Old Mac book pro help

From the bottom of that screen you may choose to Repair disk.

While not always comprehensive, it might try & fix the drive.

I usually run that at least twice; and if no forward startup acts

occur, try the process again.

Try using macOS Recovery. It can help you restore from a Time Machine

backup, reinstall macOS, get help online, repair or erase a hard disk,

and more. See the Apple Support article About macOS Recovery.

You may be able to start up and run the Mac from Internet; but

that might also try to reinstall an older system than you had.

That isn't advised at this point; better to see if you can repair

the macOS, as an Unmounted Volume; with Internet Recovery.

IF your Mac can't start up or use Option Key to show another

'Recovery' volume that might work. (see unmounted in menu)

Sometimes to repair a drive, you may have to get Mac to start up

from a different drive; mine can use Recovery once booted from

'Option' key. ~ But others maybe won't show 'another partition'.

Change your startup disk once:

1. Press and hold the Option key as you restart your Mac.
2. When you see the available startup disks, select one.

"The next time you restart your computer, it starts up from the

disk selected as your startup disk in System Preferences."

(There may -or not- be any additional startup volumes.)

..Most instructions online won't tell me IF chosen configuration has

more than one System, or IF it has partitions, to run 'Recovery' from.

(And if so, you might choose one so named, once started in Option.

Then you'd restart to see if that'd work. Or if available, choose one

that has options to run Disk Utility from, on the unmounted volume

you seek to repair.)

Most of this, may seem difficult; and even with some experience based

on trial and error, it still is. Since I don't do these every day; & have just

my three Macs and one iPhone, here now. ~ You may get suggestions

from different readers, while I wonder how to state, what might work!

..Does it restart from force quit and still go to flashing question mark.?

(Sometimes this indicates the macOS no longer is accessible to mac.)

If your Mac starts up to a question mark - Apple Support

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

"A folder with a flashing question mark means that your startup disk is

no longer available or doesn't contain a working Mac operating system."

IF the question mark is persistent, &

your Mac does not start up normally:

1) Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.

[Every Mac has a power button. ~ On notebook computers

that have Touch ID, press and hold Touch ID.]

2) Use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk. Follow the steps for a Mac with an Intel processor.

3) If Disk Utility found no errors or repaired all errors, reinstall macOS.

4) If you still need help, please contact Apple Support

If your Mac starts up normally except for a question mark that appears briefly during startup,

just make sure that the startup disk you want to use is selected in Startup Disk settings.

If that doesn't help and the question mark is temporary,

check the setting again after resetting NVRAM.

(For Apple Silicon, see 'recovery' options on startup.)

If your Mac doesn't start up all the way - Apple Support

//support.apple.com/en-us/HT204156

..Primary options, should shortcut paths fail, incl. Reinstall OS..

..Duck_Mafia..

Maybe perhaps due to having much newer macOS (Mojave 10.14.6?) installed originally?

Your first post in this thread, in signature line, I see mention of a newer 10.14 system..

"MacBook Pro 13″, 10.14"

You may need to try repairing the hard drive; these instructions

may allow you to boot into Recovery, & choose repair the drive.

Or if you've already erased the HDD, try restart in Recovery again

and use a different combination of Keys, on startup.

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

//support.apple.com/en-us/HT210898

I'd revisit idea of restarting into Recovery, and try a different key combination; so you'd not

download that old of system again. [Mountain Lion OS X 10.8. is not usually advised.] And it

may have been looking for the original hard drive formatting too; HFS+ instead of APFS?

You could see if the MacBook Pro could accept a new re-install of Mojave; nothing

older than High Sierra 10.13.6; & none of that older Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 stuff.

How to download macOS - Apple Support

//support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

Instructions on startup with recovery vary somewhat; you can use internet version recovery

and then choose how to use that; to not get an older original system. The key combos vary.

(Mt. Lion 10.8 is way old; and the Mac won't run that installer now.)

"Other ways to update or upgrade macOS include using macOS Recovery or using a bootable installer."

If an error occurred while updating or installing macOS - Apple Support (this may or not be helpful)

//support.apple.com/en-us/HT212526

A 'bootable installer' might not be a wise move either; preconditions can make that harder than needed.

Your MacBook Pro is near same build model year as mine; and Mojave can run 32-bit and 64-bit apps.

..Yet now I'm running Late 2012 Mac mini quad-core i7 server, four macOS, on dual partitioned HDDs..

Repairing a hard drive with Disk Utility involves following specific instructions; if you had erased the HDD

already, then start up in recovery; to get the downloadable installer and take a few hours, to install it.

[I'd written a better reply, a hours ago; but had an issue with web browser; so I shut everything off

and restarted anew. And read through system reports, noticed some errors; before & after restart.]

Anyway, as I was signing-off, before I chose to force-quit and restart my Mac mini; I've been on my

feet since early this AM, and need to prop them up; & maybe get some coffee, or a nap? 🤖🐾🐶

According to the screenshot of your macbook's Utilities application window

that indicates you may have selected a partial section of the hard drive.. So

to look into folder files shown above that choice; from the visual menu items

try another one ~ that can allow access into System at earlier mount point.

You chose one that is a system-owned file; and cannot be accessed in Utility.

Those others which were not chosen, have access. Try the big named HDD.

Not those partitions within the main drive; choose title of the drive instead.

[is the macbook pro running Mojave 10.14.6? ~ might be like mine then]