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My 5 month old MBP's HD Failed? WTF?

A drive can fail in various ways, most of which will not harm your data and leave it fully recoverable.

- A bad write can mess up the partition table and make the drive unreadable. No data should be lost, though recovering it might be a hassle.
- A component failure (e.g. controller circuit) renders the drive unusable. No data should be lost, replacing the failed component fixes the issue.
- Head crash or some other catastrophic failure physically damages the platters. Your data is pretty much toast no matter what "CSI-forensic" lab you take it to.

Your best bet would probably be to take it to some recovery service and ask what they think can be done and how much it will cost.
 
Data which only exists in one copy, is data that will be lost.

Companies invest thousands in network assisted storage with redundancy even though a simple external HDD seems to cut it... Now you know why.

Your apple store is indeed inexcusable for replacing your fast drive with a slower one.

Hard drives fail. After 2 hours or after 1 million. You can never know. So next time backup.
 
AHDuke99 said:
Apple replaced my drive with a 5400rpm one, and my old drive was 7200! I'm getting even more pissed now!!
Click to expand...

Perhaps they had problems with 7200rpm drives in the specific system configuration you have. Perhaps not. Either way, you had no right to be pissed in the first place - they guarantee that they'll replace a failed component, not your data. If you lose it, that's your fault for not having a backup, not Apple's fault for a drive failing when no component is 100% reliable.
 
Sorry to hear about your loss, I know it must feel horrible. There's a saying "everything that goes up must come down, everything that spins will stop spinning some day". If your data is precious you can't give yourself an excuse for not having backed up.

It won't be any use to blame Apple for quality control failure. Apple does not manufacture HDDs, they buy them from other companies, Hitachi for instance. A fresh, brand new HD can't be just seen with eyes or observed with machines and its lifetime predicted. Failing HDDs are not a constant problem that are overlooked by Apple on the long run. The yellow 27" iMacs - yes, the 8600M GT GPUs - yes. They fixed those or offered reimbursements. But HDDs - no. Accidents happen, you can never forecast when, that's why they are called accidents.

Now Apple is doing its part: replacing your drive free of cost under warranty clauses. Something went wrong with what you bought from them within an unlikely time frame, so they're giving you a new drive. But that's all. That's their end.

On the other hand, they are not responsible for you having not backed up your data and the $1000 is the price of your mistake. Someone needs to sit at their desk with a dead drive recovering data that Apple doesn't care about, so it costs them money. If you worked for Apple and 50 customers came to you and asked you to recover data for them because their drives failed, would you do it ?

Warranty replacement and data recovery are completely different. If your Apple product broke down, its Apple's fault and they will do for you what they warranted. But Apple only warrants your hardware from defects. They don't cover what you put inside your drive because that's your responsibility.

I hope you get your data back somehow. I know there's nothing to say that would be comforting enough but I hope the best for you. Back up regularly next time. :)
 
tomjleeds said:
Perhaps they had problems with 7200rpm drives in the specific system configuration you have. Perhaps not. Either way, you had no right to be pissed in the first place - they guarantee that they'll replace a failed component, not your data. If you lose it, that's your fault for not having a backup, not Apple's fault for a drive failing when no component is 100% reliable.
Click to expand...

Partially true.

If the OP had a 7200RPM, then apple is required to replace it with the same spec'ed hard drive. That includes the rotational speed.

Remember, you paid for a 7.2k, you don't get a 5.4k in return just because of a repair. If the OP replaced his HDD before, then Apple would replace the drive (if they will) back to whatever the stock is.
 
rumpus said:
Sorry to hear about your loss, I know it must feel horrible. There's a saying "everything that goes up must come down, everything that spins will stop spinning some day". If your data is precious you can't give yourself an excuse for not having backed up.

It won't be any use to blame Apple for quality control failure. Apple does not manufacture HDDs, they buy them from other companies, Hitachi for instance. A fresh, brand new HD can't be just seen with eyes or observed with machines and its lifetime predicted. Failing HDDs are not a constant problem that are overlooked by Apple on the long run. The yellow 27" iMacs - yes, the 8600M GT GPUs - yes. They fixed those or offered reimbursements. But HDDs - no. Accidents happen, you can never forecast when, that's why they are called accidents.

Now Apple is doing its part: replacing your drive free of cost under warranty clauses. Something went wrong with what you bought from them within an unlikely time frame, so they're giving you a new drive. But that's all. That's their end.

On the other hand, they are not responsible for you having not backed up your data and the $1000 is the price of your mistake. Someone needs to sit at their desk with a dead drive recovering data that Apple doesn't care about, so it costs them money. If you worked for Apple and 50 customers came to you and asked you to recover data for them because their drives failed, would you do it ?

Warranty replacement and data recovery are completely different. If your Apple product broke down, its Apple's fault and they will do for you what they warranted. But Apple only warrants your hardware from defects. They don't cover what you put inside your drive because that's your responsibility.

I hope you get your data back somehow. I know there's nothing to say that would be comforting enough but I hope the best for you. Back up regularly next time. :)
Click to expand...

