Macbook hard drive crashed

To late to say this now but you should always back up your important files no matter what brand computer you use and Apple may not be at fault after all you stated that it was a user installed hard drive that failed. I don't really see how you can blame Apple for that. Lastly why were you having to do a forced shut down in the first place?

How did a forced shutdown fry the HD?

It does seem like they would stock hard drives. Maybe just a temporary shortage. As for the forced shutdown, next time do a forced quit of each application until the spinning wheel stops. There is a way to do this, If you can't do it from the top menu and depending on how bad it is you may not be able to. Go into the dock right click or control click on the appropriate icon and then click quit from the pop up menu. This is the way I end unresponsive programs and I have never had any negative reactions from doing it that way. Then you can do a normal restart if you wish or just reopen the program and continue working. I hope this helps and Good Luck!

There is also a keyboard shortcut to force a quit (I forget what it is and I'm on a PC now, but its listed in the menu item)

It is also possible that the hard drive dying is what caused you to do a forced shutdown, rather than vice versa.

As far as relative reliability between MacBooks and older Macs, I have heard the opinion voiced that the larger size hard drives in use today are more prone to failure than older smaller drives.

I do really well undesrtand your hard disk problem.
Today, with a 2 months old Macbook black I exactly had the same serious problem. I think that Apple should not only change the hard disk for free, this is obvious, but I would expect them to recover for free also the data of the crashed hard disk. I will call servicing tomorrow and let you know.
One mont ago the same new Macbook was changed the battery !
I love Apple but this is too much!!
Hope you all agree.

macbook black Mac OS X (10.4.8)
Riccardo from Paris, France

We got a new MacBook 2 months ago, got it home turned it on, dead HD. Brought it back the next day, Apple Store gave us another Mac. Today the HD died. What gives? And now they are not even letting u know what make the drives are... When you look up the info it says Intel, but they don't make the drives. I think Toshiba. The first one was. And the next day upon exchange for new computer, "that" MacBook does not say what make HD, hahahhaa, scoundrels! I have seen other NEW Mac drives fail also. Anyways, I will bring it back today for a new HD. *****!!! They are making them CHEAPER to compete I say. TS TS TS, not good. But I am a Mac Freak. So, what can I do, but buy buy buy. bye bye

i had the same problem with a hard drive i put in my macbook myself. after 6 months of use, it crashed after a force shutdown and i ended up getting a new one under warranty through the hard drive manufacturer. didn't even go through apple because the original apple drive still worked fine when i swapped drives. however, i don't think it was Apple that made the hard drive crash. in my situation, it was the hard drive that caused my system to freeze up because it was a faulty drive with problems. it could be the same with yours too. hard drives go bad.. seems more so with notebook drives... and that's one reason why they have such warranties even lasting up to 5 years! luckily i had everything backed up and continue to back things up regularly. i've learned from past crashes on my windows systems that backing up is soooo essential. anything can happen to a system at any time. so sorry about your drive... i know it's a huge inconvenience! there ARE data recovery options available for failed hard drives, usually the manufacturer offers them before sending the hard drive back under warranty. however there will be an extra cost for such service. but anyway, after my crash, i still have faith in Apple. faulty hard drives can freeze up a system causing force shut downs that can fry a hard drive or mess with its boot sectors, causing them to be non-detectable.

yes, but I think it is happening too often now and for all the $ we pay and for it to be a NEW or NEAR NEW computer and the SAME problem twice in 2 months on 2 DIFFERENT MacBooks, I think is unacceptable, and it has been happening to others. We may find it is something else causing it all together & have to live with this happening occasionally for the life of this MacBook..... Well, a bit upset about it right now. I go to Apple in a couple hours. Thanx for yer post.

Just the same, here! Link to my post from last week:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3839852

Same thing, Hard disk died, probably caused by so many random shutdowns that were fixed by the firmware update but must have taken its toll on the HD.

Same here, local shop does not stock on parts, waiting for the new HD to come from the USA.

And same here, sooo glad I didn't sell my PowerBook G4, as this is the one saving my life now!

And we need to back up like crazy apocalyptic paranoids, all of us MacBook users, take note!

This is the end of my story.
After hard disk crash (I remember it was a 2 months old black Macbook !!!) I have brought to an Apple Centre in Paris on 11JAN. One week later they said that it was not possible to recover the data but that for the work done...I was obliged to pay anyway Euro 179 almost USD 250 !!! Obviously I "had" to say YES in order to to have my Macbook back with a new hard disk. They also did not have hard disk on stock so it took 10 more days to have the Macbook definitively back home.
I should also say that after a 1 month use I was obliged to change battery (covered under warranty) fact quite annoying.
Moral: I love Apple since 2 years, before I was a strong Windows user. I also know that I should back up data as from day 1 of use however let me say that :
- Apple should improve quality control on components
- Apple should not charge USD 250 just to check if data is recoverable !!!
These are my recommendations for Apple, at least if they look for real and durable customer satisfaction.
Bye.

macbook black Mac OS X (10.4.8)

To bad to hear that. I'm still waiting for the hard disk to arrive, the MacBook it's been at the shop sitting for more than 3 weeks, and counting.

Fortunately I lived to tell this story because I backed up my data and I've continued with my work out of my almost 2 year old PowerBook 12in. which is just a fantastic machine that I just love I didn't sell. Will the MacBook last this long in a usable manner...??? Will I still own in to see that??? We'll see... first, continue to wait for the disk.. I just hope all this time has gone into getting a good quality replacement.


Best,
Pedro

My hard drive arrived, I just hope it lasts longer...
Everything is back in place and working fine, doing back ups now every other day with iBackup a free little app at: http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup


Best,
Pedro