Hi
I've got a 27-inch late 2013 iMac with 3TB Fusion Drive, and long story short, the HDD part of the drive has failed and hence needs replacing (I've attached a much longer explanation of how I got to this point at the end for those that are interested).
I took it to my local Genius Bar today and they confirmed it had indeed failed and would need replacing. They quoted me £225 exc. VAT, which I wasn't particularly happy about but I obviously just had to get it done as a 128GB SSD wasn't really suffice to run on over the Christmas period. I got a few quotes from several tech guys I know to replace the HDD with an array of different capacity HDDs, and even SSDs, but they all seemed to come up even more expensive and a longer timeframe than Apple, so I begrudgingly handed over my iMac to the Specialist and it's currently in store being repaired.
One thing that one of my tech guys raised though is that in theory, since the iMac as bought in April 2014, it should be covered under UK consumer law, which (to the best of my knowledge) says that if a fault arises with the product within 6 years, that existed at the point of purchase, I am eligible for a free repair or replacement. I know the whole law around this is incredibly hazy but I was just wondering if anyone has had a HDD replaced by Apple under consumer law, or if anyone has any tips on how to get one.
I asked the Specialist in store as to whether this would come under it, as the person who checked me in said they may be able to repair it free under the law, but the Specialist said it wouldn’t apply in this case, as the issue hadn’t manifested itself within the first year (not sure if may he was getting confused). He also said Apple never does HDD replacements under consumer law as “we just assume they break down at some point so you have to pay, whenever that point may be”, an answer which I was a bit surprised by! I know there is the fact that after the 6 month window after purchase has passed, it is my responsibility as the consumer to prove the item was faulty on delivery, but surely the life of a HDD has got to be longer than 4 years and 8 months? I’m not expecting a HDD to last for 50 years, but what is the standard lifetime of a HDD? If it is longer than 4 years and 8 months, and mine has failed now, surely the HDD was inherently faulty on delivery?
Maybe I am just rambling in the hope of a free repair but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with consumer law and HDD replacements and any tips of how they work.
Thanks
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Turned on iMac for first time after being in sleep mode for over a week. Apps running very slowly, mouse seemed to be lagging and WiFi wasn’t connecting to any networks, so went through the usual process of restarting Mac. Went through normal boot sequence but then showed prohibited sign in centre of screen.
Booted into recovery mode and looked at Disk Utility to find that my 3TB Fusion Drive (Macintosh HD) had disappeared and only two volumes shown were an uninitialised ‘MEDIA’ volume of 4GB and a SSD volume of 128GB. No sign of my usual boot disk at all.
Verified all the disks - MEDIA disk came back as all okay, but SSD had an error, to which it suggested ‘Run Disk Utility in Recovery Mode’ (I was already in recovery mode?!?). Then proceeded to try and reinstall macOS on the startup disk but my usual Macintosh HD didn’t show up in recovery mode macOS installer, nor did any other disk. After several restarts into different versions of Recovery/Internet Recovery Mode, the ‘Untitled’ SSD volume showed up, and I managed to wipe that to reinstall macOS Mojave on. I now have the OS installed on that disk, and I am starting up from there so I can actually use the Mac, but obviously have very little storage and Finder/Disk Utility is still not recognising my (former/disappeared?) Macintosh HD.
I've got a 27-inch late 2013 iMac with 3TB Fusion Drive, and long story short, the HDD part of the drive has failed and hence needs replacing (I've attached a much longer explanation of how I got to this point at the end for those that are interested).
I took it to my local Genius Bar today and they confirmed it had indeed failed and would need replacing. They quoted me £225 exc. VAT, which I wasn't particularly happy about but I obviously just had to get it done as a 128GB SSD wasn't really suffice to run on over the Christmas period. I got a few quotes from several tech guys I know to replace the HDD with an array of different capacity HDDs, and even SSDs, but they all seemed to come up even more expensive and a longer timeframe than Apple, so I begrudgingly handed over my iMac to the Specialist and it's currently in store being repaired.
One thing that one of my tech guys raised though is that in theory, since the iMac as bought in April 2014, it should be covered under UK consumer law, which (to the best of my knowledge) says that if a fault arises with the product within 6 years, that existed at the point of purchase, I am eligible for a free repair or replacement. I know the whole law around this is incredibly hazy but I was just wondering if anyone has had a HDD replaced by Apple under consumer law, or if anyone has any tips on how to get one.
I asked the Specialist in store as to whether this would come under it, as the person who checked me in said they may be able to repair it free under the law, but the Specialist said it wouldn’t apply in this case, as the issue hadn’t manifested itself within the first year (not sure if may he was getting confused). He also said Apple never does HDD replacements under consumer law as “we just assume they break down at some point so you have to pay, whenever that point may be”, an answer which I was a bit surprised by! I know there is the fact that after the 6 month window after purchase has passed, it is my responsibility as the consumer to prove the item was faulty on delivery, but surely the life of a HDD has got to be longer than 4 years and 8 months? I’m not expecting a HDD to last for 50 years, but what is the standard lifetime of a HDD? If it is longer than 4 years and 8 months, and mine has failed now, surely the HDD was inherently faulty on delivery?
Maybe I am just rambling in the hope of a free repair but I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with consumer law and HDD replacements and any tips of how they work.
Thanks
————
Turned on iMac for first time after being in sleep mode for over a week. Apps running very slowly, mouse seemed to be lagging and WiFi wasn’t connecting to any networks, so went through the usual process of restarting Mac. Went through normal boot sequence but then showed prohibited sign in centre of screen.
Booted into recovery mode and looked at Disk Utility to find that my 3TB Fusion Drive (Macintosh HD) had disappeared and only two volumes shown were an uninitialised ‘MEDIA’ volume of 4GB and a SSD volume of 128GB. No sign of my usual boot disk at all.
Verified all the disks - MEDIA disk came back as all okay, but SSD had an error, to which it suggested ‘Run Disk Utility in Recovery Mode’ (I was already in recovery mode?!?). Then proceeded to try and reinstall macOS on the startup disk but my usual Macintosh HD didn’t show up in recovery mode macOS installer, nor did any other disk. After several restarts into different versions of Recovery/Internet Recovery Mode, the ‘Untitled’ SSD volume showed up, and I managed to wipe that to reinstall macOS Mojave on. I now have the OS installed on that disk, and I am starting up from there so I can actually use the Mac, but obviously have very little storage and Finder/Disk Utility is still not recognising my (former/disappeared?) Macintosh HD.
