Q: Re: Flashing Folder icon with Question Mark

If you've tried the suggestions noted above nearly 5 years ago, short of the

final one to replace a defective hard drive with a new one, there's not much

to say. The iFixit repair guides for portable Mac can help to see the level of

difficulty these can be and they usually show the minimal tools. If one has

fairly good skills and dexterity, to swap out a hard drive without causing

further damages is possible. When using pre-owned parts or cast-offs be

aware the hard drive in a portable computer can fail much sooner than that

in a desktop model. Figure a few years runtime, forgoing accidents.

MacBook Pro repair guides - iFixit:

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro

An older MacBook Pro that shipped with Tiger OS X 10.4 (intel) version may

need to have the RAM memory chip total also increased or upgraded for the

newer Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.3 to run adequately. Also at least 160GB HDD.

Then you'd need compatible applications, as the retail 10.6.3 has no iLife/iWork.

{Perhaps a Host will relocate your post from end of this old thread to one of its own.}

Good luck & happy trails!

The Snow Leopard retail disk will work with a 2006 MBP so long as these requirements are met:

https://support.apple.com/kb/sp575?locale=en_US

Note that so long as there is 5 GB of free space on the HDD,  minimum hard drive capacity is not a factor.

Ciao.

Because your reply to an old topic thread was rejuvenated into its 'own new thread'

the previous association may not be so clear to you now; the old discussion is here:

Flashing Folder icon with Question Mark

While I've an old 'first edition' MacBook1.1 13-inch 1.83GHz coreduo that shipped

with a version of Tiger 10.4 in early 2006 (as compared to a second model that year)

some similarity in configuration issues between these different models do exist. So

my suggestion to perhaps replace the hard drive with larger capacity (or be sure it

has suitable free-space, for use with temp swap files aka 'virtual memory' will help)

and also additional memory chip RAM upgrade to give it more capacity there, too.

An option your model had available when new, was a faster rotational HDD with a

spin-rate of 7200-RPM (compared to lower rate of 5400-RPM) and this is a good

upgrade if the one you have is the slower stock model hard drive. My old MacBook

has upgrade to RAM (max is 2GB in mine) & the HDD is 7200-RPM 160GB capacity.

This would be suitable for running Snow Leopard 10.6(.8) now, whereas the original

configuration was best suited for Tiger 10.4.x as-shipped in 2006.

One of the online sources for locating examples of upgrade or replacement parts

for your vintage macbook /pro is OWC: https://eshop.macsales.com/upgrades/

{Other sources for replacement parts in case the ones in your old mac are tired

can be from places such as powerbookmedic.com, where tested parts may be

available for less than some retail new prices. However avoid the troubles that

cutting corners may bring; the time to replace parts (if worn out ones put in) can

be a lost value. Sometimes to get a second computer that has different problems

so you can use that as a parts resource, may be an OK idea. If not too costly.

You mention a limited budget; and I'm familiar with that situation.}

The iFixit guide can help one to perform DIY upgrade to both of these capacities;

replacement faster rotational SATA spec drives may depend on available sources.

Note sometimes helpful guides refer to display size, to use that to locate correct

repair guide is advised, see: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro

Good luck & happy computing!