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1. What are question marks at top of mac finder window mac os x#
2. What are question marks at top of mac finder window install#
3. What are question marks at top of mac finder window password#

Have you ever opened the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences, only to discover that no startup volume is selected? It’s a fairly common issue, but one that few people ever notice-or fix-because normally if there’s no startup disk chosen, Mac OS X automatically cycles through available volumes, including the internal hard drive, until it finds a bootable volume. So that explains why I couldn’t boot from a CD or DVD, or enter single-user or Safe Boot mode, but why would the Mac mini refuse to boot at all, even from its internal drive? And because this was the first time I’d rebooted the mini since activating the firmware password, it was the first time I’d been affected by the additional security.

What are question marks at top of mac finder window password#

Not only had I neglected to disable that password afterwards, but I’d completely forgotten it was even enabled. And the only way to provide your firmware password to get around these restrictions is, for Intel Macs, to hold down Option at startup-the same action you take to use Startup Manager.Īs it turns out, a couple weeks earlier, while editing and testing an article on security, I’d enabled a firmware password. There are ways to get around a firmware password- unless you have a MacBook Air-but if you don’t even know such a password has been enabled, you wouldn’t think to use such methods. With such a password enabled, you (or, more important from a security standpoint, another person) cannot access any startup options, including changing the boot volume or activating any special startup modes.

What are question marks at top of mac finder window install#

And then everything made sense.Ī firmware password is a low-level password you can enable using the OS X Install Disc or the Firmware Password Utility found on that disc. But given the circumstances, I didn’t expect to see this, and my suspicions were confirmed: Instead of the Startup Manager, I saw a prompt to enter a firmware password.

Normally, doing this would present a special screen showing all accessible bootable volumes. Heck, I even tried resetting the parameter RAM (“zapping the PRAM”) by holding down Command-Option-P-R. I tried booting the Mac mini into FireWire target disk mode (by holding down the T key) so I could connect the mini as a hard drive to my Mac Pro, but target disk mode wouldn’t work. (Holding down D similarly didn’t launch the OS X disc’s Diagnostic Mode.) I tried holding down Command-S to enter single-user mode, hoping to run the fsck command to test and repair the drive.

I tried booting from both the Mac OS X DVD and a DiskWarrior CD to check the hard drive for directory corruption, but holding down the C key at startup wouldn’t force the mini to boot from the optical drive. I tried starting up in Safe Boot mode by holding down Shift at startup, but the mini acted as if Safe Boot didn’t exist. I force-restarted a couple times just to make sure this wasn’t a one-time glitch.

So it was time to perform some basic troubleshooting. Now, this Mac mini was working perfectly just half an hour earlier, and I didn’t recall it falling victim to any heinous physical abuse during the 15-foot trek between the closet and the desk.