Q: I took my iMac 2010 to a "Third Party" company to replace my hdd, they did, but now it will not boot. if i took this to the Apple store, how much would it cost to fix? if i buy my own SSD (£70) Thanks a LOT!

You need to ask at the Apple Store. They may decline to even work on it since its been opened by someone who obviously didn't know what they were doing.

The policy of Apple has been that non-authorized third party work voids all further support.  The 2010 models allowed user upgrade in memory and some models the hard drive, but all carried the caveat that the user did so at their own risk.  Any damage they did would not be support by Apple.

Apple stores in the US have never installed parts supplied by customers, that is, they do not install an SSD that the customer has not purchased from them.

You can always reinstall the original HDD and take it in and see what they say, but I would be very surprised if they would give much help.  It would be better to find an Apple Authorized Service Provider as they will be certified by Apple and have the right parts.  They will often do the repair/change out work even when Apple will not.

Go to this page:https://locate.apple.com/uk/en/ and click Service and fill in your location to find an AASP hopefully not too far away.

23 miles is not far, unless you are walking

Seriously, though, give them a call and explain what you want done and see that they will do it for you.  They are not likely to estimate the cost over the phone but at least find out if they will support you.

No, live in the US...but I used to live in France and remember the 'fun' of getting around parts of the Paris suburbs

Try calling the AASP and see if looks like they will be a success path before trekking over there.

DewiRobbo wrote:

 

Well, this "third party" is going to put my old hdd back and not charge me any money (as he did not fix it) but i think its better off taking it to an AASP because i have a feeling Apple store will charge way too much.

The way I read that comment – you seem to suggest the Mac was broken before the third party replaced the disk - is that the case or was it working before the HD was replaced?

Since the Mac is out of warranty you will have to pay for any repairs wherever you take it. Authorised Apple service centres will be able to get parts whereas any non certified technicians will have to use 'grey market' parts since Apple will not sell parts to the public. These may be reconditioned or not official parts - it's a risk to use them. Visit the Apple store & ask them - there is no point in lying about it being handled by a third party. An Apple tech may be able to tell when they open the case, depending on how meticulous your third party was. 

If you are handy with a screwdriver & have tools and a lot of patience you could use a guide on iFixit.com, but there is no indication of why this Mac not booting up.

It could be that the disk is not formatted correctly.

Are you sure the tech copied an OS onto the disk? Did they install the OS for you or did they clone the old disk?

Can you boot from a backup disk or from an install disk? Does the disk appear in Disk Utility when booted from another OS (either the installer or a backup).

'Not booting' can mean so many things, what does booting do exactly? Grey screen, black screen, any noises or tones, any signs of life at all…?

If you look at the iFixit guides you will see many fiddly connectors, if the tech failed to hook them all back up it could explain the failure, or perhaps you just have a disk that is 'dead on arrival' - sometimes that happens. A properly trained technician should be able to figure that one out.