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User profile for user: mack2215
mack2215 Author
User level: Level 1
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MBP 13" Won't Boot, Gray Screen w/ ? Folder, Hard Drive is perfectly fine

I have a 13" Macbook Pro that won't boot up. When I used my install disk to get to disk utility, it did not recognize that there were any drives in the computer.

I tried:
Removing the hard drive and plugging it into another computer using a SATA to USB adapter. It worked fine and I could see all of the files on the hard drive. I ran the disk utility on another Mac to see if there were errors. It found none. I then restarted the other Mac and selected to boot from the USB drive and it booted perfectly fine. I tried reconnecting and seeing if it would boot now for some reason (machines are funny like that). It didn't; same problem.

Next, I tried:
Installing a different hard drive to see if the disk utility program would see it. It did not.

Then, I tried:
Connecting the original hard drive to the defective Mac using the SATA to USB adapter and trying to boot from USB. This worked fine.

Conclusions so far:
-The Hard Drive is 100% ok
-The Hard Drive Cable MAY be defective
-If the Hard Drive Cable is not at fault, there MAY be a problem with the logic board.

I was wondering if anyone has any further ideas for me before I try swapping out the hard drive/infrared cable?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

MacBook Pro 13", Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 29, 2010 11:47 AM

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User profile for user: Douglas Darlington
Douglas Darlington
User level: Level 1
15 points

Dec 30, 2010 4:40 AM in response to mack2215

I have pretty much the same problem, although I don't get the question mark, I get the gray screen with a symbol like a "no entry" sign. In other words, circle with a slash through it. Very odd. Never seen that before. I booted from two different external drives and the computer boots fine. The internal drive mounts on my desktop and is accessible, nothing is wrong. I cloned the internal drive to one of the external drives and booted from that fine as well.

The disk has been repaired via Drive Genius. I rebuilt the directory through Drive Genius and it seems to run just fine.

It seems it may be as simple as a bad or loose cable, but since the icon is something I'd never seen I wanted to see if anyone knows what that icon might mean. The only new thing I did last week was defrag the drive through Drive Genius.

Oh also, I replaced the battery last year from OWC. The glue holding the silver outer plate has come off so that battery, though working fine, is a bit of a pain. Since the battery is lose inside that casing, I was wondering if maybe there is a strain internally. I don't know the wiring that's near the battery connection.

Thanks for any help
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User profile for user: Douglas Darlington
Douglas Darlington
User level: Level 1
15 points

Dec 30, 2010 6:04 AM in response to RonaldED

Thanks for the fast response. I also when to online apple support and found this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570. I started with the Safe Boot, my computer booted up, then I rebooted and it's up and running. Amazing! But I still think I will be replacing the cable and my battery (which is still under warranty). Thanks again.
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User profile for user: Douglas Darlington
Douglas Darlington
User level: Level 1
15 points

Dec 30, 2010 3:39 PM in response to S.U.

S.U. Thanks so much for that link. Nice to know what the sign is called! I saw it as a Do Not Enter sign. Prohibitory sign. Who would have thought. So just as an additional fact about my issue. If also defragged the drive and then this stopped happening. I'm wondering from that article about the Prohibitory sign, whether defragging moves certain Mac OS system files. I don't believe it does. Those are protected. I'll try what they suggest.

Interestingly, though, my external drives run fine booting through firewire and USB. They are Super Duper clones of the current drive. So that beg the question of an earlier respondent that it might be the cable. Haven't tried that yet. A bit scared to poke around like that but I wanted to install a larger, newer drive anyway.

Thanks for the help everyone.
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User profile for user: Mohjohn
Mohjohn
User level: Level 1
0 points

Feb 5, 2016 6:02 AM in response to mack2215

I got the same problem too 30mins after I started installing imovies,keynote on El capitan(.. so I decided to reformat it then received an error that I need to repair the disk(S.M.A.R.T = verified).. then later this morning I received an ? folder. so I decided to go to the apple store it says that my hard drive is corrupted(just wanted to clarify it its true) and hard drive cost $210 . by the way how can you tell if the hard drive is really corrupted.

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MBP 13" Won't Boot, Gray Screen w/ ? Folder, Hard Drive is perfectly fine

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