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cwbrandt2 Author

Level 1

16 points

need help recovering from blinking?

My 2009 imac has a blinking folder and ? even after trying to start using recovery, so Applecare gave up on me. But I later remembered that I have thumb drives with different versions of macOS. So I was able to get past the ? using the Snow Leopard/ ElCapitan thumb drive. Now I can select;

IMAC Macintosh HD or

Recovery 10.12.6 or

Mac OS X Install DVD or

OS X 10.11 Install Disk - 10

I don't remember which MacOS I was using on this computer. I also have a SIERRA thumb drive which is what I would have guessed I was using.

So my first question is what do I select from the choice above. And how do I proceed from there.

My second question is how to find out what OS I was using and whether I can just proceed with El Capitan or should I just start over with the correct OS thumb drive.

Luckily I have a carbon copy cloner backup from February 2019 but I don't know if it has the recovery info on it. I have MacBook Pros do I can download anything else I might need in a thumb drive.

Thanks for any support you can give me.

Posted on Aug 22, 2020 12:23 PM

Top-ranking reply

Kappy

Level 10

361,855 points

Posted on Aug 22, 2020 12:51 PM

If your Mac starts up to a question mark

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.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.
Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command (⌘) and R to start up from macOS Recovery.
While in macOS Recovery, use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk.
If Disk Utility found no errors or repaired all errors, take either of these actions:

If you still need help, please contact Apple Support.

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need help recovering from blinking?

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