HT204323: If a flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

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brundan88

Q: i recently lent my mac g5 to a friend so that they could install os x lion. however he stuffed it up somehow and now my mac just displays the question mark when started. i tried to select the boot device but no drivers are selectable

i recently lent my mac g5 to a friend so that they could install os x lion. however he stuffed it up somehow and now my mac just displays the question mark when started. i tried to select the boot device but no drivers are selectable after i hold down the option key whilst starting the mac

mac g5

Posted on Mar 9, 2015 4:37 AM

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Q: i recently lent my mac g5 to a friend so that they could install os x lion. however he stuffed it up somehow and now my mac just d ... more

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  • by Brian Nesse,

    Brian Nesse Brian Nesse Mar 9, 2015 7:22 AM in response to brundan88
    Level 4 (3,007 points)
    Mar 9, 2015 7:22 AM in response to brundan88

    Lion doesn't support your G5 Mac. Your system probably has no OS installed on it at the moment.

  • by Antonio Rocco,

    Antonio Rocco Antonio Rocco Mar 20, 2015 3:02 AM in response to brundan88
    Level 6 (10,586 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 20, 2015 3:02 AM in response to brundan88

    I hate to be the possible bearer of bad news but your friend may have even wiped (deleted everything) the drive prior to re-installing. If there's nothing of value on your drive then you've nothing to worry about other than trying to get an OS the hardware supports back on the hard drive.

     

    Whenever I've seen this happen it's usually because someone has tried to 'upgrade' the existing OS first. This approach fails because the Lion Installer will say something like "the hardware does not meet the installer's minimum requirements". At that point your friend should have handed it back to you and it would effectively have remained untouched and hopefully still working as it was before you handed it over. However your friend may have got confused by the failed installation and attempted a reformat and install. He/she may have even attempted this next step without backing up the data that's already on the hard drive first. By the time he/she have formatted the drive and gone back to the installer it will be too late. I hope for your sake you friend has (a) backed it up and (b) not formatted the drive. There is also a possibility the installation failed because of long-standing drive/directory issues which then disabled the existing OS. Hopefully this could mean your data should still be intact and safe.