Flashing Folder with Question Mark

f1dan

So yesterday my MacBook Pro 2009 model started hanging with no end in sight. I turned it off, restarted and got the dreaded flashing folder with a question mark on it.

I took out the hard drive, checked the connections at both ends, put it back together and it worked...for a while when it started to hang again, same problem. This happened a couple more times today.

I managed to get Disk Utility open and repaired the disk but the same problem has happened since.

My assumption at this point would be that it is a faulty hardware problem. How do I figure out if it is a faulty hard drive, faulty connections or faulty motherboard? I had the hard drive replaced 2 years ago if that makes any difference.

Any help would be appreciated.

f1dan

I convinced a friend to take his MacBook apart and do a bit of testing.

My hard drive seems to work without any problems in his computer.

His hard drive, when booted on my machine, brings up the apple logo and then just stays there with the rotating wheel underneath. I tried booting into his windows partition on my machine and it worked fine.

I'm going to try re-installing the operating system using Recovery mode and see if it makes any differnece

Zcott

Definitely an odd one given that your hdd works fine in his machine. Do reinstall the OS and keep us updated.

Nemeses

You could also try run the Apple Hardware Test and see if that reports anything.

kevteljeur

Try the PRAM reset (command-alt-P-R) at boot and let it reboot.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

If that doesn't do it:
Hold down 'alt' at boot. It may give you the option to select a startup volume.

There is also the arcane art of 'blessing' the boot system. I thought that it wasn't an issue on the newer Mac OS X versions, but I may be wrong:

http://help.bombich.com/kb/troubleshooting/what-makes-a-volume-bootable


Kevin

f1dan

I reinstalled the operating system and it was working fine for about an hour when it started to hang again, restarted same problem.

When I try to restart the flashing folder is back and holding any of alt, cmd-r or cmd-alt-p-r won't do anything which means that it's not recognising any hard drive as being present.

This would, to me, suggest that the hard drive cable is either loose or faulty. If the hard drive was dodgy it wouldn't repeatedly work after disconnecting and re-connecting

Losty Dublin

f1dan wrote: »

I reinstalled the operating system and it was working fine for about an hour when it started to hang again, restarted same problem.

When I try to restart the flashing folder is back and holding any of alt, cmd-r or cmd-alt-p-r won't do anything which means that it's not recognising any hard drive as being present.

This would, to me, suggest that the hard drive cable is either loose or faulty. If the hard drive was dodgy it wouldn't repeatedly work after disconnecting and re-connecting

Can you access the HD either in Safe Mode or via a Hardware test?

XDA

Sounds like the cable might be faulty. It's a part that is known to fail in the MacBook Pro 13" model. Replacements can be sourced on ebay and it's a fairly easy replacement if you are handy with a screw driver.