My hard drive crashed and died last night. Can't really afford the repair, but also can't afford to be without internet access. How much is this gonna cost me?
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7)
You can do it yourself for as little as $100 or so if you wish. Changing the drive is simple but you need a backup of your existing drive. If you do not have a backup (foolish) it will take longer, but it won't cost any more.
Or you can pay an AASP to do it for you, which will of course cost more.
If you are still under the Apple Care extended warranty you can get it replaced free of charge.
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
on-line https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
check warranty https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
Apple will reinstall the same original HD it shipped with.
DIY for out of warranty, larger HD, or SSD.
See OWC for options, how to videos. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say a 2 for ease.
Since I wasn't expecting my hard drive to fail, I don't think not backing it up was foolish. Plus I have most of the important stuff in the cloud. But what makes it more difficult to install from scratch?
Nobody expects a drive to fail, that is the reason you should always have a backup, failures rarely inform you in advance.
You may have a few things in the cloud (whatever that means) but your Mac is not, if you had a real backup you could just restore it, now you'll have to start over.
Can anyone suggest a good replacement hard drive?
blergyblerg wrote:
Can anyone suggest a good replacement hard drive?
Depends on what you want, a drive similar in size and performance to the one that died could be any manufacturer, as long as it is a 2.5" SATA drive it will work. Faster options include 7200RPM versions of that drive, Hybrid versions (combination of SSD and HDD on one drive) and the fastest would be an SSD, also the most expensive.
SSD's are roughly 10 times faster than HDD's
Budget $50 or so for a similar drive, $60 for a 7200RPM version and $70 to $80for a hybrid. $200 for an SSD. All need to be 2.5" SATA drives.
Hitachi and Seagate are my preferences for HDD's (hybrid or not) OWC and Crucial for SSD's.
Just don't buy a WD (Western Digital)
I had the basic model. I would like something with a little more performance but don't need SSD. So I take it the Hybrid would be my best bet?
Yes, Hitachi (HGST) make a 1TB hybrid that is excellent, as do Seagate, also excellent.
These drives will come formatted for Windows, you will need to reformat them for use with a Mac before reinstalling OS X and replacing your data (from the cloud)
SSD's offer far more than just speed, they are lighter, use less power (longer battery life) run cooler (longer computer life) and do not have any moving parts (less vibration = less wear) they only have 1 disadvantage, they cost more.
http://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/ultrastar-c7k1000
http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/solid-state-hybrid/laptop-solid-stat e-hybrid-drive/
These drives may come with software, DO NOT install it.
How much will it cost to replace a hard drive on a mid 2012 mac book pro? Should I do it myself or take it to the apple store?
