Was hoping for some advice. I have a 24 inch iMac that I bought in Oct 2007. I've been having trouble with it for months. I get the spinning beach ball many times per day & have to shut it down with the power button or it will spin for hours. The last couple of times I booted I got a file folder with a ? Or a circle with a line thru it instead of the apple. I talked to a tech today & he thinks it's the hard drive. It will cost me $533 to replace the drive (parts & labor). Is it worth it? If it were yours, would you do it? Maybe I can sell it to someone who's comfortable replacing the drive. I just don't know what to do. I would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks in advance.
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Hard drive failure
- Thread starter blumoon
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Well there is a refresh coming soon, if you can afford it get a new one. If not, you could replace the hard drive yourself, although it is a fairly complicated process. $533 to replace a hard drive is crazy. Double that and I bet you could get a very nice refurbished iMac from Apple.
Frankly I think you should look for another tech, $533 seems like an overcharge. I would think this job can be done in the $300 range, it's not a long job at all. Personally I'd make some phone calls and get some other quotes from AASP's in your area.
Well, hard drives fail unfortunately. Four years is not such a bad life time for a HDD. Its really a shame that the HDD is not easily accessible on an iMac. But is is the price one has to pay for the compact factor of the computer (I have no idea how it would be possible to design the iMac in a way which allows for easy access to the HDD).
I would also advice you to sell your iMac and get a refurbished one. The new iMac will be much faster and the costs involved are about the same.
Thank you for the advice. Here is how they are breaking it down: $40 for diagnostics, $175 for the drive, $246.90 for labor plus another hour ($72) to install the OS and check the drive. I would have to install Lion or give them my iTunes acct w/ password. I would also have to restore from my backups.
I'm thinking I will try to sell it and buy a new one when they update them.
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Thanks Leman. I bought my macbook from the refurb store and am very pleased with it. I've decided not to get my iMac repaired unless I can find someone who can do it for less money. I appreciate all of the advice, I knew you guys would put it all in to perspective for me.
Take a look at ifixit.com; it's not really all that hard to replace the drive yourself if you can follow directions and are careful. They can sell you the tools. The only big downside is if you rip a ribbon cable or something, but many of us have done this repair without drama.
Rob
Rob
You can short out the temperature sensor and install any HDD or better yet SSD you want. I've got a 2006 iMac that I replaced the HDD following iFixit.com instructions.
A 128GB OCZ Octane S2 can be had for $99 here in Toronto.
A 128GB OCZ Octane S2 can be had for $99 here in Toronto.
Update
I took my iMac to a certified apple technician to have the hard drive replaced for a quoted price of $250. They called me a few hours later and said it booted up fine and after running diagnostics, nothing seems to be wrong with it. What? I've been having trouble for months with the spinning beach ball that never goes away unless I power off. For 2 days it wouldn't boot up at all. The only thing I had connected was my keyboard and my external hard drive. This is making no sense. Why would it work for the tech? He did not have it hooked up to wifi. He did try to open pages and it opened fine...no beach ball.
Does anyone have any ideas? I told him to keep it over the weekend and see how it is on Monday. If it's ok, I will pick it up then.
Any advice would be appreciated. It was so frustrating to use for months and then when it finally stopped working all together I was relieved because now I can get it repaired.
I took my iMac to a certified apple technician to have the hard drive replaced for a quoted price of $250. They called me a few hours later and said it booted up fine and after running diagnostics, nothing seems to be wrong with it. What? I've been having trouble for months with the spinning beach ball that never goes away unless I power off. For 2 days it wouldn't boot up at all. The only thing I had connected was my keyboard and my external hard drive. This is making no sense. Why would it work for the tech? He did not have it hooked up to wifi. He did try to open pages and it opened fine...no beach ball.
Does anyone have any ideas? I told him to keep it over the weekend and see how it is on Monday. If it's ok, I will pick it up then.
Any advice would be appreciated. It was so frustrating to use for months and then when it finally stopped working all together I was relieved because now I can get it repaired.