Flashing Question Mark

Question

Flashing Question Mark

I have a Mid-2007 Macbook that has a gray flashing question mark on it when I startup the computer. I've tried putting the computer into internet recovery mode (command+R) and it still goes to the question mark. I read that holding down the alt-option button at startup may also help and I when I do that the flashing question mark does not appear but nothing else does either. I've read quite a few posts on this topic but haven't found anything successful yet. The only thing I haven't tried is to re-install Lion because I would need to find a physical disc to do this. Has anyone had any luck solving this problem or re-installing Lion using a disc or thumb drive where Lion was downloaded from another computer?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 2, 2016 9:40 AM

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Answer 1

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,180 points

Aug 15, 2016 2:34 PM in response to calebfromstillwater

ok, maybe I can help you...the flashing question mark means that your Mac can't find a bootable drive to start up from

if you hold down the option key when you reboot you should see, eventually a list of all drives, bootable and otherwise'

--so, what to do?? You'd need a copy of Lion, as you mentioned or at least Snow Leopard on a DVD. if you have/can find a Lion Installer, you can make a bootable USB drive or maybe a DVD of it. Oddly enough, Lion exists only as a digital download (no dvd's) as do most OS downloads from then on. If you downloaded it previously from the App store

find another Mac, login there with your Apple ID and password and you will be able to re-download Lion, otherwise I think it's $20 but you have to call 'em and ask for a special Lion download code.If the hard drive is not working well, then maybe the Recovery partition isn't working well either, and so pressing command+r to boot from that might not work. maybe press Command+Option+R after you've plugged in an Ethernet cable (Internet Recovery)

good luck to you

John B

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