Why would I get a folder with a question mark after installing a new hard drive and OS?

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Level 1

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Why would I get a folder with a question mark after installing a new hard drive and OS?

I started getting a blinking folder with a question mark in the middle during start-up yesterday. I reviewed all the posts about possible root cause and resolutions. Yesterday, I installed a new hard-drive and installed OS X Yosemite on the new hard-drive. After doing so, was able to successfully bring the machine up and used it for several hours. I shut the machine down last night. When I turned the machine on this morning, I again received the folder with the question mark in the middle!!! Any idea's on why this would be the case after installing a new hard-drive?????

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 6, 2015 6:24 AM

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Answer 1

D.Cohen

Level 6

8,588 points

May 6, 2015 6:28 AM in response to JBNelson

Take a look at this page: A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support

Try restarting your Mac in Safe mode:

- Shut down your Mac

- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button

- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key

- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign

- Once you see Desktop, start a Disc Utility scan to detect and repair file system errors (don't forget to choose your main hard drive)

- Click on Verify Disc and then, if asked to fix problems, on Repair Disk

- After this, click on Verify Disc Permissions and then on Repair Disc Permissions

- After the process is finished, shut down your Mac and turn it back on after about 30 seconds

Hope this helps!

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Answer 2

JBNelson Author

Level 1

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May 6, 2015 8:04 AM in response to D.Cohen

Thanks D.Cohen. I will give this a try. My concern is that I went through the exercise of installing a new hard-drive and a fresh copy of OS X and everything was working fine for several hours and several shut-down and restarts. It was only this morning that the blinking folder with the question mark showed again.

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Answer 3

JBNelson Author

Level 1

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May 6, 2015 4:03 PM in response to D.Cohen

I followed your suggested steps but still no luck.

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Answer 4

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 6, 2015 4:15 PM in response to JBNelson

Your MBP may have a faulty SATA cable. Take out the Boot drive and install it in an enclosure. Connect it ti the MBP via USB and boot the MBP via startup manager:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417

If there is no indication of the '?', then that indicates the connecting SATA cable is faulty. It is not expensive to replace it.

Ciao.

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