? and folder on start-up

[sdk8505]

My 2017 MacBook Pro runs fine using a docking station or most times if I leave it open. But, if I close it, when I reopen it I get the ? and folder. I try the command R and it rarely shows the hard drive to repair. If I shut it down and try restarting it, it will start up normally after many tries. Any ideas?

 

[Rod]

Well, normally that folder with the question mark in it indicates that no startup volume can be found. That is, either the hard drive (Macintosh HD) has died or become corrupted.
In your case it could be that the HD just cannot be found immediately but having to repeatedly restart does not bode well.
Does the computer work normally after it successfully restarts? If so then the HD may be okay but it may be suffering some other hardware issue.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

My 2017 MacBook Pro runs fine using a docking station or most times if I leave it open. But, if I close it, when I reopen it I get the ? and folder. I try the command R and it rarely shows the hard drive to repair. If I shut it down and try restarting it, it will start up normally after many tries. Any ideas?

Apple suggests that when that happens that you run Disk Utility/First Aid:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204323

and you should definitely do this.

But I'd be worried that the internal (boot) hard drive is failing, so I'd run this to check on its health:

DriveDX - free demo
http://binaryfruit.com/drivedx
Any time it shows any drive errors in yellow or red, it is correlated with a drive that's questionable.

If you have any suspicion whatsoever that your hard drive is failing, you should do a complete backup of your data.

 

[ferrarr]

Also maybe give NVRAM and SMC resets?

How to reset the NVRAM, PRAM, and SMC on any Mac

If you're experiencing weird glitches with your Mac, resetting the NVRAM or SMC might help. Here's how to do it.

www.macworld.com