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220-1202 Practice Question: A technician is troubleshooting a Mac that fails…
A technician is troubleshooting a Mac that fails to boot and displays a prohibitory symbol (a circle with a slash). The user had recently installed a new third-party SSD. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often mistakenly think the prohibitory symbol is caused by file system format (like NTFS) or software corruption, when in fact it is almost always a hardware or firmware-level incompatibility preventing the drive from being recognized as bootable.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The SSD is not properly connected or is incompatible with the Mac’s storage controller
The prohibitory symbol indicates that the Mac cannot locate a valid operating system on the startup disk. Since the user recently installed a third-party SSD, the most likely cause is that the drive is either not properly connected (e.g., loose SATA or NVMe cable) or is incompatible with the Mac's storage controller (e.g., using a PCIe 4.0 SSD in a Mac that only supports PCIe 3.0, or a non-Apple NVMe drive lacking the required firmware for macOS). This prevents the Mac from reading the boot loader or system files.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The SSD is formatted as NTFS
Why it's wrong here
macOS cannot boot from an NTFS volume, but a freshly installed third-party SSD is typically blank or GUID-partitioned, so the prohibitory symbol stems from missing macOS or an unsupported drive, not the filesystem. NTFS matters only when sharing disks with Windows.
- ✓
The SSD is not properly connected or is incompatible with the Mac’s storage controller
Why this is correct
A prohibitory symbol means the Mac cannot locate a bootable system, typically because the new third-party SSD is either physically loose or uses a controller the Mac firmware does not recognise. Reseating or replacing it with a compatible drive resolves the boot failure.
- ✗
The user’s home folder is corrupted
Why it's wrong here
A corrupted home folder produces login or application faults once macOS has loaded, not a prohibitory symbol at startup, which appears before any user account is accessed. Home-folder corruption is the right diagnosis when a Mac boots but the user's data or profile misbehaves.
- ✗
The Mac’s NVRAM needs resetting
Why it's wrong here
NVRAM stores startup disk, display and audio settings; resetting it resolves boot-device selection or display anomalies, not a prohibitory symbol caused by an unbootable or incompatible SSD. NVRAM reset is correct when the Mac ignores the chosen startup volume or shows video faults.
Quick reference
Access Control Model Comparison
| Model | Acronym | Who Controls Access? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Access Control | DAC | Resource owner | Small teams, file shares |
| Mandatory Access Control | MAC | System / security labels | Classified govt / military |
| Role-Based Access Control | RBAC | Administrator (via roles) | Enterprise environments |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | ABAC | Policy engine (user + resource attributes) | Fine-grained, dynamic policies |
| Rule-Based Access Control | RuBAC | System rules / ACLs | Firewall rules, network ACLs |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1202 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1202 exam.