flashing question mark at startup

[donwolt88]

I am looking at a 13” macbook pro (2012 I believe) that belongs to a family friend who is not good at keeping backups. She has the flashing ? inside a folder when she turns on the mac. We have used command R to boot to the OS X Utilities window and have tried the following:
First , Disk Utility, where it does show the hard drive as “disk0” and “Mac OS X Base System”. When selecting “Mac OS X Base System”, I do see Verify Disk as an option and when I click on that, it shows “the volume of Mac OS X Base System appears to be ok”. After verifying, the button for repair disk is still grayed out. If I select disk0, all the buttons are grayed out

Next, I reboot and get back to the OS X Utilities window and select Restore, when I get to where I am supposed to select a startup disk, there are no options shown

I have been searching through Apple Support but am not getting past this.

Is there a way to create a bootable external hard drive that I can use to boot the mac and attempt to retrieve her data from the hard drive?

Any suggestions on how to boot this mac up and is there any hope for retrieving data?

Thanks for any suggestions or guidance

 

[IWT]

I'm really sorry you're having this problem.

When you see a flashing question mark on your Mac's screen at startup, it nearly always means your Mac can't find its system software.

You have already done good things to get it sorted, but give the linked article below a careful read. It's quite long and detailed. You have covered some of the items, but there are several more. Give them a shot.

I have to say that if there aren't any recent Backups and you can't boot at all, then the chances of data recovery are small and/or expensive.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204323

Best of luck. Post back at any time.

Ian

 

[MacInWin]

Also, Disk0 is the base drive and Mac OS X Base System is the recovery partition. If that's all you see, the drive has lost the partition information for the rest of the drive, which is where her data and the operating system is stored. As Ian said, the outlook isn't good.

 

[pigoo3]

Is there a way to create a bootable external hard drive that I can use to boot the mac and attempt to retrieve her data from the hard drive?

This is exactly what I would do first...especially if what's on the internal HD is very important.

What member IWT mentioned is right on the money...not being able to "find" the system software to boot from is one possibility for the flashing "?". Doing the booting from external HD step is the least invasive way to troubleshoot at this point (since booting into the Recovery Partiton didn't help).

If after booting the computer from the external HD...the internal HD still cannot be read/seen...this could mean bigger issues.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

A 2nd method that can be done (if a 2nd computer is available)...the storage device in the 2012 MacBook Pro can be removed & placed in an external housing...then this is plugged into computer #2 for examination.

- Nick

 

[donwolt88]

Thank you Ian for your response to my questions. I had found that article and did try to step through the procedures. That is where I hit the dead ends of no where to go after verifying the disk and also no options shown for startup disk when following the restore procedures.

I also noted the option to erase the external drive and then install MacOS onto the external drive (#2 under “If Disk Utility can’t repair your startup disk) but I cannot find instructions to do that. If I connect the EHD and select it under disk utility restore, the options are asking for a disk image source and destinations??

 

[gsahli]

The Restore option is for restoring from one drive to another. If you don't have an already complete drive, this option does nothing. Mac OS doesn't have a complete installer saved on a partition of the drive like many Windows installations do.

 

[donwolt88]

Thanks to others also. I do have a clean ext hard drive and I also have my macbook pro. Can anyone point me to some detailed instructions for the options of either creating and using an external hard drive to boot the mac, or to connect the hard drive to my mac

 

[pigoo3]

Thanks to others also. I do have a clean ext hard drive and I also have my macbook pro. Can anyone point me to some detailed instructions for the options of either creating and using an external hard drive to boot the mac, or to connect the hard drive to my mac

I could write down instructions...but this article says pretty much all you need to know:

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/mac-os-x/install-boot-and-run-mac-os-x-from-an-external-hard-drive/

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

The Restore option is for restoring from one drive to another. If you don't have an already complete drive, this option does nothing.

If data recover is one of the main aims and if enough other Mac and equipment is available, "Target Disk Mode" should provide a recovery method and possibly a working OS X install.

Basically with using TDM, the non booting MBPro will just act like an external hard drive.




- Patrick
======

 

[donwolt88]

Thanks once again for the input. I ordered a thunderbolt cable to try the TDM suggestion. I will see how that works in a couple days.

When formatting the external hard drive on my mbp, I find no mention or sign of the GUID partition option

Don

 

[MacInWin]

In Disk Utility, highlight the hardware line, not the partition name, to see the GUID setting. You may have to go to the top bar and under View select View All Devices to have the hardware level display for you. GUID is set when partitioning, not formatting. When you partition it, you'll have the option to select GUID.

 

[pm-r]

When you partition it, you'll have the option to select GUID.

And you may even need to set the partition to "1" (or "One") as a minimum to get the option to work.

Don't shoot the massager but you can always try asking Apple — why???




- Patrick
======

 

[donwolt88]

Update, using a thunderbolt cable and Target Disk Mode from my MBP, I was able to see files on the hard drive and to easily copy to an external hard drive. Now, to continue with the original flashing question mark problem, but without the issue of being concerned about recovering un-backed up files. Thanks again for suggestions.

 

[ferrarr]

We need to identify your exact model MBP? You say 13” in your original post, and listed under your ID you say 15 inch, which is it? Also, if it is a 15”, then we need to know if it is a retina model, or non-retina model? See ifixit.com for repair/replacement guides, https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro, make sure you find the correct size and model.

 

[donwolt88]

The MBP with the problem is not my 15" MBP, it is a family friend's 13" MBP. I believe it to be only slightly newer than mine so I am suspecting it to be a mid 2012 & non-retina. I believe I saw files dating back to 2014. I will get exact info from it when I see them again later this week. thanks