iMac black screen, question mark, no Macintosh HD

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iMac black screen, question mark, no Macintosh HD

My iMac has the screen completely black apart from a big question mark

I opened it in recovery mode, which worked fine, but when it came to reinstall the backup there was no Macintosh HD to reinstall it on (nor any other HD for that matter).

I had done absolutely nothing (no upgrading, no new devices installed, nothing), so I guess the HD is gone due to its age (about 10 years). Or might it be something else? The iMac is quite old but it still works fine, so I'd like to keep it going, if it's possible.

Thanks for any suggestion

anita

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Jan 9, 2026 8:10 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 9, 2026 8:36 AM in response to eleventhree

It will help us to help you best by telling us exactly which iMac you have and what version macOS is running.

Yes, the question mark at startup indicates trouble with the OS installed on the drive or with the drive itself. You ten year old drive may be failing.

If your Mac starts up to a question mark - Apple Support

You can try running Disk Utility's First Aid routine on your startup drive. In order to do that you will have to restart in recovery mode and use Disk Utility there. Launch ** and then click View > Show All Devices to have access to the startup media and its's containers and volumes. You may have to run First Aid until it reports no problems found.

How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility - Apple Support

If you can't get the Mac to properly boot after that, then you may have to use another Mac to do further troubleshooting. You can connect the iMac to another Mac in target disk mode to access the drive for more diagnostics and/or file recovery (if you have no backup). Your iMac, when booted in target disk mode, will appear to the other Mac as just another external storage drive.

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support

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