04-21-2012, 10:00 AM

My 1TB hard drive has failed and I'm having to take it for replacement. Any one got any ideas how much it will cost me at Apple? i know its £60 an hour labour, but thats all they will tell me. Any clue will be a help. I'm in the UK so no doubt I'm about to get robbed.

Regards

04-21-2012, 10:15 AM

Is it still under warranty, and what type of mac have you got

Or have you got Apple care

04-21-2012, 02:27 PM

No warranty is out and no Apple care. It's an 27" iMac about 2 years old

04-21-2012, 04:06 PM

If it's out of warranty, why don't you replace it yourself and save the labor plus parts cost? Go to iFixit: The free repair manual and look up the procedure for changing out the hard drive in an iMac. Not easy to do, but with some inexpensive tools and patience, it can be done.

Of course if you feel you're not up to it, let Apple do it but it may cost quite a bit. Here in the US it would easily cost around $400 or more depending on the labor and size of the new drive.

04-22-2012, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

Here in the US it would easily cost around $400 or more depending on the labor and size of the new drive.

Not in any shop I've ever worked in! Unless you're getting really bad prices for 1TB bare drives ...

In the shops I worked in, we charged an rate for labour based on how long it actually took, so for example changing out the hard drive of an early MacBook (ten minutes' work tops), we often didn't charge for labour at all a token amount. Now if you wanted us to put a new HD in an iBook G4, oh well THAT was going to cost you four hours labour

I've only done one HD transplant on a 27" iMac (I don't work as a tech anymore), but based on my memory of it I would have said two hours of labour tops. The drive itself should still be under $100.

04-22-2012, 01:26 AM

Worth a read also. OWC is not giving out the instructions either.

Apple Further Restricts Upgrade Options on New iMacs | Other World Computing Blog

04-22-2012, 02:14 AM

Not in any shop I've ever worked in! Unless you're getting really bad prices for 1TB bare drives ...

Don't know what shops you've worked in but the Apple stores here in Texas do not work at discount labor prices chas. Also a 1 TB hard drive is charged at the Apple retail price not what you can purchase it for from OWC... add that to the labor cost and it will easily approach what I quoted the OP.

We've had members around the country pretty much tell us the same thing when having a hard drive replaced in an iMac. Remember, replacing the hard drive in an iMac is not as simple as doing it in a MBP. Another thing to keep in mind is that hard drives for the 2010 and 2011 iMacs are proprietary because of the special cable needed and thermal sensor.

04-23-2012, 06:58 AM

Ah yes, that would complicate matters. I stand corrected.

04-24-2012, 06:21 PM

I think suction cups and iFixit are in order..

Hard drives are coming down in price but not to what they were, but 60 pounds an hr. yikes.

11-08-2012, 06:53 PM

I was quoted £185.00 + tax for the HD and £35.00 +tax for labour. With the help of mac-forum members I replaced the drive myself. The cost of the identical drive to the one I removed was £43.60 + £8.72 Tax(£52.32). It is a no brainer do it yourself.

11-08-2012, 09:46 PM

How are the fans operating if that was in the iMac the OP mentioned? One of the problems mentioned by OWC is the Apple firmware for the hard drive heat sensors.