Mid-2011 27" iMac Disk failure?

[stopperten]

I am writing for a bit of advice. I have a mid-2011 27" Imac that started misbehaving a few weeks ago. The boot-up times are extremely prolonged. I went to the genius bar today. They were able to run diagnostics on it, and the genius suggested they replace the graphics card per the replacement program but also felt that my hard drive is likely bad (but did not run the hard drive test). He quoted me a price of $226 to replace with a 1TB HDD drive. Ridiculous!

My AppleCare appears to have expired in september. Any strategies to get apple to do the right thing and replace this under applecare?

If they wont replace under applecare, I think its silly to pay that price for that drive and would prefer to upgrade anyway. How difficult is it to replace the drive? Give me some ideas what you have done, HDD + SSD? SSD only?

Any chance if its our they will just pop in a new drive for me while they have it apart for the videocard?

Uses are mainly home use with light video editing, photo editing and gaming. Thanks for the help!

 

[DeltaMac]

This guide will show you how to replace the hard drive on your iMac.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2429+Hard+Drive+Replacement/7555#s31549

read down through the guide, which will also list kits available to replace the hard drive with an SSD (or even a second SSD), along with some of the issues that you might encounter, such as bypassing the HD temp sensor connection to avoid unintended fan noise.

 

[rkaufmann87]

Let me get this right, your AppleCare expired in September and you want them to extend it for free. And why in the world would you think that you're entitled to that?

 

[joudbren]

If they are replacing the video card as per the recall then the labour to open and close the iMac should be included as part of that. On that basis hopefully they are only charging you for the cost of the actual hard drive. (albeit ridiculously priced but hey, it's Apple) You may want to see if they are agreeable to that.

If yes, then see what the cost difference is for them to upgrade the HD to a 3TB version at a minimum or maybe an Apple SSD. They might not but doesn't hurt to ask and they already have your system open for the video card replacement so not sure you want to go through the trouble to try and do it yourself. Cheers!

P.S. 2011 iMac boots and runs perfectly well from an SSD using the Thunderbolt interface so you have that route as well. I ran my 2011 that way for a couple of years and it was crazy fast. The external interface also allows for easy replacement of the SSD if it ever fails or if you want to upgrade it. My 1TB internal drive basically just became a storage drive and a bootcamp partition.

 

[stopperten]

They wont upgrade the drive, even if I pay more. They say they can only replace what is inside the machine.

So, I am thinking of doing it myself. Likely a crucial MX100, either 250 or 500gb. Any thoughts?

The only thing I am unclear about is what to do about the "fan problem". I have read to short the pins if an SSD is installed or to use the temp sensor from OWC or to use software to control the fan. Whats the optimal solution (ease/cost/etc)?

Thanks for all of the help!!