Harddrive failing -support question

First thing to do is get your data backed up ASAP. You've already done that, haven't you? If not, go get an external USB drive and back up using either Time Machine or SuperDuper. Don't rely on Apple to do it for you. If it were me, first thing I'd do is partition the external drive, start by dragging over my important files only, then I'd clone the drive to the other partition.

If your machine is less that a year old, it's still on warranty and they should replace the hard drive for you, but they won't want to take any responsibility for your data.

If for some reason they deny the warranty claim, you can replace the hard drive yourself for less than $100.

IntelliUser said:

The SMART status of my iMac says the hdd's failing. I turned it off and I've got a few questions.

1-- I have inadvertedly unplugged the iMac several times, could that be the cause?
2-- (a) The basic support is still active, will it cover the damage? (b)They'll be Able to see the support status through the serial nr, right? (c) Also will they backup my data?
3-- If it's not covered, what would be the cost?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

When you say basic support is still active, I take that to mean the warranty has not expired.

Take the machine in AFTER backing it up. They will replace the drive without charge, if the warranty is still valid. But you will receive a machine back with OS X on it and nothing else. Hence, you'll appreciate that backup...

A free service you might appreciate is Dropbox. It puts a folder on your machine's disk, and anything you put in that folder gets backed up onto their server automatically. You get 2GB for free and can buy more. If you have several machines associated with the same Dropbox account, anything you put on one machine's Dropbox folder is automatically copied to the Dropbox folders of all your other machines as well. So it's duplicative backup, and very handy for those of us who use more than one machine. I generally keep my work files in my Dropbox while I'm working on them, in case something should happen to my hard disk, etc. That way there's always a current backup, and I don't have to take my Time Machine disk with me when I travel. The files backed up to the Dropbox server are versioned, too, so if I screw up an edit it is easy to go back to a previous version. Recommended, and potentially very valuable in your current situation.