Q: I get a flashing question mark when you start my Mac - What do I do??

• My machine does not fully turn on - after a few minutes I just get a folder with a ? inside it.
• My machine does not fully turn on - it just gets stuck at the progress bar

Context

• If a Macintosh machine is unable to find a system file or software required to start up, it will display a flasing icon with a question mark at startup. Two things might happen after this, either the machine will start up after a while or it will continue to display this icon.

Answer

**Please note the following instructions are for machines running macOS 10.9 and higher.**

• If the machine eventually starts up, follow the following steps to fix the problem:

1. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences.
2. In System Preferences, from the View menu, select Startup Disk.
3. In the Startup Disk preference pane, select the volume and/or operating system you want to start from by clicking its icon once.
   Restart your computer. When the computer restarts, there should no longer be a delay before the normal startup process begins.

• If the machine does not start up, please visit this Apple Knowledge Base article for more information. You can also visit the IS&T Service Desk at E17-106 - open Monday-Friday 8am to 5pm.