sheldonj

Q: Folder with ? at startup... Recover Data?

Hey,

I have a friend who's MacBook is not booting up, all that happens is a folder with a question mark is on the screen. This is likely the OS just is messed up or corrupt right? Is it possible to pull the hard drive and recover files? I know I've done this with Windows PC's... with a SATA to USB adapter. I haven't taken a look at this yet, was just curious if it would work the same way? Pull the hard drive... and connect it to another Mac using the SATA to USB adapter

Posted on May 8, 2015 10:18 PM

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Q: Folder with ? at startup... Recover Data?

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  • by Brett L,

    Brett L Brett L May 10, 2015 2:36 PM in response to sheldonj
    Community Specialists
    May 10, 2015 2:36 PM in response to sheldonj

    Greetings sheldonj,

     

    If your friend is getting the flashing "?" on startup, there are a number of possible causes. I would suggest that they troubleshoot using the steps in this article first -

     

    A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac - Apple Support

     

    Start at the section titled If your Mac doesn't get past the flashing question mark.

     

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

     

    Be well,

     

    Brett L 

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE May 11, 2015 4:16 AM in response to sheldonj
    Level 9 (52,516 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 11, 2015 4:16 AM in response to sheldonj

    sheldonj wrote:

    This is likely the OS just is messed up or corrupt right?

    Possibly but usually the problem lies with the HDD or the SATA connecting cable.

    Is it possible to pull the hard drive and recover files?

    Yes. You can pull the HDD and connect it to another Mac and pull off the data if the HDD is not corrupt.

     

    Ciao.

  • by sheldonj,

    sheldonj sheldonj May 12, 2015 11:01 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2015 11:01 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    I have the unbootable MacBook Pro with me now... It looks like the drive is encrypted, but doesn't accept the user's AppleID password to unlock... any suggestions? Or is she out of luck and lost all info on the drive?

  • by sheldonj,

    sheldonj sheldonj May 12, 2015 2:27 PM in response to sheldonj
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2015 2:27 PM in response to sheldonj

    I came across an article where it suggested going into Terminal and using the command 'diskutil corestorage list' to find the Logical Volume ID, here beside Revertible it said Yes (unlock and decryption required). I then tried the command 'diskutil corestorage unlockVolume <entered UUID found above> -stdinpassphrase and entered the Apple ID password when prompted. But I got the following error:

     

    Error beginning CoreStorage Logical Volume unlock: The target Core Storage volume is not locked (-69748)

  • by sheldonj,

    sheldonj sheldonj May 12, 2015 2:58 PM in response to sheldonj
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2015 2:58 PM in response to sheldonj

    I did the above in Recovery Mode... and going into Terminal from there.