Broken HD in iMac and Apple service
I got a new iMac just over a month ago now, and guess what? Its hard disk decided to go to disk heaven or hell much sooner than I expected or then was planned by the Creator.
Basically, I had problems which were looking very much like hard disk failures - my Mac suddenly started freezing when doing spotlight indexes and TimeMachine backups, and after a few reboots, I couldn't make it work for over 10 minutes without freezing at all. Again, it looked very like a hardware failure, but you never know without tests, and I didn't have time to run surface scans that time, so just restored everything from TimeMachine (it rocks!), reformatted my hard disk on "slow" zero-writing mode (hoping that bad sectors will be detected and filtered out).
Well.. probably they did get filtered out, but in just under a week after the first failure, I had another, very similar one. Just this time my Mac stopped booting at all. Well this time I ran surface tests, and both TechTool and Drive Ganius stopped just at the beginning of the disk, unable to proceed, seemingly unable to block bad sectors even..
So, I decided to bring my iMac to my local Apple store, which is Apple Store in Nagoya, Japan. Even though the store is "local", it is still 20km by car (or just above one hour - yeah.. traffic). I thought - "well, its just a little hard disk - Apple Store geniuses should be able to fix stuff like that pretty fast). Man was I wrong..
Apple Store geniuses are actually pretty nice guys - they replaced my first iPhone which had one dead pixel, and almost replaced my second iPhone which I bricked during jailbraking (sorry! just don't tell anyone).
So yeah.. they helpfully offered me to replace my hard drive to free. With a catch - it'll take them 4-5 days, on a fastest scenario. Wha..?! 4-5 days to replace a goddamn harddrive? Probably the next easiest service operation after adding memory? Well yeah, sorry, but we have other customers waiting for their repairs.
Well, that's all cool, by I have several deadlines coming my way and really-really need the goddamn computer working ASAP, which means TODAY. Oh sure, there's one option which can actually shorten waiting time - I was told - just sign up for Apple's ProCare service, and you'll get priority service (no waiting time). Yeah.. very good, I have to get $100 package to get my Mac repaired fast, even though it broke just after 2 week from purchase! (and no, they can't replace the machine, as it was built-to-order - wtf? I just added memory and a hard drive to a stock configuration.. oh well).
So, well, no problems, I won't be happy but I can shell out $100 for ProCare. But wait, they said, we have to check if we have any hard disks for replacement in stock! Oh sorry, we don't have any - we'll order then from "center", and THEN you'll get your ProCare priority service. So.. hard disk should arrive tomorrow, or probably the day after tomorrow. No longer.
Well by that time I was pretty much annoyed and unhappy, so even though I decided to replace the goddamn drive myself (I hold an Apple Service Engineer certificate, though I got it back in the year 2000) - I ordered the drive from Apple Store as well. I dunno.. just in case.
So, without knowing anything about how to replace hard drive in the newer iMacs (early 2008, glass-aluminum model), I got back home at a little past noon, and by 5pm I already had new hard disk churning inside my Mac. I don't think they even can find out that I broke warranty, except for the hard drive I have installed, is not Apple Certified.
That was on Monday. I was happily running after my deadlines for a week, and honestly, sort of forgot about all this nuisance (I called Apple on Tuesday to cancel my hard drive order). Now guess what? On Saturday, almost a WEEK after I ordered the hard drive, I am getting a call from a genius, letting me know that (drumroll!!) my hard drive finally arrived! (thank-you-very-much-but-i-dont-remember-you).
Well.. the morale is.. Apple Store is a mess. When they don't have any replacement, you can wait forever for a basic repairs to be done for you. I mean.. almost a week for a replacement hard drive to just arrive from some "center" (Martian customs didn't give it green light? importing them from Brazilia? I dunno… a WEEK!). And if you're not on Pro Care, good luck waiting for several more days in line, with as unlucky chups as yourself.
I hear here and there that Apple support is top-notch et al.. but you just try and ask them a little more difficult question (did that) and they'll stuck and will only babble that they don't have anything on the topic in their database… Have a hardware failure - and get ready to wait and wait. And wait. Unless you pay for Pro Care. But get ready to wait even then..
Oh well. I'll post my experience replacing early 2008 iMac hard drive as soon as I have some more time. It was actually pretty easy, once I got all the required tools.