The ? and what it Means

.......on Mac startup

Okay...well if you have been using your Mac for awhile, and got a ? upon startup, well then you DO have a problem. Basically your Mac cannot locate a valid System in your system folder. Something you did VERY wrong destroyed your Operating System. This can be caused by type-41 errors, system bombs or directory problems or simply moving critical files outside your system folder. Basically there are some fixes you can try-but don't hold your breath while trying to fix this. If you are a fortunate sort, when you insert a Macintosh system CD and restart, you won't get a message that your hard disk is unreadable and has to be formatted. If you have critical data, and haven't backed it up-this means you either reformat your hard disk at this point, losing ALL your software and settings, or you take your computer to a specialist who performs data recovery. You NEED TO BACK UP ALL YOUR DATA ON A REGULAR BASIS-THIS INCLUDES EMAIL AND BROWSER BOOKMARKS.......to another source, like another disk-or recordable media such as a cd-rom via a disk burner, or a zip disk. Few people back up to floppy disks anymore.

TRY THIS FIRST- Shut down your Mac, walk away for 5 minutes and then restart. how to properly power down once a forced shut down was necessary. I'm sure you already know, but one way I found is to put in an OS X installer disk, go to Startup Disk utility and select Shut Down from the menu. In OS X your only real repair option is to boot from a diskwarrior cd and repair disk. Sometimes all the Mac needs is to be restarted. In the case of Hard disk recognition, the hard disk needs to be completely spun down before the OS will recognize it. If this works, breathe a sigh of relief. You're saved. This works really well in cases where you shut down your Mac during a startup procedure. When you restart you get a question mark. Shutting down for 5 minutes almost always works in this case. Sometimes this works in other instances as well such as you cannot connect to the internet when everything else is just fine. Try it!

If your hard drive is making groaning, or rubbing, squealing, etc. or any new noise this is a strong symptom of imminent hard drive failure. A failing hard drive can also spuriously cause question mark restarts. The best thing to do is drive down to Best Buy or Office Max and get a new hard drive. Oh and here is a good time to remind you to back up ALL your data.

There is a limited means of recovery using either Tech Tool Pro or Norton Utilities or Alsoft Diskwarrior is best for OS X. Make sure you have a version compatable with your operating system version. As I prefer Norton Utilities, I recommend this utility myself for OS 9 and Alsoft Diskwarrior for OS X. You may be able to have your unreadable disk recognized in Norton Utilities-Disk Doctor IF you have simply dropped the Norton Shared LIb into your OS 9 system extensions folder BEFORE this problem occured. AND this is what I recommend with Norton Utilities, also not to install the utilities on your system software of your hard disk, as many of the Norton Utility extensions are useless except for the Norton Shared lib file. You also must boot from the Norton Disk in order for any of the utilities to do a thorough repair of your hard disk anyway. Therefore it's pretty useless to install software on your system that you really won't use in any event.

Okay so you boot up from the Norton Disk, having previously installed the Norton Shared Lib in your extensions folder. Then proceed to run Disk doctor multiple times until you get a run-through free of errors, then run Speed Disk to Defragment your drive. Consider yourself LUCKY if this is the case. Also perform a clean install of the operating system, and carefully drag your unique extensions into the new System Folder-as this will insure your System Software will function normally. If not, your only hope is to launch File Saver and rebuild disk directories. You will probably get at least some of your files recovered. You may also find issues with cross-linked files because you HAVE to run Disk Doctor on a recovered disk-and it will likely report cross-linking (files overlapping one another). This will not prove satisfactory either-unless you have a second hard disk or partitioned hard disk showing on the desktop in which you can drag selected saved files (such as your email and browser preferences-to save your email and bookmarks-or other sensitive data). Then run Disk Doctor on the hard disk you dragged your files into, hopefully to remove cross-linking of files. DO NOT EVER RUN APPLE DISK FIRST AID ON A HARD DISK THAT HAS CROSS-LINKED FILES!!! Disk First Aid is amateur at best, no matter what Apple says, or what your friends tell you, and Disk first aid will crash if it is EVER run on a hard disk with cross-linked files, AND it will also remove permanently ANY ability of yours to perform ANY data recovery.

Best bet is to have your hard disk professionally data recovered. THIS IS VERY EXPENSIVE. I personally will not proceed with a hard disk recovery beyond the ability of Norton Disk Doctor to recognize an unrecognizeable hard disk, or if Norton reports cross-linked files and there is no secondary hard disk with enough free space to work on to properly restore your data (IF Norton Shared Lib was previously installed in System Extensions folder-and IF Norton Disk Doctor recognizes it). I will recommend to a client to have their disk professionally recovered elsewhere, or I will reformat (means ALL your data is lost)-and reinstall at $50.00 per hour (or you will). I've had one too many crazed clients who load up their hard disks with data, never defragment their drives, never rebuild their desktop, never run a commercial repair utility. I will not be responsible for your data on this issue bacause you took poor care of it......Period-no discussion. Don't like it? Neither do I....trust me on this. You will either do a reasonably good job of maintaining your Mac, or tough beans. All the screaming, cajoling, or other techniques designed to make me work magic is useless.

While I'm on the subject of this issue...ALWAYS format a new Hard Disk using Apple's own Drive Setup utility in OS 9, which should be located in your utilities folder (unless you moved it as this is the default install. Just boot from an OS X install cd/dvd in the case of OS X. In OS 9 Do a Sherlock search for Drive Setup if you can't locate it. Using ANY third-party utility to format a hard disk is a recipe for disaster-as if Apple releases an update to your OS, the OS updater will be unable to update your hard disk driver for that hard disk. That's just plain trouble, any way you look at it. If someone tells you otherwise, and you listen to that-well don't say you haven't been warned by a professional tech support specialist if you have read this..

WHEN YOU INSTALL LOTS OF SOFTWARE ON A Mac, ALWAYS RUN DISK DOCTOR FROM THE NORTON CD THEN RUN SPEED DISK TO ELIMINATE FILE FRAGMENTATION....BACK UP YOUR DATA ON A REGULAR BASIS.......BACK UP YOUR DATA ON A REGULAR BASIS