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Having to restart computer often. A question mark on a folder sometimes appear.

Having to restart iMac often. A question mark on a folder sometimes appears.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Aug 30, 2015 11:30 AM

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Posted on Aug 30, 2015 11:44 AM

Looks like a disk problem. Maybe your disk is dying.

Start DiskUtilty (in the Utilities folder).

select your main disk (not the partition under it),

click "Repair Disk" button

Whatever comes out, make backups immediately (if you not already have), and prepare to have your disk replaced.

8 replies

Sep 1, 2015 1:17 AM in response to sanlou

If you are not already, it would be prudent to keep a reliable up-to-date backup of all your data, either via Time Machine or a clone of your HD, so that if the drive does fail you can easily restore if your HD does fail.

Sometimes the question mark appears during boot if the OS is struggling to find the startup disk. Doing the following can help re-establish the path to the startup disk: go to System Preferences>Start up Disk and click on Macintosh HD (you may need to unlock the preference to be able to do this by clicking on the padlock icon an inputting your admin password). Once you have selected the Macintosh HD restart as normal.

Sep 1, 2015 10:25 AM in response to sanlou

Does it start normally now: make backups.

If it does not: when you succeed in starting make backups before you do anything else..

Prepare for a replacement.

To have more inrmation: you can run an app that has predictive formulas: the only one that is good (but does not repair, only predicts) that I know and use often, is DriveDx, download the trial and see what it has to say: http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

you can save the report from its menu (the app starts in the menubar). If you want you can post the report here. My time however is very scarce these weeks, but I will have a look everyday.

Lex

Sep 2, 2015 7:05 AM in response to Lexiepex

Appears to be starting up with no problems after shutting down over night or for an extended period of time. It seems when it goes into sleep mode it freezes and I need to shut it down. Then I have problems restarting. I did disk repair and no issues appeared and did the start up disk as you recommended.

When you say disk problem do you mean the hard drive? Sorry for my ignorance....

Having to restart computer often. A question mark on a folder sometimes appear.

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