folder with question mark

[mphan1985]

hi everyone... first off i wanna express that i am freaking out without my mba working ( shhh im on a pc)... so one day it started up and showed this blinking folder with a question mark... i tried the things everyone did online already by pressing command option p & r... i tried going into disk utilities but there i saw that the computer did not recognize the hard drive... so i took it to apple genius and they did their diagnosis too... it showed up also as the hard drive being the only issue... they charge 280 to fix it and replace anything that needs replacing... or i can go to OWC and buy another ssd for my specific mac and replace it... what do you think? would replacing the ssd solve my issue? because for 40 bucks more i would get about twice the size from OWC... thanks for your input

 

[GoCubsGo]

Usually it is the the drive not being able to see the OS. A new drive should help but check iFixit.com for teardown pics to see if you can even replace it. Bottom line is replacing it is going to void your warranty if you do it yourself.

 

[magbarn]

Usually it is the the drive not being able to see the OS. A new drive should help but check iFixit.com for teardown pics to see if you can even replace it. Bottom line is replacing it is going to void your warranty if you do it yourself.

The fact that Apple is wanting to charge the OP $280 lets us know he's out of warranty already. Hopefully Apple pisses off some rich folks who can set up a class action lawsuit as Apple isn't doing the right thing already and extending the warranty on these drives. There are no other MBA SSDs with this amount of failure. And we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg here. I would like to believe it's just a 'few pissed off customers here that's routine forum babble, now move along' theory on forum complaints, but I haven't seen any 2010 MBA users and 2012 MBA Samsung SSD users complaining of failure.

 

[mphan1985]

yea the warranty has already been voided and so i dont mind opening it up. there has been ways to replace it and i did see some tutorials on how to replace it... just wondering if there is any other ideas on what else is wrong too so i dont buy the ssd and it still wont work

 

[magbarn]

yea the warranty has already been voided and so i dont mind opening it up. there has been ways to replace it and i did see some tutorials on how to replace it... just wondering if there is any other ideas on what else is wrong too so i dont buy the ssd and it still wont work

See if you can make a bootable USB stick or HDD with OSX using another Mac. If your computer boots up fine than most likely it's your SSD that's bad.