Mac Hardrive's

Hi, I recently purchased an imac, and as I was reading the manuel that came with it, it said "don't move the computer around while it is on, because it may damage the hard drive," well just a couple of days ago this light I have above the computer fell and hit the top of it while i was surfing the net. Is it possible that this jolt could of damaged my hard drive and if so is there any way I can do a diagnostic check? Also if this is the case why don't my friends ibook's have problems since there constantly moving them from one place to the next, thanks -Rob.

Well, the "don't move while computer is on"-warning applies to ALL desktop computer, not just Apple's.
While the computer is running, it's permanently accessing the harddisk, and giving it a big jolt can damage the disks surface. But not every little move will damage it, nowadays harddisks are pretty robust. I don't know how heavy your lamp is and how hard it hit your Mac, but as longs as you don't get any errors, you shouldn't be too concerned. You can check your disk with disk utility, or with the Apple hardware test if you wanna be sure.

Laptop harddisks, are different, they are especially made for being moved around. Nevertheless, dropping it while the computer is on could cause some damage too.

i could probably throw a lamp at my G5 without damaging the harddrive, but i wont

MacAddikt said:

i could probably throw a lamp at my G5 without damaging the harddrive, but i wont

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Go on! Film it too. :tusks:

MacAddikt said:

i could probably throw a lamp at my G5 without damaging the harddrive, but i wont

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Bit it would certainly damage the nice case... :spook:

exactly

robhimslf said:

Is it possible that this jolt could of damaged my hard drive and if so is there any way I can do a diagnostic check?

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Check this link for hard disk info about failures…
http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/hard-disk-failures.htm