My Mac is going to the store! Help me out!

[Nym]

Hi everyone!

So, tomorrow I'll be taking my 1st Gen 24" iMac to the local Apple representative since my DVD Drive swallowed my Battlefield 2 disc and won't eject it no matter what I try to do.

If they have the replacement DVD Drive in stock they'll replace it quickly, however, my Mac has everything (digitally speaking) that matters to me, work files, pictures, movies, keychain access etc etc... and I just don't feel very confortable with it staying in the store for more than 1 day (which will probably happen).

My question is, is there anyway to protect my data by making it impossible to access my Account? I have a password set up but... is that enough for someone who knows their way around OS X?

I'm asking because if it was Windows... I could access someone's files easily without even booting the OS, however, as this is the first time I ever had problems with Apple hardware, I don't know what to do to ensure my personal data stays protect and untouched.

BTW - I have an external HD and I've moved some stuff there already, still, I don't want to have to delete my whole keychain access (for example) or having to re-download 3GB of e-mail!

Thanks in advance for any help that you might give

My iMac is running OS X Tiger 10.4.10 if it matters.

 

[aaronw1986]

Is File Vault enabled?

 

[Nym]

Is File Vault enabled?

I tried it but it says that I don't have enough disk space to do it.

My OSX partition is 182 Gb and I have 40 Gb left. Is this normal?

And FileVault? Will it definitely make it bulletproof?

 

[richard.mac]

just make another account with no password for the genius' and call it "repair account" or something. Make it administrative so they can install new things and make sure you disable automatic login. they will be able to read/write to system, applications, library and their home folder and will be able to read your home folder. if you dont want them to be able to read your home folder make them have no read access.

also have you tried restarting while holding your mouse button? that might eject the disc.

 

[Nym]

also have you tried restarting while holding your mouse button? that might eject the disc.

Yep, first thing I've tried was that but it doesn't work. Something broke inside the Drive, I can hear it when it spins

Anyway, I already have a Guest Account but maybe I should give it Administrator access.

The thing is, if one has Administrator access, you can easily login as root and access even another user's home folder content, and that's basically what I want closed shut.

And I'm also suspicious because in my country we don't actually have an Apple Store, we have a "Mac Zone" store which is a representative of all things Apple here but... they're not "Geniuses" per se

Basically, from what I understand, Password in the account and FileVault On is enought to keep almost anyone out right?

 

[richard.mac]

yeh ok i forgot admins can access root! hehe me dumb...

you definitely need to give admin access that why they ask you for your password when you hand it in for repairs.

so yes make some room on your drive and enable filevault. your disk needs to have the same amount of space left as the size of your home folder to enable file vault as i think it makes an encrypted copy then trashes the original.