My mac is showing me a grey screen with a flashing folder icon in the middle alternating the finder icon and a question mark.I dont have the osx disc

Restart from the system disk of the system you want to install. Put the disk in the drive then start up with the C key pressed down until a screen appears. Install system from there.

Your PB can't find the system. Most likely you hard drive is no longer working. To check that this is the case, start up from the discs that came with your computer.You will need to replace the hard drive then re-install the operating system off those discs. I hope you had a backup of your data!

It appears there may be a possible startup item or issue with your firmware, which may be causing this issue, so I am going to provide some procedures in order to help you resolve this gray screen issue. But first, let me help you remove that disc first:

font.f1 {font: 13.0px Myriad Pro} font.f2 {font: 14.0px Myriad Pro} Procedure #1 - Ejecting CD from drive
Here are some steps I recommend you try to resolve the issue with the disc not ejecting properly

• Reboot your Mac
• Hold down your Mouse button(s) prior to the Apple Chime
• Keep holding the mouse button down while your Mac boots up
• The disc should eject before you reach your Desktop
• When it does, simply release your mouse buttons.
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If this does not help resolve ejecting the disc in your Macbook's drive, you are going to have to take more of a command-line approach:

font.f1 {font: 12.0px Helvetica} -EJECTING DISC USING TERMINAL-

From your Desktop:
•Click anywhere on a blank space on your desktop. Now you should see Finder listed near the Apple menu icon.

• From the Finder menu, click on Go, then Utilities from the
drop-down menu. This will take you to your Utilities folder.

• Locate and open the Terminal utility
• At prompt, type: drutil eject

• Now press the Return key on your keyboard

(NOTE: If you have a CD/DVD drive with a tray, type: drutil tray open press the Return key on your keyboard )en
• This command line should eject the disc from the drive, unless there are mechanical issues with the drive within your Macbook.
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At this point the disc should be ejected from your Macbook. If this is the case, then I will now need to direct you back to Safe Boot mode, but with a little twist, from what you may have tried when you last when to Safe Mode:
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I am going to have you take your Mac into Safe Mode to see if we can't remove a possible folder(s) that may be affecting your Mac's start up function.

Try these steps:
-SAFE BOOT MODE-
• Reboot your Mac
• Upon restarting your Mac, press the Shift key.
• Hold the Shift key until you see a White Screen with Gray Apple icon and eventually a spinning gear.
• When you see the Spinning gear, release the Shift key.
• Allow the Mac to continue booting up. Also this may take a little while.
(NOTE: this may take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to load to the Safe mode screen depending on the performance of your Mac, but if it exceeds this time, shutdown your Mac and try just once more. It may have just frozen up the first time around for you.)
• You are going to enter the Safe Mode (which looks like your main desktop environment the only difference is certain start up items are disabled.)

• Once within the Desktop in Safe Mode
• From the Finder Menu, click Go> Go to Folder
• Type in this line: /System/Library/StartupItems
• This path, is going to take you to the System Library folder which has all of your Mac OS X Startupitems.
• Remove all of those folders to the Trash.

*Reboot your Mac normally and see if you can access your normal User desktop environment.

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Post back to me, if these particular Safeboot procedure does not help. Thanks!

Regards,

-Mactechtrainer

The mac software must have corrupted. It may also contain infection, try reinstalling it.

Try using your OS disc, insert in your computer , power it on while holding down the C key.
You should be able get it running via the CD. Access the Disk Utiltity and attempt to repair your hard drive. If no luck, Disk Warrior may get your drive back.

Hello, The blinking file folder with the question mark can happen when the computer doesn't "see" your System. It can be caused by a faulty hard drive, or by a damaged operating system. You can try to reboot the Mac, and hold the "C" key with your installation disc in. Select english, the go to the tools menu, and Disk Utility. Go to the SOS tab, select your drive and click "repair". If something red appears, it means that it has found something wrong on your hard drive. Best regards 

The flashing question mark means that the computer can't find an OS.
If the computer previously was working, start up from the OSX disc and run 'Disc Utility' from the 'Utilities' menu in the top toolbar.
Run 'First Aid' to check and repair any errors.
If the computer still can't find an OS then you will need to re-install OSX.

The computer can't find an operating system. Start up from the OSX disc and check the drive with 'Disk Utility'. The system may have got damaged, or the drive may need to be repaired. Run 'First Aid'.

With the OS X Installer CD in the drive, try booting your mac and holding down the option key immediately after you hear the start up chime. This will (hopefully) load a firmware boot loader that will show available start up discs. Hopefully the OSX installer will show up as CD Icon. Select the Icon with your mouse or keyboard and press enter to start up with the Installer CD. From the installer you should be able to erase and format the drive as Mac OS Extended before installing OS X.


If the computer still won't boot from the CD double check that it is a retail OS X installer CD. If your CD has "software restore" or "ibook restore" or any other varient of restore written on the label; or if it names a particular model such as "ibook install" or "imac install" it is not a retail copy and may not be a bootable disc. A retail copy will only name the version of the operating system followed by the word install written on it's label and usually have a brief instruction on booting from the CD by holding the C key at startup.


Hope this helps, let me know what happens.

The hard drive is probably on it's way out. You can get and run Disk Warrior and you could repair permissions and such but the hard drive is probably on it's way to the grave.

A couple things though. It isn't enough to just put the disk in, you need to hold down "c" while the computer starts for it to try to run off your disk. You can then try to repair permissions and fix the disk from the installation program that starts. When the Install OS X screen comes up (looks like a desktop but with the big dialog box in the middle) click on Utilities at the top and then on Disk Utility. HERE IS APPLE'S SITE for you to read about how to try to repair your disk. I've found that this sometimes works and may help it work enough for you to get your files off, but may not.

Another method would be to get another Mac, and hook the two together with a firewire to transfer your files, then reinstall OS X in your ailing computer. Go HERE to read about this technique.