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Random restart and blinking folder with a question mark.

Hi my laptop randomly restarted and began showing the blinking folder with the question mark. It happened twice in about an hour. Will turning it off and using Recovery Mode erase my memory?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 12, 2020 8:15 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 12, 2020 8:34 AM

If your Mac starts up to a question mark

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204323



Booting to Recovery will not erase your memory.



Always advised to have a current backup plan in place—

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.


Boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Use DiskUtility Restore feature https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac

note: >System Preferences>Security & Privacy >Privacy>Full Disk Access

unlock the padlock, press the + button and add Disk Utility


1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 12, 2020 8:34 AM in response to MValerin

If your Mac starts up to a question mark

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204323



Booting to Recovery will not erase your memory.



Always advised to have a current backup plan in place—

3-2-1 Backup Strategy: three copies of your data, two different methods, and one offsite.


Boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

How to use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

Use DiskUtility Restore feature https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062/mac

note: >System Preferences>Security & Privacy >Privacy>Full Disk Access

unlock the padlock, press the + button and add Disk Utility


Random restart and blinking folder with a question mark.

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