iMac 24" startup problems

[rhodzy]

Hi everyone

Has anyone had the issue when starting there iMac up where they get a flashing folder with a question mark?

I had it recently and was causing me nothing but grief. In the end i decided to leave it turned off for about 1 hour and went back with no hope of it coming back to life, after reading all over the net it sounded like it could be a faulty installation (well got corrupt) or fault HDD. But when i powered it back up it worked first time and i could log in successfully, I ran a system update and installed all the updates that were waiting for me. Ran a disk and permissions check which returned no errors.

I havent had any more problems with it up to date so maybe the system update fixed the issue.

How many other users have had this issue?

 

[BigTimeNexusFan]

If it does it again I would suspect a hard drive about to go bad.

 

[lilac]

I agree with BigTimeNexusFan.

Apple use the same error image on iPods and I unfortunately learned first hand that the image signified that the hard drive was not long for this world. Definitely start backing up anything you can!

 

[The_Gnome_]

Yep, the folder with the '?' means it can't find the drive needed for OS startup. If it didn't work and then worked again later I'd suspect the hard drive either has a loose connection (unlikely), or is nearing a horrid death.

Make a good back up with time machine asap!