Does this startup with a question mark mean that I'll use my data??

sakshie wrote:

Does this startup with a question mark in a folder mean that I'll lose my data ?

If your Mac starts up to a question mark

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

You should never be in a position to lose your user data...

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

—Back up your Mac with Time Machine: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

— How to create a boot clone https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-10081

Do not wait for a catastrophic failure to adapt the backup religion.

Possibly. It depends on what the underlying issue is. A bad hard drive or SSD can mean data loss which sometimes a professional data recovery service may be used to attempt to recover the data (no guarantees though). If someone erased the drive, then the data may be gone (especially if it is an SSD). File system issues usually don't cause complete data loss, but it depends on whether the drive can be read or the file system repaired.

I would suggest running the Apple Diagnostics to make sure it doesn't detect a drive failure. If you attempt to resolve the issue and the drive is failing,then you just risk making the failure worse to where even a professional data recovery service may be unable to recover any data. Unfortunately the diagnostics do not detect most drive failures.

As @leroydouglas mentions if you have good backups, then you wouldn't have to be so worried about losing your data. The more important the data, the more backup copies of that particular data you should have to minimize the chances of losing the data. You should always have frequent and regular backups.

Terribly, yes. If you performed a backup before you will get the data back.

Check the Related Article Above.

If you had a Time Machine Backup - Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

Unless your data not backed up, you’ll get the data loss