become operable again? Is this possible? Don't have the $$ to take it to the Apple Store and it's out of warranty.

I'm almost to the point of having to buy a Windows Laptop because you can only get so much work done on an Ipad...

Thanks
Jet

 

[satcomer]

What version of OS X are you using? An answer depends on your version of OS X.

 

[slimjimtx]

If you have an external drive with OSX installed, you can boot from that. When you turn the computer on and hear the "bong", press the Alt key to get a boot menu.

 

[jettilton]

was running 10.7 Lion...

was running 10.7 Lion...