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Flashing folder with question mark at startup

R

RDAR

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2012
260
3
Everything was running fine on my MacBook Pro, mid 2012 non retina i7 2.9 ghz. I just closed the lid and when I went to use it again and type my password I notice something on one of my keys so I wiped it and pressed down on the key and the screen was stuck with a spinning beach ball. I left it for 10 min then shut it down with the power button. Turned it back on and it showed the flashing folder with question mark. Held option key and only gave me option for internet recovery. Command plus r also only gave me option for internet recovery. So I selected it and went into disk utility and it would show my sdd on there. Go to reinstall Mac osx and when it ask to select disk or install it to there are no options. Am I basically screwed or can I still fix this?

Edit: I actually meant to type that my SSD doesn't show up on disk utility.
 
Last edited:
Take it apart - make sure that the SATA connection to the SSD is fully inserted
and not damaged.
BE CAREFUL as that small disk connection cable can be easily damaged !!!

That may be the only problem, while you are in there, try the SSD in an external
enclosure USB2.0 or 3.0 if you have one ... see if it's visible then ?

M.

EDIT - What model SSD do you have ?
 
Marty62 said:
Take it apart - make sure that the SATA connection to the SSD is fully inserted
and not damaged.
BE CAREFUL as that small disk connection cable can be easily damaged !!!

That may be the only problem, while you are in there, try the SSD in an external
enclosure USB2.0 or 3.0 if you have one ... see if it's visible then ?

M.

EDIT - What model SSD do you have ?
Click to expand...

It is a Kingston ssd now v300. I put my old stock hdd back in and it read it. Put the sdd in USB enclosure and I was able to access all my files from the Mac and bootcamp partitions. If I put it back inside the Mac do u think it will read it again? Did it somehow just get loose?

EDIT: So it put the ssd back inside my macbook and booted it up. Now it is loading up again. Don't know what happened. When I took it apart yesterday it wasn't loose or anything. But I'm just glad I didn't reformat before I tried to see if it worked again.
 
Last edited:
RDAR said:
It is a Kingston ssd now v300. I put my old stock hdd back in and it read it. Put the sdd in USB enclosure and I was able to access all my files from the Mac and bootcamp partitions. If I put it back inside the Mac do u think it will read it again? Did it somehow just get loose?

EDIT: So it put the ssd back inside my macbook and booted it up. Now it is loading up again. Don't know what happened. When I took it apart yesterday it wasn't loose or anything. But I'm just glad I didn't reformat before I tried to see if it worked again.
Click to expand...

That's good news :)
Could have been / continue to be a slightly "iffy" connection !

OR - SSD's sometimes near a power cycle "outside" of being connected to the
OS device.
Something to do with the header information IIRC.

Anyhow, keep an eye on it - keep a backup and well done :)
M
 
I hope this isn't the start of chronic flashing folders for you.

I got those a lot with my 09 MBP before it was retired for home use only. Basically I had a sleep/wake issue that required a lot of hard restarts. The Genius Bar and an authorized service provider would replace the SATA cable and sometimes the hard drive. It would be fine for a while and then fail again. This happened for two years before it was finally so bad that it would fail nearly every time I used my Mac, put it away, and went to use it again. Of course mine almost always involved a trip like from campus to school. One genius did say that the design of the earlier unibodies (like 08-2010 or so) is not well designed when protecting the SATA cable against movement. It can short out if you put your Mac in a backpack with books. Something about compressing the case. Of course that was toward the end of my issues, and transportation didn't always occur between having a working Mac and a not working Mac. Freezing was in there too.

So if you have AppleCare or are still eligible to get it and do, I'd push them to take a seriously look at the SATA cable and connection on the logic board as well as looking into what caused the freezing in the first place. I dealt with my issues for two years because Apple never found a fix that would last.
 
Spoke too soon. I was just on my mac and the screen just froze with the spinning beach ball and nothing would work. I left it for 30 minutes and still frozen. Turned it off and it gave the flashing folder with question mark again. So I put back the HDD and it works. The SSD is in the usb enclosure and I have access to the OSX and Bootcamp partitions. What is wrong :(
 
Exact same thing happened to my 2012 MBP 2 weeks ago, it was the SATA cable. Original HDD kept working but not my SSD's. Replaced the cable and all is good again :)
 
viss said:
Exact same thing happened to my 2012 MBP 2 weeks ago, it was the SATA cable. Original HDD kept working but not my SSD's. Replaced the cable and all is good again :)
Click to expand...

Oh I think mine might be the same. Cause the SSD reads perfectly through the USB. Where did you get it a sata cable? Is this an online purchase or they at like bestbuy/futureshop?
 
Got mine from MacSales UK on Ebay but can ablso be found on Amazon etc. Look for A1278 hard drive cable. Very easy to replace, ifixit has a good tutorial.
 
Last edited:
viss said:
Got mine from MacSales UK on Ebay but can ablso be found on Amazon etc. Look for A1278 hard drive cable. Very easy to replace, ifixit has a good
tutorial.
Click to expand...

Is there a way to prevent this. I take good care of my MacBook and out of nowhere it just doesn't work. I just don't want to buy another cable and have it give out on me as well. And I looked around ebay, does $20 look right?
 
RDAR said:
Is there a way to prevent this. I take good care of my MacBook and out of nowhere it just doesn't work. I just don't want to buy another cable and have it give out on me as well. And I looked around ebay, does $20 look right?
Click to expand...

I stopped taking my 2009 to school and it seems to have stopped failing. I also got a new battery, but in assume a 2012 battery would still be good. If you just use it at home and don't take it anyway then I don't know what to tell you :(
 
Ok so even my stock HDD is acting weird now. Sometimes when I'm watching video, either my own file or online like youtube, it will freeze for a couple of seconds and work again. Sometimes my mac also freezes and the spinning beach ball appears for a minute then everything is working fine again. Also when I wake it from sleep the wifi takes a while to load up and sometimes it freezes when I go to open finder. Is this for sure a problem with the HHD cable?
 
RDAR said:
Ok so even my stock HDD is acting weird now. Sometimes when I'm watching video, either my own file or online like youtube, it will freeze for a couple of seconds and work again. Sometimes my mac also freezes and the spinning beach ball appears for a minute then everything is working fine again. Also when I wake it from sleep the wifi takes a while to load up and sometimes it freezes when I go to open finder. Is this for sure a problem with the HHD cable?
Click to expand...

Yes! (Or the logic board but much more likely to be the cable)
 
simonsi said:
Yes! (Or the logic board but much more likely to be the cable)
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm pretty sure its the cable because I'm running my OSX Mavericks on an SSD through external and its smooth as butter.
 
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