I wanted to use my macs system restore so I deleted whatever was in the drive by restarting my mac and holding option + r and from there I it had an option to reinstall the os but my brother accidentally powered it off now when it turns on obviously without an os because I deleted the drive it just shows a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle of it. Any suggestions please???
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MacBook will not start (question mark)
- Thread starter amirus15
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm hoping your Mac is on this list or newer. If it is, it has Internet recovery build into the system firmware. Hold command-option-r (all three at once) when booting. Select your wifi then you will see a spinning globe while the recovery utility downloads.
Once that is done you should see a screen like this.
Use Disk Utility from this screen to erase the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS X. That will install the OS X version that came from the factory.
Sounds like you know this, but this will of course erase any data on the drive.
Once that is done you should see a screen like this.
Use Disk Utility from this screen to erase the drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS X. That will install the OS X version that came from the factory.
Sounds like you know this, but this will of course erase any data on the drive.
when it powers on it goes immediately to a white screen for about 30 seconds, i held all those with a bunch of different combinations you name it and it still goes to the flashing question mark after like 30 seconds. Im thinking I wiped out even the data that allows me to do system restores and stuff? will getting a mac os disc work?
That restore system I described in the system firmware and cannot be erased. Is your system on the list I linked or newer?
Why did you do this to begin with?
MacBook will not start (question mark)
I'm pretty sure you can get into internet recovery by holding ALT after the chime and selecting your wifi network if it is in the list of systems as mentioned above.
I'm pretty sure you can get into internet recovery by holding ALT after the chime and selecting your wifi network if it is in the list of systems as mentioned above.
Reset NVRAM and try again. It should show Internet recovery once successful.
It did the same thing for me the first time I tried using it, I reset nvram and reconnected to my wifi and it worked.
It did the same thing for me the first time I tried using it, I reset nvram and reconnected to my wifi and it worked.
What your friend had would be indicative of a drive cable failure. It works fine at the speeds needed for a spinning drive but introduce an SSD and things go south. This could be the case for the OP also, even if they didn't replace the drive.