Having some major problems.

[pigoo3]

Because any hint of a bad HD and i usually replace it myself anyway, so as not to lose anything important.

I think that the #1 thing to do (since you've had this trouble with the HD)...is DEFINITELY have a backup of anything important!

This is a good rule to follow whether you have a "possible" bad hard drive or not.

Good luck with the rest of the install,

- Nick

 

[andymac2210]

Just an update, I downloaded smart hard drive utility today (Apple - Downloads - System/Disk Utilities - SMART Utility) and it shows my hard drive has 'failing', so it's off to get a new one tomorrow.


I would send it back to apple, but I don't fancy waiting a week, and since apple still don't have a store in scotlands capital there's little else I can do.

 

[pigoo3]

Just an update, I downloaded smart hard drive utility today...and it shows my hard drive has 'failing', so it's off to get a new one tomorrow.

Great idea! Always nice to confirm the problem before "diving in" purchasing & installing replacement parts.

- Nick

 

[chas_m]

Actuallly, I'd say "woah there cowboy!"

First off, replacing the hard drive yourself might void the warranty. You DO have warranty on that machine, don't void it -- particularly if you had a problem with a defect *out of the box.*

Second, while there may not be any Apple Retail Stores in Edinburgh, there are authorised dealers in Edinburgh, so you could probably get the repair done at one of those. CanCom on Nicolson (in Newinton) or The IT Dept Limited (Constitution Street). Both do repairs.

Also, and this is just me having lived in the much-more-spread-out land of Florida for a long time talking, but Glasgow (and an Apple Retail Store) is (as I recall) all of 60km away. To me that's a reasonable drive to get vital repairs done on one's computer -- just call and make an appointment first.

 

[andymac2210]

Actuallly, I'd say "woah there cowboy!"

First off, replacing the hard drive yourself might void the warranty. You DO have warranty on that machine, don't void it -- particularly if you had a problem with a defect *out of the box.*

Second, while there may not be any Apple Retail Stores in Edinburgh, there are authorised dealers in Edinburgh, so you could probably get the repair done at one of those. CanCom on Nicolson (in Newinton) or The IT Dept Limited (Constitution Street). Both do repairs.

Also, and this is just me having lived in the much-more-spread-out land of Florida for a long time talking, but Glasgow (and an Apple Retail Store) is (as I recall) all of 60km away. To me that's a reasonable drive to get vital repairs done on one's computer -- just call and make an appointment first.

I already replaced the HD without incident, took all of 5 minutes and as far as I know it doesn't void the warranty, in fact apple offer instructions of how to do it on their website.
They say; "Your MacBook Pro does not have any user-serviceable parts, except the hard drive and
the memory."
Not that instructions were needed, was surprisingly easy.


Ran the SMART utility again and it shows no errors, down from 2500 read errors with the old one.
Got a 500gb, 7200rpm drive aswell, so a big bump in space and a small performance increase.

 

[chas_m]

Very glad everything worked out. Some models don't let you change the hard drive out, some do -- yours did, so everything is as they used to say "copacetic."