Macbook took a nasty tumble down some stairs and now displays only a grey screen with flashing folder featuring a question mark - help!

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Macbook took a nasty tumble down some stairs and now displays only a grey screen with flashing folder featuring a question mark - help!

Its probably a physical thing due to the fall, but any help on fixing it myself would be greatly appreciated! Tried command-R, nope, tried option, cursor showed up; tried command -V, nope, tried command-S, nope. If it is dead then is there any way I can get my pictures, documents, videos, etc. back? I've had this computer since 2008 and it has my whole life on there. Thank you so much!

MacBook

Posted on Jul 17, 2013 12:34 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 17, 2013 4:31 AM in response to chloeeeeee

Try restarting while holding down the Option key. Hopefully you'll see the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk.

Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume

If no bootable drive is available, take your MacBook to an Apple Store or Apple certified repair shop.

No guarantees, but you may be able to access the photos, etc, in Safe Mode.

Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode

This is why it's so important to backup your important files on a timely basis.

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