********************************
What he said. You have a right to be pissed at yourself, and we all understand, but not at Apple. As life lessons go, this one may be hard now, but it really isn't too bad. I have three backups in my house and one off premises. I learned the hard way many years ago. If you want the least hassle, try a Time Capsule. I'm also looking at Crashplan for automatic cloud backup: http://www3.crashplan.com/consumer/index.html. It depends on how you work and how your drive is organized. Something like Dropbox might work better for you.

I talked to a concrete construction guy years ago and he said there are two things you need to know about concrete: it gets hard, it cracks. With drives of any sort, you can never have too much storage and they break.


Mooch
 
AHDuke99 said:
Really? I just lost an entire semesters worth of work and countless other files because my five month old computer's hard drive failed? Apple replaced the drive but told me it could cost an additional $500-$1000 to recover the data off my old drive?

Granted, it was my fault for not having a backup in place since August, but I live in cramped quarters, travel a lot, and never have the space to lug around my external HDs, and I thought I could rely on having a computer's HD work for more than 5 months before crapping out. I'm furious right now. I've owned Macs since the 1990s, and I've never had an issue like this before today. I guess I can spend the $1000 now to get my work back.
Click to expand...

Wow you were not backed up??? WTF??? Cramped quarters??? a 500 gb drive will fit in your shirt pocket, better yet simply back-up your data files to flash drive and you are good to go... Should backup at least once a day...

Definitely not apples fault, hard drives fail and lost data will happen...
 
Punker said:
Ive had my share of data loss and HD failure. Around 1TB total of data i'll never see again (in my life).

Not more than 2 weeks ago, my external HD died on me. I guess it didnt like being in my backpack for the last fews months backpacking.

I was wondering... Would SSD fix this HD failing all the time hell ?

What is the lifespan of an SSD drive ?
Since there is nothing mechanical inside, i'd assume it would never fail. Am i right ?
Click to expand...

haha. NOPE.

My $400 dollar Intel x-25m super top of the line undisputed champion SSD crashed and took all my data with it after four months of usage, requiring me to open up my Macbook Pro and RMA it. I had a backup that was 2 days old and thankfully nothing important was lost, but thats because I work in IT and understand the importance of a robust backup schema, of which my personal one was not (it worked, but I had some holes that I couldn't identify until after the fact).

Here is a link to my post for reference. Note that i'm not the only one.

I've also had a brand new g-tech raid die on me. I sent it to them and , in their infinite incompetence, they couldn't recover the data and took over a month to do the repairs. That was my "has everything I hold dear to me" drive so of course I had quality backups.
 
I realize it was my fault. I was just more pissed off at the time I wrote this than I am now. I did get most of my stuff back from my June backup on Time Machine, got the music I lost off my iPhone using Senuti, and all of the pictures I lost, thankfully, were still on my camera's SD card. I am still missing my semester's work, but if I can't get any data recovery at a reasonable price ($300-$500), then I'll forget it, go out and buy a Time Capsule, and start backing up religiously. I can get notes from others and redo the paper I lost. It's not ideal, but I'm not wanting to spend $1500 or more to get that data back.

I have quote requests out to several local places and DriveSavers and . Another place told me it seems like it would boot under Linux, but because it's an Apple drive, it wouldn't run it.
 
I have and use Drive Genius, Drive Rescue 3 and Drive Warrior. If the drive still spins , I recommend a DW / DR3 cocktail. I see spinnerlys recommended DR3 Also. Use it.
 
tomjleeds said:
Perhaps they had problems with 7200rpm drives in the specific system configuration you have. Perhaps not. Either way, you had no right to be pissed in the first place - they guarantee that they'll replace a failed component, not your data. If you lose it, that's your fault for not having a backup, not Apple's fault for a drive failing when no component is 100% reliable.
Click to expand...

+1. lol at people blaming others for their mistakes.
 
AHDuke99 said:
I realize it was my fault. I was just more pissed off at the time I wrote this than I am now. I did get most of my stuff back from my June backup on Time Machine, got the music I lost off my iPhone using Senuti, and all of the pictures I lost, thankfully, were still on my camera's SD card. I am still missing my semester's work, but if I can't get any data recovery at a reasonable price ($300-$500), then I'll forget it, go out and buy a Time Capsule, and start backing up religiously. I can get notes from others and redo the paper I lost. It's not ideal, but I'm not wanting to spend $1500 or more to get that data back.

I have quote requests out to several local places and DriveSavers and . Another place told me it seems like it would boot under Linux, but because it's an Apple drive, it wouldn't run it.
Click to expand...

cue 18 months from now when the time machine fails, lol
 
You get no sympathy from me. Not having a current, that is to say no more than a month old backup is plain stupid. At the very least you should have kept a backup of whatever paper you were working on (you could have emailed it to yourself, for example).

In addition to a TM machine backup, I keep another onsite backup, done weekly (on one of the HDs inside my Mac Pro), and an offsite backup (monthly) on a HD I keep at work. This way if my house burns downs or my computer gets stolen I won't be SOL. Insurance will pay for stolen/damaged equipment. No money in the world will bring back your data if it goes up in smoke.

Let's hope you've learned a lesson from this experience.
 
Sorry bub but with time machine and external 2.5 hd's that don't really use up any space even in a laptop bag there is no good excuse not to plug in once a week and backup. Especially on a machine that is used for crucial work.
 
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