If the tips listed below do not correct your situation, a more serious problem may be the cause. Go to our Disaster Recovery page for further information on serious drive symptoms, or look at our directory of Apple Online Resources For Emergency Help.
You may also want to look at the information about Apple Macintosh data recovery and data loss prevention at SecureMac.
If you are trying to understand an Apple Error Code, you can look through a complete list at AppleErrorCodes.com.
Click on the symptom you are experiencing to read our recovery advice.
1. The flashing question mark appears during start up.
2. The Sad Mac icon appears during start up.
3. Error message "The Disk is damaged do you want to initialize?" appears.
4. Error message "-127 error disk could not used/found" appears.
5. A removable cartridge does not mount on the desktop.
Indications
Your Macintosh cannot find the startup hard disk or any disk with a System Folder.
Tips
Use the System Installer CD-ROM to start up the Macintosh and look for the missing hard disk icon on the desktop.
- If the disk appears, run Apple's Disk First Aid program to check it.
- If no problems are found, backup your critical files and reinstall the system software.
If the hard disk does not appear on the desktop, you can also try resetting the Macintosh's Parameter RAM (PRAM) to its factory defaults to help the computer locate the Startup Disk.
- Hold down the Command, Option, P and R keys during start up.
- The Macintosh should chime at least twice before you release the keys.
As a last resort, you can attempt to rewrite the device driver using a hard disk formatting program.
- You must completely remove any security programs such as DiskLock, Empower, or FolderBolt before updating/installing a new driver.
- For Apple hard disks, use the Drive Setup program on the System Installer CD-ROM.
- If you have a non-Apple hard disk, you must use the software that came with the drive or a third-party formatter such as FWB's Hard Disk ToolKit or LaCie Silverlining.
- Use the "Update" or "Install driver" command in the formatting software, being careful not to press the "Initialize" or "Format" buttons.
Indications
Either the disk's device driver software is damaged, or a more serious hardware problem exists.
Tips
If the device driver software is damaged, you can attempt to rewrite/update the driver with the software that was used to format the disk.
You must completely remove any security programs such as DiskLock, Empower, or FolderBolt before updating/installing a new driver.
For Apple hard disks, use the Drive Setup program on the System Installer CD-ROM.
If you have a non-Apple hard disk, you must use the software that came with the drive or a third-party formatter such as FWB's Hard Disk ToolKit or LaCie Silverlining.
Use the "Update" or "Install driver" command in the formatting software, being careful not to press the "Initialize" or "Format" buttons.
Indications
The directory structure of your disk is damaged and cannot be accessed in its current condition. Damage such as this typically occurs when a Mac freezes in the middle of a program and must be restarted, or if the computer is not shut down properly.
The UnErase program in Symantec's Norton Utilities can be used to recover drives producing these error messages.
- It is important that you recover the data to a completely different drive, NOT the crashed disk or one of its partitions.
CAUTION: Do not attempt to repair directory damage using a commercial disk utility. They are excellent tools for preventative maintenance, but are also capable of "fixing" problems that render your data unrecoverable in the case of severe corruption.
Indications
The device driver or the media may be damaged.
Tips
Try another cartridge — one that is known to be good and does not hold irreplaceable data. This will help you identify if the problem is with the cartridge or the drive mechanism.
If the problem is specific to a single cartridge, you can rewrite the device driver with the software that was used to format the disk.
If you do not have formatting software, you can use a commercial formatter such as FWB's Hard Disk ToolKit or LaCie's Silverlining program to replace or update a damaged device driver.
WARNING: Tampering with a damaged disk may cause DATA LOSS! DriveSavers, Inc. and WWW.DATA-RECOVERY-TOOLS.NET make no guarantee to the accuracy of this information, and take no responsibility for the loss of data as a result of suggestions offered in this document.
NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with some of the terms on this page, see our Hard Drive Glossary.
[Above © DriveSavers Data Recovery. Reproduced by permission.]
