AppleCare Keeps Your Hard Drive?

The hard drives are not returned when they are replaced. The dead drives will be returned to their manufacturer where they will be refurbished if possible. However, if the bad drive is accessible you can ask the Apple store that replaced the drive to transfer your data to the new drive. They should be able to do that for you. I've even heard that they may be willing to recover data from a corrupted drive if data are recoverable. I don't know if they do this free of charge, however.

But if the old drive is completely inaccessible then your data are lost. The only chance you might have had would be to send the drive to a data recovery service. Such service is generally very expensive. However, you would have had to handle that on your own. Once you have Apple replace the drive they will keep the old drive and return it to the manufacturer.

You will need to talk with the store manager to see what they can do to help you. You can qalso call AppleCare and talk with a service representative. And, yes, they have every right to keep the old drive. Perhaps you should have told them you had data you needed to recover before you left the computer for the service. The door swings both ways, you know. But I think if you talk with the store manager about the situation they may be able to work something out to help you, especially if you ask nicely.

The terms are in the standard warranty and AppleCare text. In general, warranty or service contract replacement terms for almost any product don't include the return of failed parts or recovery of customer data. I don't know of any other computer company that would do this any differently.

http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCareProtect_Plan_NAen.pdf

*1. Repair Coverage*
*a. Scope of Coverage.* Your coverage for defects begins on the date your Covered Equipmentʼs Apple hardware warranty expires and terminates at the end of the Coverage Period (“Repair Coverage Period”). Apple will provide both parts and labor, but may require you to replace certain readily installable parts yourself, as described below. Apple may provide replacement product or parts that are manufactured from new, refurbished, or serviceable used parts. The replacement product or parts will be functionally equivalent to the replaced products or parts and will assume the remaining coverage under the Plan. _The products or parts that are replaced become Appleʼs property. Apple strongly advises you to record as a back up, data and software residing or recorded in the Covered Equipment, before having the Covered Equipment available for repair or replacement services._

*b. Limitations.* The Plan does not cover:
(xi) Damage to, or loss of any software or data residing or recorded in the Covered Equipment. When providing repair or replacement service, Apple will use reasonable efforts to reinstall the Covered Equipmentʼs original software configuration and subsequent update releases, _but will not provide any recovery or transfer of software or data contained on the serviced unit not originally included in the Covered Equipment._

We discuss hard drive replacement ad naseum here. With the low cost of hard drives, many recommend just doing the service themselves and holding the original drive for data recovery.

They have a similar procedure for some (but not all) do-it-yourself warranty or AppleCare repairs. They send out the part with a credit card authorization to charge for the part. The original part must be returned. If it's returned, the authorization is cancelled. If not the customer gets charged.

Kappy wrote:
The hard drives are not returned when they are replaced. The dead drives will be returned to their manufacturer where they will be refurbished if possible. However, if the bad drive is accessible you can ask the Apple store that replaced the drive to transfer your data to the new drive. They should be able to do that for you. I've even heard that they may be willing to recover data from a corrupted drive if data are recoverable. I don't know if they do this free of charge, however.

I can't think of any hard drive manufacturer that would actually want to refurbish a returned hard drive when it would be far cheaper to just make a new one on an assembly line than take apart an old one to repair it. What they might want a dead hard drive for is failure analysis.

However - after Seagate's little dustup with the Apple OEM Firmware 7.01 drives, Seagate has instituted an OEM hard drive warranty program. They used to just make OEM hard drives the sole responsibility (without warranty) of the computer seller. Now they'll take back failed OEM drives during the warranty term for an exact replacement or credit towards new drive purposes.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty&_returns_assistance/oem_warrantystatements/

But if the old drive is completely inaccessible then your data are lost. The only chance you might have had would be to send the drive to a data recovery service. Such service is generally very expensive. However, you would have had to handle that on your own. Once you have Apple replace the drive they will keep the old drive and return it to the manufacturer.

I noted that this would not be unique to Apple. Their warranty and AppleCare terms recommend backing up all data before sending any equipment for repair.

You will need to talk with the store manager to see what they can do to help you. You can qalso call AppleCare and talk with a service representative. And, yes, they have every right to keep the old drive. Perhaps you should have told them you had data you needed to recover before you left the computer for the service. The door swings both ways, you know. But I think if you talk with the store manager about the situation they may be able to work something out to help you, especially if you ask nicely.

I'm guessing that by now they have no idea where that drive would be. It's probably in a pile awaiting return to the drive manufacturer.

I would tend to agree, but refurbs are certainly to be found. I would be surprised, however, if the mfgr.s scrap them in their entirety. PC boards and other components may still be serviceable.

As for these people I have no idea. If the store still has the drive then they may be able to get some help if the drive is at least accessible. Hope they have some luck with that.

Kappy wrote:
I would tend to agree, but refurbs are certainly to be found. I would be surprised, however, if the mfgr.s scrap them in their entirety. PC boards and other components may still be serviceable.

I'd guess that a lot of so-called "refurbs" are units that were returned but didn't actually have a problem after simple failure analysis was performed. That's one of the odd things about warranty returns - a lot of warranty returns occur because the customer didn't understand it wasn't an actual hardware problem and the manufacturer finds it convenient just to replace it quickly.

I'm just looking at this from the basic cost of manufacturing. The reason why hard drives are so cheap these days is that they're manufacturing them in lower labor cost countries with almost exclusively mechanized assembly. Disassembly (possibly in the US) is usually by hand and by then putting it back together in a nonstandard way would mean doing so by hand. It starts getting expensive - especially when it would have to be sold at discount because it's not new.

As for these people I have no idea. If the store still has the drive then they may be able to get some help if the drive is at least accessible. Hope they have some luck with that.

Perhaps. It might be difficult because returning the drive is now standard operating procedure.