Flashing question mark at startup? please HELP!!!

Dear ALL,

I am an active Apple user, MAc Pro, iPad, iPhone......

I am using MAcPro with 260GB capacity which today was almost full. was planning a clean up, but i have a flashing question mark on screen and can not switch mac on further than that flashing sign. Tried Manual advise - switch on while pressing Option(alt) key, then click on HD sign and the right arrow. It goes till clicking on HD sign and then grey screen for a while, followed by shut down. Appreciate your kind advise in advance. Best regards!

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Can be a number of problems. By today's standards that is a very small hard drive. Full hard drive can cause this problem as a drive requires a minimum of 15% free space to work anywhere near well, failed hard drive and/or corrupted OS. You do of course have the install disc?

Start up from that and run Repair Disk for starters, and if all is well, boot from Apple Hardware Test and run that.

Many thanks for advise,
have to say that - i do not have install cds, never came in pack.

is there a way to download it online or ...?

Appreciate your help!
J

Well, you need install disks in order to do any kind of trouble shooting on your Mac Pro. I suggest buying a set or call Apple and ask them to send you a replacement set specific for your machine. (You didn't give us any info on which Mac Pro you have or what version of OS X you're running on it.) OS X disk sets can be expensive so be prepared to spend some $$.

And no, they can't be legally downloaded. (I think you already know that.)

J_MAC said:

Dear ALL,

I am an active Apple user, MAc Pro, iPad, iPhone......

I am using MAcPro with 260GB capacity which today was almost full.

Click to expand...

I think you've answered your own question there.

Mac OS X needs room to operate, for all kinds of temp files, cache files and other stuff. There's an old (and inaccurate) saw that says you need to keep 20% of the drive free at all times; that's probably excessive, but at least it's erring on the side of caution.

If the drive really was almost completely full, then the OS can't start up because there's no room for it to.

You'll need to boot off your bootable backup clone (which OF COURSE you have) or your system discs (which you have been lax in not getting, this is exactly what they're for) to delete or move excess files until you can get back to at *least* 12GB or so free. Then all you should need to do is repair permissions and you're very likely to be back in business.

Tip: Since you have a Mac Pro, just run out and buy a retail copy of Snow Leopard. The SL disc will function as a boot disc and let you move stuff off, and if you're not already on Snow Leopard you really should be. You'll want to also get a copy of iLife to complete your "system restore" kit, but I'd recommend you wait a few days on buying iLife ...

Dear ALL, many thanks for kind responses and advises.
I tried all ways of starting up, holding different keys.... none worked to start up. Today went to apple store and got an advise to try to connect another mac via firewire800 cable and use my macbook pro as HD. I did and managed to get my files out to another macbook. At least solved data problem. Also deleted most of files from my macpro and made more space - 12GB is free now my info. But can not find a trash via this connection in order to empty that as well.

According to genius guy at apple store - if HD works this way and data is transferable, then HD is OK, Problem is most probably somehow start up disk is unknown and changed etc.... How can I really go into system prefernces of my macpro via firewire connection with other mac?

I am sorry that did not give full details of MacPro, it must be similar to below bat with more capacity and memory i guess:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Thanks and kindest regards, J