MacBook Pro Flashing folder with ?

I’d go to Apple store first for a free diagnosis

I have the exact same MacBook as you (mine is late 2011, roughly same batch of garbage macs) and I have had this exact same problem multiple times. There could be several issues but usually it was the HD bracket cable that I think was getting over heated and malfunctioning.


I had had about $1000 in repairs on it after about 2 years of owning and apple is notorious for replacing parts with refurbished parts like hard drives.

My repairs of:

2-3 HD cables
2 hard drives (refurbished)
Completely replaced motherboard

Still I would get the blinking folder with question mark.

Your MacBook came with the old school hard drives and can't take heat or constant portability very well as it has moving parts.


If you want the computer to last, I suggest upgrading to an ssd and just buying multiple HD bracket cables to have on hand.


Fact is, these were very poorly designed computers, this mid to late 2011 group of MacBook pros. They were the last HDD macs sold. Mac tried to make the design compact but it doesn't recycle heat very well at all and it can cause a host of issues. The ssd should limit heat and even might make your computer run faster. Oh and for about $40 you can upgrade your RAM to 8 GB, that also helps.


Tl;Dr

Buy a HD bracket for $40, should fix your issue assuming no hard drive problems. If you have a SATA cable you can connect it to your HD and run the OS through the USB to see if everything is fine on the HD. If no, then I would bet money it's the HD bracket.

SATA cables are very cheap at most electronics stores.

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Ok a couple of questions after doing more reading up on this.
1) What is the simplest way to verify that there is no problems with the HDD?

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Get a SATA cable, remove the HDD from the laptop, connect the HDD to the SATA cable, other end can be hooked up to the USB. Boot your computer like you normally would except hold down option key at start up until you hear the chime. Go through steps and you should be able to select where you boot from, so your HDD should be showing up on that screen. Select the HDD, should run on the screen like it did before besides maybe being a little slower because its running from the USB port.

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2) Assuming my HDD is fine, if get the SATA-USB cable and connect my HDD externally, what will happen when I power on the computer? Is this just a way to bypass the hard drive cable completely? Will things boot normally?

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See above, yes it is, but its only temporary, you don't get the full processing power and speed from the USB that you do from the built in hardware.

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3) If am able to finally fix this problem, and I decide to keep my computer and want to upgrade to an SDD, what is the easiest way to copy everything from my HDD to the new SDD?

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External HD. If you're already on the fence about buying a new computer and you can afford it, then I would definitely go that route.

If you wanted to keep this mac around for simply an extra computer, you could put about $300 into it and it should be running pretty good with an SSD and upgraded RAM.

Only sort of annoying part is you would have to get the OSX on the SSD, so you have to partition it and all of that garbage which isn't difficult, it just takes time.

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I’m starting to fear the worst... but I suppose I will come back once more and get your thoughts. First of all, thanks for your help on this. It’s been a frustrating week, but I have learned a few things.

I followed your instructions above and could not get my computer to boot at all. So I borrowed someone’s MacBook and plugged the HDD into their computer via the SATA-USB.




Everywhere I look online, the hard drive shows up under the device (similarly to how Macintosh HD is shown under Toshiba for the internal). Is my hard drive toast? Any logical next steps to take if my new goal is to save some files on the HDD? Unfortunately, I think I am nearing the end of my DIY ability and time investment..

ETA: when I restarted the computer with the HDD still plugged in to the USB..

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Holy shite. Sorry, I totally forgot about this thread. Tech board isn't one of my regular visits on here.


Looks like the HDD is showing up...can you select it and boot from it though? Holding down the option key should bring you to a screen on your mac where you can select which drive to boot from. If not, then that might be your problem and if it is I'd go the SSD route and that's a quit $200 fix that might even improve your computer.


Ultimately, like I said before, it would be wise to just invest in a new laptop, but definitely do some research if you're looking at a new macbook. I know apple hasn't updated their hardware for quite sometime now but they're still charging people like everything is the latest and greatest tech.

If its not the HDD, then it might be a bunch of other garbage that just isn't worth getting into because you'll end up paying the full cost of a new computer in repair costs.


I'll be sure to check back this time around. Sorry I didn't get to this.