Flashing Folder with Question Mark, Disk Utility Grayed Out

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Flashing Folder with Question Mark, Disk Utility Grayed Out

I was working on my macbook pro when it appeared to freeze, so I manually shut it down by pressing the power button. When I pressed it again to restart the computer, the restart "chime" sounded, and a flashing folder with a question mark appeared shortly after. The folder flashes for a few minutes, and the macbook turns off again. After consulting the internet, I restarted while holding command+r, and the computer told me to reconnect to the internet, select a language, and so on. When I reached the menu giving me choices for how to recover my information, I discovered that there were apparently no time machine backups recognized and when I tried to use the "first aid" option in Disk Utility, all of the action buttons are grayed out when I select the drives (I'm running OS X Mavericks) at the left, including the "Verify" option at the top. Is there anything I can do? I really would rather not restore a new version of OS X to preserve my information.

Posted on Jul 9, 2014 7:33 AM

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Answer 1

Csound1

Level 9

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Jul 9, 2014 7:38 AM in response to bailey.b

Re-install OSX, your files should be undisturbed (but a backup would be wise) If you are told that it can not be installed because the drive needs repair, post back.

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Answer 2

bailey.b Author

Level 1

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Jul 9, 2014 8:54 AM in response to Csound1

Thanks for the response. When I clicked on the option to reinstall, the window asking me to select the disk where I would like to install Mac OS X presents no options. There's just a blank white box with no other messages or prompts.

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