Mac Mini Hard Drive DEAD

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Level 1

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Mac Mini Hard Drive DEAD

I have several Macs and have had a mac mini for a year and a half (I know just out of warranty.... as usual) My hard drive died. It will not mount at all. I backup data very often but there was some data on this Hard drive that was emailed and created just a few days ago. Is there ANY help from Apple regarding this? I know it is only a few months out of warranty but it is just beyond horrendous to only get a year and a few months out of an expensive 2.5" drive. Any help or advice is appreciated. Even some reccomendations of data recovery services.

Thanks all,
Robby Brown

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Apr 1, 2006 3:08 AM

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Answer 1

Ron JACKLE

Level 7

33,451 points

Apr 1, 2006 4:16 AM in response to rvbcave

rvbcave...

Unfortunately Apple rarely extends warranty but feel free to call them if you wish. Otherwise expect to pay for the replacement of the HD.

As a end user your second option is self repair (or replace the bad drive) if your skills are up to the challange.

At one time, I in the same boat with my eMac, but pulled it off for almost 1/3 the price of AppleCare Protection Plan. Mine was a 2 parter as I up and replaced the HD with a new drive with better specs. I then discovered the dead Maxtor still had 2 more years left on it after pulling it out. Maxtor was hesitant at first replacing the OEM drive but after the 3rd call they saw my point. (Why have the "absolute" warranty date printed on the drive? Just make me happy and honor it. They did by sending me a new drive after I returned the bad one.)

As far as recovery services they are quite pricy and there is no guarantee to get absolutely everything. A friend paid $400 for recovery services of his notebook drive. He still had removal and replacement costs from the service center on top of that. (fortunately it was a buisness related expense)

...Ron

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Answer 2

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

Apr 1, 2006 6:19 AM in response to rvbcave

For the emailed data, would the sender still have it, perhaps in a sent folder?

2.5" hard drives aren't too expensive. A replacement 40gb 4200rpm drive runs around $60. More common are 5400rpm drives in 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 or even 160gb sizes, with prices starting around $80. For really snappy performance, there are now 7200rpm 2.5" notebook drives. One good mac source is OWC at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ or http://www.newegg.com is another source.

OWC also has a video to show how to replace the hard drive at http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/directory.html

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Answer 3

rvbcave Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 1, 2006 7:32 AM in response to rvbcave

Does Apple censor every message? I tried to reply to Ron's very helpful message but it was deleted because I mentioned Apple's customer service track record.

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Answer 4

naxo_81

Level 1

0 points

Apr 1, 2006 9:36 AM in response to rvbcave

As I can see, I'm not the only one with these problems...
I had a problem with the Hard Drive too (here is my post: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=426395&tstart=0 ) ten days after the warranty ends.
Maybe I didn't read the package where says "And one more thing: This is a disposable Apple Computer. Enjoy it as you can (One year)."

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Answer 5

Ron JACKLE

Level 7

33,451 points

Apr 1, 2006 10:39 PM in response to rvbcave

rvbcave...

"Does Apple censor every message?"

Not exactly... Others can notify the Hosts if the content isn't up to the Terms of Use as outlined in the right hand information box. ( Help & Terms of Use is the full title)

I must have missed it as it was Saturday and I didn't want to waste the whole day here.

...Ron

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