Internal drive going bad -- covered by Applecare?

Yes, Applecare will cover a failed hard drive and the replacement; I'd recommend that you call Apple at your earliest convenience (or take it to your nearest Genius Bar).

When did you purchase your mid 2010 iMac? You will have to have purchased it in late September of 2010 or later or your 3 years of coverage have expired (seeing that it is almost mid September 2013) now.

If you are no longer covered, inquire about a replacement cost at the Genius Bar or at an authorized service providers; hard drives aren't all that expensive, but the labor is.

Apple will no doubt do their own testing which will be far more accurate and "industrial strength" rather than any consumer application. In any case, when mine started acting up being very noisy, all the troubleshooting was done over the phone with support having me do this and that and the first tier support moved me up to the second tier who then determined that it should be replaced. They will obviously not simply agree to replace a hard drive without some troubleshooting/testing.

If you want to call Apple and do that kind of troubleshooting, you are entitled to get in-home service (covered by Applecare) for a desktop computer as long as you are located within 50 miles of an authorized service provider. I've asked for that option and had a technician come to my home - you will need to ask for it (once they determine that the hard drive needs replacing) - they don't offer it, but it is in the small print of the Applecare plan, so you may want to try that.

Also, make sure you have a backup - a bootable clone may be best at this point (is that what you are botting from currently??). When mine was replaced, I simply requested that the tech install nothing - we hooked up my external and quickly cloned back my system. Much quicker than having them install an OS and you'd have to port over all your files, apps, etc.

Apple Retail Store use Drive Genius to test hard drives, they will be on the same page as you when you take your Mac in for testing.

They're pretty easy to replace yourself. I just did one at work and replaced it with an intel SSD (5 year warranty version.) If you're having block issues, the drive is shot and destined to fail no matter what anyone tells you. Backup your critical data and either replace the drive yourself, or take it to Apple.

You can easily google the steps necessary, which involves suction cups to remove the glass (held in by magnets), and a T9 star wrench to remove about 8 screws along the side on the LCD. Pry it up with a little hook made out of a paperclip or something, disconnect a few cables and you'll see the drive in the approximate middle. I didn't remove the LCD all the way, so I left a couple of cables connected. Also, if you replace it with an SSD there's a thermal sensor that you'll leave disconnected. You'll need to download a free SSD fan control app to slow down the speed, because once disconected it will spin up to about 4000RPM in a fail safe mode. Set it to about 1100.

It really is easy to replace.

Once it's in, reinstall the OS and go through all the updates. Replacing the drive is about a 30 minute operation, but the OS updates are substantially longer depending on your internet connection.

And by the way, you could probably use a suction cup from a car GPS to pull the glass/plastic off. I bought a couple of suction cups from Newegg, but was pretty surprised how easy it was to remove. I really didn't need to buy anything. It would be better if you had two, but I think one would do it in a pinch.

There is a replacement program: http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

They're pretty easy to replace yourself.

The OP is still covered by the Applecare warranty and would not only void his remaining warranty because of a self install, but why bother when the replacement is covered and will be done at no charge by an authorized service technician keeping the warranty intact.

onno577 wrote:

There is a replacement program: http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

That program ended a few months ago; however, since the OP is covered by Applecare, the repair or replacement would be covered in any case.

Consumer Law will cover a HDD that can be deemed as faulty since purchase. This can be achived by visiting a local authorised service provider and filling in a consumer law sheet. They will check the HDD and offer you a free repair if you qualify. Its as easy as pie. Although you may be charged for diognostics. But thats up to the store to make that call so i hear.

The program ended a few months however is still valid for Macs until 3 years after date of purchase. So depending when iMac is purchased it may still be an option.

"The program covers affected iMacs for three years after the first retail sale of the unit"

The OP stated that he is covered by the Applecare warranty. That means repairs/replacements are fully covered and paid for by Apple.

End of pointless arguments.

This isnt an argument. I belive you have jumped to a conslusion. Just because he is covered by APP it does not mean that every single person who reads this post because they have a faulty seagate HDD has an APP or a limited warranty to cover them. Consumer Law is an alt route for people that need help and have no warranty.

Yes, the OP is still covered apparently, but Apple will replace the drive, and an SSD is a substantial performance upgrade. His Applecare expires in March as well, and the odds of anything else dying before then is probably somewhere in the .01% range. Personally, I'd upgrade the machine with an SSD and be done with it. Unless of course Apple is willing to install a provided SSD under the support agreement. Under the agreement though, I would suspect Apple would only replace the old hard drive with old technology as per the orginal specifications. The intel drive gives the OP 5 years of additional warranty on the drive with blistering performance on the new SSD drive in comparison to the old drive. His machine should give him another 5 solid years of good performance with an SSD.