I have a mid 2011 iMac. I started getting signs of problems with it so I bought a copy of Scannerz (Scannerz) to test it and the drive's failing. Saying it's failing is sort of an understatement. More like experienced severe crash with a span of over 10GB showing bad sectors interspersed. Using probing on Scannerz just made it clear how bad the damage was - I would guess that if I let it finish, it would have reported over a thousand bad sectors. I got tired of waiting for it to complete probing so I just shut the thing down, thinking, "well, I obviously need a new hard drive."
First, this thing is a mid 2011, but I got it in late 2011 (December, nearly 2012) because Apple was kicking them out the door at a discount. I didn't get an extended warranty because I figured it's a desktop computer so what could possibly go wrong with it? The system gets about 4-5 hours of use per day.
Tickoff Point Number 1: The drive crashes, and crashes severely after really just over a year's use.
I then thought "I'll replace it myself. After all, HD's are so cheap." Then I find out this thing requires a specific type of drive that only Apple has because it uses some type of weird firmware to control the temperature. Do you guys have any idea how ridiculous the price is Apple wants to charge me to replace the drive?
Tickoff Point Number 2: According to Apple, only they can replace the drive or the system won't work right.
I find this hard, if not impossible to believe. Let's face the facts: since Apple went to Intel it's really nothing more than a glorified PC. Either these drives have got to be available from a third party source or there has to be some type of work around. The original drive was 500G, but I'd like to move up to 1TB. Why can't I just order the drive from Apple? Why do they insist only they do the repair.
I really sort of feel this is almost a con. Seriously, deliberately making hardware incompatible with anything else just to lock in repairs? That's the way it looks to me.
Does anyone know if there are work arounds or other drives with the type of firmware that I can get without paying Apple a fortune?
Thanks
First, this thing is a mid 2011, but I got it in late 2011 (December, nearly 2012) because Apple was kicking them out the door at a discount. I didn't get an extended warranty because I figured it's a desktop computer so what could possibly go wrong with it? The system gets about 4-5 hours of use per day.
Tickoff Point Number 1: The drive crashes, and crashes severely after really just over a year's use.
I then thought "I'll replace it myself. After all, HD's are so cheap." Then I find out this thing requires a specific type of drive that only Apple has because it uses some type of weird firmware to control the temperature. Do you guys have any idea how ridiculous the price is Apple wants to charge me to replace the drive?
Tickoff Point Number 2: According to Apple, only they can replace the drive or the system won't work right.
I find this hard, if not impossible to believe. Let's face the facts: since Apple went to Intel it's really nothing more than a glorified PC. Either these drives have got to be available from a third party source or there has to be some type of work around. The original drive was 500G, but I'd like to move up to 1TB. Why can't I just order the drive from Apple? Why do they insist only they do the repair.
I really sort of feel this is almost a con. Seriously, deliberately making hardware incompatible with anything else just to lock in repairs? That's the way it looks to me.
Does anyone know if there are work arounds or other drives with the type of firmware that I can get without paying Apple a fortune?
Thanks