Macbook Pro - Folder w/Question Mark; Internet Recovery

Question

Level 1

6 points

Macbook Pro - Folder w/Question Mark; Internet Recovery

Hello everyone,

I have a 13" Macbook Pro that I purchased (new) in February 2013.

Yesterday I was working on it with an external mouse plugged into one USB, a bicycle light charger plugged into the other USB, and an external monitor connected in that port with the Apple connector, plus the power cord was plugged in. I had Word documents open, an Excel doc as well, plus iTunes running, and I had Chrome open as my browser. I had to quickly leave so unplugged all of them quickly, then closed the cover.

A few hours later when I opened the computer I had no cursor. I gave it a few minutes to "wake up" but nothing happened. I then turned the computer off with the power button. When it came back on I had a folder with a question mark and it was blinking.

In looking through the discussion forums, I tried holding down the Control button. This too me to Internet Recovery. Now I'm at the OS X Utilities and it has four options: Restore from Time Machine, Reinstall OS X, Get Help Online, or Disk Utility.

I back up the computer frequently with T.M. to an external HD, but I'd rather not erase the HD and start over.

I have seen some suggest resetting the PRAM when this issue occurs. As the computer was not dropped, I hope it was more of an overload issue when I unplugged so many things at once and shut it down.

I am definitely not a skilled computer fixer, so wanted to see if anyone with more knowledge could offer the best steps to take.

Thank you!

Mac Pro

Posted on Oct 11, 2013 5:29 AM

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Answer 1

DeesBek

Level 1

35 points

Oct 11, 2013 5:58 AM in response to Ron497

I would run disk utility first to see if that can fix any errors. If that does not help, I would replace the drive, with a new one and migrate your data.

Hard drives do fail even in new computers. I used to have a Dell laptop for 10 years in which I "upgraded" the hard drive 6 times.

Good job on having a Time Machine backup.

Here is how it should all work for you but because you have a Time Machine backup you shoud be able to recover faster.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5435909

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Answer 2

DeesBek

Level 1

35 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:04 AM in response to Ron497

Also this is an excellent article on the trouble shooting steps you can perform by one of the guys who is on here a lot:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3353

and a specific article, to the issue you are having:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5281

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Answer 3

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:08 AM in response to Ron497

The folder with question mark means your firmware doesn't know what or where is your volume it's supposed to boot from normally.

1: Shutdown the machine by pressing and holding the power button.

2: Press and hold the option/alt key down. Boot the machine.

3: Startup Manager appears and hopefully your boot drive (along with RecoveryHD) appears, select your boot drive and click the arrow.

4: In System Preferences, set your statup disk again. Done.

Folder with question mark issue

If this fails to work, then do reset the NVRAM and try the steps above again.

If your boot volume fails to appear, then your OS X is corrupt and is not recognized as a bootable option, but it can be fixed.

..Step by Step to fix your Mac

The worst thing is your boot drive is dead, lets hope you have backups of your data off the machine.

My computer is not working, is my personal data lost?

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Answer 4

DeesBek

Level 1

35 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:08 AM in response to Ron497

The links I posted were all written by ds store, so now you have it from the "horses mouth"

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Answer 5

Ron497 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:11 AM in response to ds store

Thank you for the reply, ds store.

It is asking me to run Internet Recovery. I followed steps 1 & 2, should I run IR or how to I navigate to Startup Manager?

Holding down the alt/Option took me directy to IR.

Yes, I backed up the data just a few days ago to an X-HD. Nothing will be lost, just would be more time/energy redoing the drive.

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Answer 6

Ron497 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:12 AM in response to DeesBek

Thank you for the reply as well!

I'm going to very specifically follow what the horse has to say;)

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Answer 7

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:18 AM in response to Ron497

Ron497 wrote:

Holding down the alt/Option took me directy to IR.

That's a bad sign, you have a dead boot drive or some other hardware issue.

The links I posted were all written by ds store, so now you have it from the "horses mouth"

Sorry, these forums are glitchy and we don't always see all the posts.

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Answer 8

Ron497 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:26 AM in response to ds store

I thought going straight to Internet Recovery was simply the new tech system/help they developed to make it easier to sort out these issues?

Is there a next step I should try?

Or, should I haul it into the Apple store?

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Answer 9

Ron497 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:35 AM in response to ds store

And once I allow IR to run and I get the four options...should I choose one?

Or again, best to take it in and have it looked at?

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Answer 10

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:45 AM in response to Ron497

Ron497 wrote:

I thought going straight to Internet Recovery was simply the new tech system/help they developed to make it easier to sort out these issues?

If you saw a globe spinning, that's Internet Recovery and since you got there by holding the option/alt key for Startup Manager (which didn't appear) means there was no bootable partitions on your drive.

Normally there are two, RecoveryHD and MacintoshHD, also BootCamp if it was installed that will appear when you hold the option/alt at boot time.

The minimal that should have appeared is RecoveryHD, since it didn't, that suggests the entire drive was erased/corrupted or it's dead.

Internet Recovery is for installing everything on a boot drive, including the hidden EFI and RecoveryHD partiitons along with MacintoshHD.

IR installs the operating system that came with the machine (10.7 earliest) then you upgrade again via AppStore to 10.8.

You can open Disk Utility in Internet Recovery and see what appears on the left side.

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Answer 11

DeesBek

Level 1

35 points

Oct 11, 2013 6:58 AM in response to Ron497

I would let IR run. It takes some time.

I would reinstall osx then recover from your time machine backup.

This may fix the issues with your hard drive, however the drive is probably failing. So you should replace the harddrive and then run IR on the new disk.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA161/en_US/MacBook_13inch_HardDrive_DIY .pdf

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Answer 12

Ron497 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2013 7:38 AM in response to ds store

I let IR Run, then I clicked on Disk Utility.

On the left side I have: disk0 and Mac OS X Base System.

Under disk0 the main box is empy, Verify Disk and Repair Disk and not available (not click-able).

Under Mac OX X Base System Verify Disk is available, not Repair.

Next step?

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Answer 13

DeesBek

Level 1

35 points

Oct 11, 2013 7:49 AM in response to Ron497

Unfortunately As ds said, you will need to reinstall osx. You have three options

1. run IR again and install osx via the net, that option should also be available, and is what I thought you were going to rather than clicking Disk Utility

2. remove the old disk, replace it and reinstall from backup

3. take it to the mac store

I would suggest 2, and am happy to run you through it.

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Answer 14

Ron497 Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 11, 2013 7:53 AM in response to DeesBek

I'm game for option 2 as well.

Disk, hmm...I don't know if I have an actual, virtual disk. Sorry if I'm just confused. I walked into the store, they set me up, I walked out, I got home and clicked a few settings.

Not sure if I ever had in my hands and actual installation disk?

I'll wait for instructions on how to proceed with #2. Thank you.

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Answer 15

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Oct 11, 2013 8:08 AM in response to Ron497

If when starting you are going straight to Internet Recovery then your drive has failed. Youi are still with in the one year warranty so take it and have the Apple store fix it.

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