Fix Folder with question mark on :Mac Repair startup disk

 

Repair startup disk

If your Mac stays on the flashing folder with question mark all the time, it indicates your Mac is in trouble. But don’t worry, if it is caused by a software issue, you have a good chance to fix it by yourself. Follow these steps to identify whether it is a software issue.

1. Turn off your Mac by pressing and holding the power button for at least 5 seconds.

2. Press the power button once to turn your Mac back on. Immediately press and hold the Command and Option and R keys on your MacBook keyboard to start your Mac from macOS Recovery. Keep these three keys held down until you see the Wi-Fi network screen. 

3. Select a Wi-Fi network and key in the password to connect to the Internet. A copy of the macOS Disk Utilities will be automatically downloaded from Apple’s server to your Mac.

4. Upon finish download, your Mac will run the macOS Utilities and the macOS Utilities screen appears. 

5. Open the Disk Utility from the macOS Utilities windows, if your disk is shown under the internal section on the top left-hand side, your Mac most likely has a software-related issue. If you don’t have any disk listing under the internal section, your Mac definitely has a hardware-related issue. This means your Mac cannot communicate with the hard disk drive at all. Jump to the hardware section below if you have a hardware issue.

6. In the Disk Utility window, select your startup disk and click the First Aid tab.

 

7. Click the Repair Disk button to verify and repair any issues. If Repair Disk reports issues such as bad sections, you have a hardware issue. This hardware issue is not fatal so you can still see the disk. If the data is important and you don’t have a backup, you may need a professional backup service now. If you are confident in the backup by yourself, go to the data backup section directly.

8. After your disk is successfully repaired, quit Disk Utility.

9. Choose Startup Disk from the Apple menu, select your startup disk and click restart. 

You should be able to boot your Mac if your hard disk only has a mirror software issue. If you still can not boot your Mac, you may need to reinstall the macOS.

Note: If Disk Utility finds issues with your startup disk that it can’t repair, you may need to reformat the hard disk. You should back up any important data on your startup hard disk before erasing it. We discuss the backup procedure in the next section.