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flashing question mark - disk0 / Mac OS X Base system

I

ilyailitch

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 30, 2015
6
1
Hello,

First, there is plenty of thread with this kind of issue,
I read a lot of things and read and done advised things in http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_doesn't_boot
but it won't solve my problem.
Maybe somebody will have an idea.

This is a MacBookPro 2010 running Lion.

-I have a flashing question mark on my Mac's screen at startup.
- not able to run OSX recovery with success.
- not able to boot in safe mode.

So here is what I have done so far :

-I removed the Hard Drive from the laptop and put it in an external box and plugged it on an other mac

-The Hard Drive refused to mount

-I ran "Directory Rebuild" using DiskWarrior and replaced the corrupted directory with a rebuilt one with
success, the Hard Drive could mount after that, I have been able to backup important files.

-I put the Hard drive back in the laptop, Again flashing question mark.

-I was now able to boot in recovery mode

I went to the disk utility and all I see is the grayed out SuperDrive and below there is
disk0 / Mac OS X Base system
appears as" verified" but the rest of options are greyed out (permissions and repair)

Leaving disk utility I went to reinstall Mac OS X.
After the verification and agreeing the terms, it doesn't show my harddrive.

So I am stuck here and I don't know what to do...
 
Well it could still be dying 5-6 years is about right for hard drive I would reccommend replacing it whatever happens (with an ssd for all those lovely speed benefits).

Unfortunately the connector cables are notoriously fragile and you may want to look at replacing the HD cable as well.
 
Hello Samuelsan,
This is a question I have, my problem here could be from a physical problem on the HD ?
Even if it's able to mount in an external box ?
 
Ok so if everybody agree that this HD should be changed,
You are SURE that the problem could not come from the motherboard or I don't know what esle... (?)
It would be a pain to buy a SSD and if it don't work
 
ilyailitch said:
Ok so if everybody agree that this HD should be changed,
You are SURE that the problem could not come from the motherboard or I don't know what esle... (?)
It would be a pain to buy a SSD and if it don't work
Click to expand...

We can't be sure about anything from a description over the internet. we can only tell you what the most likely reason is from the symptoms you are descibing. It does sound like the HD is dying it also sounds like you may have a drive cable issue.

If I had to guess I'd say you had both, I think the drive cable is a cheaper component so changing that and seeing if your original HD will boot is an option, the SSD will make the computer better than new I'd recommend you go for that even if your HDD was fine but I certainly understand not wanting to spend money unless you have to.

Other than that we can give no guarantees, you could spend as much getting someone to diagnose the problem as you would spend on a 256Gb SSD.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-BX100...id=1446213231&sr=8-1&keywords=BX100+256gb+SSD
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Samuelsan2001 said:
We can't be sure about anything from a description over the internet. we can only tell you what the most likely reason is from the symptoms you are descibing. It does sound like the HD is dying it also sounds like you may have a drive cable issue.

If I had to guess I'd say you had both, I think the drive cable is a cheaper component so changing that and seeing if your original HD will boot is an option, the SSD will make the computer better than new I'd recommend you go for that even if your HDD was fine but I certainly understand not wanting to spend money unless you have to.

Other than that we can give no guarantees, you could spend as much getting someone to diagnose the problem as you would spend on a 256Gb SSD.

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-BX100...id=1446213231&sr=8-1&keywords=BX100+256gb+SSD
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your answer,
I am not willing to spend any money for somebody to tell me the HD is dead...
I'll go for the Cable first and the SSD second.
Thank you very much
 
Ok,
For somebody who might have the same problem,
This was indeed the Hard Drive cable.
The Hard Drive was fine.
Thanks
 
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