The Dreaded Flashing Folder with Question Mark Icon

Mijn probleem

My computer was working great then all of a sudden...WHAM! I have the question mark folder flashing at me after I had to do a hard reset because EVERYTHING froze! I called Apple. They took me through the normal steps of repairing it, etc. That worked! Everything was going well and then...WHAM! the flashing folder is there again after another hard reset because it froze, 3 hours after I got off the phone. Naturally, I take the steps the Apple adviser used to get my computer back to life....didn't work this time. I searched the internet for a solution thinking my hard drive went bad and of course I didn't have a recent back up (BACK UP FREQUENTLY!) Then I thought it was my fan because of how hot the computer was getting and started to price them out. In the midst of pricing, I thought, let me just Google search this flashing folder one more time. Thank God I did! I ended up finding all the posts that talked about the hard drive cable and seeing people where having the same exact problem I was - no hard drive to be found anywhere, even in the Internet Recovery Disk Utility. To test the theory of the cable, I swapped out hard drives with one I knew worked, the computer still didn't see it, connected my original hard drive externally via USB, and it worked like charm. I even verified the disk and the permissions after I was able to back everything up - no problems there. I was convinced, it was the cable. Thank God iFixit has them, they seem to be hard to come by! I ordered the cable on a Saturday, it was a holiday that Monday, that Tuesday, I was fixing my computer....

Mijn oplossing

Again, I have to give props to the iFixit site. The iFixit: Repair Manual App walked me through finding the right size screw driver to being careful with pulling the adhesive cable off the top of the case. Altogether, the repair took about 20 mins to do. Very simple. Now, my computer is running great! As I have told people, $50 part to save my $1100 computer....WIN!

Mijn advies

If you find yourself with the flashing folder icon, think outside the box a little. It might not be the most obvious thing. Don't rush out to Best Buy and get a new hard drive with out doing some deep searching. Always remember, Google is your friend and most likely, some one, some where, is having the same problem you are, or is posting about how they solved yours/their issue.