Blinking Question Mark Folder

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i am working on a Mac G5 that has a apparent hard drive issue. When I start the G5 it chimes and the Apple logo appears and the little wheel just spins and spins and never loads the OS. When i remove the hard drive and replace it and reboot the G5 i now get a blinking folder with a question mark. I tried several different replacement drives and get the same question mark icon. However, when i put the original hard drive back in I at least get the Apple logo and the spinning wheel..but still no OS loads......what up with dat...???
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
Do the other replacement HDDs have Mac OSX installed on them? The blinking folder means that it can't find the Operating system. Sounds like your original HDD kicked the bucket as well.
 

dtravis7


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Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Quick question. Is this an iMac G5 or tower PowerMac G5?
 
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make sure that the format of the hard drive is mac os extended journaled ..
and when your turn on the mac hold the option button before "dueengg" sound ..
until the boot option appear, choose the mac hard drive default (macintosh hd)
 
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FYI - Heres what worked for me. I had access to a similar G5 so I put a working hard drive in it and installed the OS ( Leopard 10.5) on the hard drive.
I then removed the hard drive and put it into the other G5 that i was having problems and it booted right up OS an and all. It appears to be working ?????!! Any comments or insights would be greatly appreciated. Is what i did the best remedy for this type of issue????
 

robduckyworth


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15" MBP, 2.5GHz i7, 750GB, 6770M 1GB, iPad 3, iPhone 4, custom PC
your hard drive is failing. they can be very temperamental.
 

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