iMac Replacement HDD

[dr_phalange]

That situation that no mac owner wishes upon themselves has happened to me.

I have a Mid 2007 Alu 24" iMac and the 320gb HDD has developed a bunch of bad sectors on the OS X Partition (I Dual Boot).

Currently I can only boot into Windows (which is kinda funny, when you get to the bootup screen and there's no more mac OS X!)

Anyway, I'm scared the drive will go belly up completely in the near future and am even more petrified to hand it over to any iStore (cause who knows what condition the casing and glass panel will come back in!)

Anyone have any ideas on how much / where the best place will be to have this done?

Thanks

 

[Synaesthesia]

I'm not sure who's the best, just wanna say this is a tricky upgrade. They will probably charge like 5 hours labour. I'm just warning you.

Of course it can be done if you work slowly and carefully, you can even do it yourself if you feel confident enough. There are take-apart guides online with photos. The first step is to remove the front panel glass with suction cups!

 

[StbA]

Er, no, rather not follow the above advice, I've seen the procedure and it's so easy to screw it up. Take it to Digicape in Joburg. (with your system recovery DVD's as well)
PS, how do you know it's bad sectors? Switch off the mac and press the CMD+S key immediately after turning the mac on, once you see no more text moving across the screen type in "fsck -fy" (without the "" quote's) and when its done type in "reboot".

You can also put in the system recovery DVD's (no 1) and hold down the alt/option key, select the DVD boot drive and when in the set-up click on Tools - Disk utility and click on ur Macintosh HD - Repair Disk. You can also repair the permissions while you're at it.

 

[ponder]

Just do it yourself, it's not rocket science. Just don't break the glass.

 

[Moklet Kcuf]

Stop everything! Turn off your iMac.

Personally, I'd take your HD out straight away, and replace it.

You can then assess your options for rescue of your data.

Whether you take it to a technician, or research online to DIY, don't use that HDD, you only risk losing more or all of it's data.

EDIT: I second stba's suggestion 1st, if you have not done so already.

 

[StbA]

The problem with replacing the drive urself with the Alu frame iMac is that you have to wipe the lcd constantly while you are replacing the glass, otherwise you get dust in there that's such a pain in the ass to get out again (trust me it'll take longer than 5 hours to clean it properly if u dont know what u are doing) Rather take the pain of paying somebody to do it if the fsck and disk repair options dont work.

 

[dr_phalange]

I'm not brave enough to do it myself!

Not sure if it is bad sectors but if you run disk utility it gets stuck and fails. I tried stba's advice last night already, and it failed with inode errors

Windows Chkdsk hangs on a certain 40gb chunk as well.

Both of these require rebooting.

Haven't been able to reinstall OS X either, it doesn't go past "one minute to go"

Not too perturbed about the data, luckily I ran a system backup last week Friday, before all the trouble started.

Will lookup digicape (I know an acquaintance at CORE, perhaps he'll be able to get me more joy from them...)

 

[StbA]

With Core you are going to pay full Apple price for the HDD replacement (you get a 3 year warranty if I'm not mistaken) With Digicape you get the full 5 year warranty on the HDD. At 1/3 of the price.

Please also ensure that the area where the mac is being used is dust free, once the fans start to get clogged up the HDD overheats and the platters get heat stress fractures.

 

[dr_phalange]

I've emailed digicape and will hear what they say about repair costs.

Anyone know how long the guarantee on systems sold by core are? Is it a year or less or more?

 

[koffiejunkie]

For those who say "just do it yourself" - this is no trivial procedure:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac-20-Inch/658/1

If the Mac is still under warranty, taking it apart yourself is a bad idea, unless you're absolutely confident you can do it, put it back together without anyone noticing.

 

[ponder]

For those who say "just do it yourself" - this is no trivial procedure:

Thats still not hard depending on yout technical ability.

 

[Moklet Kcuf]

I've emailed digicape and will hear what they say about repair costs.

Anyone know how long the guarantee on systems sold by core are? Is it a year or less or more?

Warranty is generally one year unless you paid for the extended 3 year warranty. However they can repair at the their discretion depending on the issue and how far out of warranty you are.

Keep in mind, that if Apple is to replace the HDD under warranty, they will insist on keeping it, whether data can be retrieved or not. The only way you will be able to keep the HDD is if you pay in full for a new one.

But, it's good to hear you are backed up, the above scenario is not so good if you need to rescue critical data.

Edit: Re DIY - it doesn't look too difficult to do. The only hassle being you'd need to track down the Torx screwdrivers (Apple likes to pretend they are exclusive, but most electrical hardware suppliers stock them) and suction cups for the glass.

Maybe Core needs to get a pair of these too

Do your homework, and don't be swayed by us. It comes down to whether you feel confident giving it a go. Take it in if it looks too tricky.

 

[Ou grote]

Happened to me.

Got a 500gb Seagate one from Digicape, was around R900.

 

[dr_phalange]

FiXED!

Hey all

Digicape are supreme!

They allowed me to use my own replacement drive, and the entire process of installation was done in under an hour!

Very impressed with the Sandton store, the workshop was clean and the staff friendly.

Best of all, it only cost R337!

It's great to be back in OS X land

 

[koffiejunkie]

Awesome!

 

[StbA]

Good to hear.