need AppleCare Advice

[tkingart]

I need to take my new iMac (3-4 months now) to AppleCare, the top-left and now top-right of the screen are displaying major defects (a kind of strange tinting/warping of light), however I've honestly never had to deal with AppleCare before, and I have a slight problem, I have sensitive data on my hard drive that I cannot leave in the hands of others.

I'm ordering a new backup drive (2 tb firewire), but I'm still concerned that data could still be retrieved. I'd rather not have to setup my software again, or restore data- as it's a pain to keep re-authorizing. To make a long story short, my system contains sensitive data/information that has no business being within keyboard reach of others.

Do I ask AppleCare to remove the hard drive first? can they put the current (working) hard drive into a new iMac assuming that the screen cannot be replaced? Any ideas how to go about this?

Thanks in advance.

[miles01110]

You'll need to replace it yourself. Apple won't remove the drive, and even if they did it'd defeat the purpose of "not letting your data get into the hands of others." If only the screen needs to be replaced they'll install the new screen and return your "original" iMac to you.

[kbfr08]

You can remove the hard drive if it's necessary. Your computer should still be covered under applecare if you only touch the ram or hard drive, according to the genius at my apple store.

[ReggaeFire]

If it's that important to you, then I wouldn't worry about the time to backup/restore (which even for a full 2TB won't take more than a night over FW800) and just do it. Much easier (and safer) than removing the hard drive (which is not a simple process on modern iMacs). Download SuperDuper, make a copy, do a wipe of your existing drive (a zero out wipe would be total overkill, as they would have no reason to do any sort of investigation into your wiped drive, but if you're that paranoid it's an option)

[Stonefly]

I agree with ReggaeFire, back it up and wipe it. It's a lot easier than taking it out. Along with time machine, carbon copy cloner is a free and good program to use for backups. You can get it here.

http://www.bombich.com/

[Gregg2]

carbon copy cloner is a free and good program to use for backups. You can get it here.

http://www.bombich.com/

Your link is not clickable you know.

[Stonefly]

Your link is not clickable you know.


I know, copy and paste it into your browser or click here (http://www.bombich.com/)

[ADent]

If you turn FileVault on then your data is safe (ie no one can get their hands on it, but it could be lost during a drive failure or drive replacement).

Follow up with erase of blank areas of drive (via Disk Utility) and creating a second user account and checking that you can not access your files.

Otherwise plan on a erase of the entire disk and a reinstall of the OS before turning it over to Apple.