New iMac being returned after a week, really worried! Please help...

[6891seb]

Hi Guys n girls,

My name is Seb and this is my first post on what looks like a great forum. Im pretty much a forum guy through and through and my other love, which is cars im very much involved in another internet forum. Once I get used to the overall layout of this one, and my knowledge of everything mac increases I will be sure to put my input in wherever I can.

But for now I really need your help and advice, I apologise now if the post is a tad long, please if you can take a few moments to help out it will be very much appreciated.

Here goes....

After years of being a PC boy I took the plunge and on the 9/01/12 my new iMac 27" arrived through the door. It wasnt until the following day (10th) I managed to get it all setup and ready for use. Id had a feeling that Id heard that most peeps just put there mac to sleep rather than shut down every day. I though that Id do a little bit more research on this and continued to power down every night.

On the second day of use I went to switch on my iMac and nothing happened. I left the plug disconnected for 10minutes and after that it worked fine. For the next few days the mac was just put to sleep whenever not in use, But last last saturday (14th) I was having work done in my home so had to power down the mac. In the evening I went to power the Mac back up and nothing In fact I have tried everyday on numerous occasions) I took it to my local genius bar who couldnt get it to work and gave me a repair number and asked me to speak with apple online.

After coming home and speaking with apple online, they advised me that as the mac was less than 14days old I could have a straight replacment (due tommorow )

In the few days I had owned the mac I had put loads of data on there, including 1000s of family photos and vids and lots of music (not too bothered about) Im not overly bothered as I have a time machine so am hopefull that I can perform a full restore on the new system.

Obviously Im very worried that my original imac is being returned with personal data and documents on there

After speaking with apple over the phone at length they have assured me that they take data protection very seriously and upon receiving a returned system they perform a full format, but obviosuly I still have doubts.

If anybody could offer some advice on the following pointers:

• The Mac had 2 user accounts but both were password protected can apple hack in?
• Will apple just remove the hard drive and try and access it as a 2nd drive?
• Things like iMail have been setup. Changing my password details with hotmail will this stop iMail from getting new mails?
• Other than changing my password details for all online sites I have visited, what other measures should I take?
• What software etc should I use on my new iMac to try and make files and folders as secure as possible if a problem such as this was to return again?

Apologies AGAIN for the long post, but as you can imagine Im a little worried. Although my mac experience hasnt gone off to the best start, Im sure it will quickly turn around and I'll be a life long contributer on this great community.

Thanks....

 

[TwistedPain]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I would not worry (big ethics issue, that is taken seriously), they will be able to format the drives without needing to access your data.

Bumping, so that you can also get a more detailed response from someone else.

 

[6891seb]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I would not worry (big ethics issue, that is taken seriously), they will be able to format the drives without needing to access your data.

Bumping, so that you can also get a more detailed response from someone else.

Thats what I imagined, the apple man ont he phone said that they take data protection very seriously

Thanks for the bump

Anymore advice guys....?

 

[deuk1219]

I would also not worry about it, I doubt it that they will go through your important stuff. Good luck!

 

[Macman45]

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Apple are watertight and super careful. Try to relax, and enjoy your new mac when it arrives.

Your data is going nowhere.

 

[6891seb]

I would also not worry about it, I doubt it that they will go through your important stuff. Good luck!

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Apple are watertight and super careful. Try to relax, and enjoy your new mac when it arrives.

Your data is going nowhere.

Thanks guys you have all made me feel better

TBH Im just an avarage joe and my data will be the same as everyone elses, not like there is anything special on there, mostly embarassing family pics etc

What do you guys suggest when I get the new iMac? Ive heard something along the lines of filevault!? Id would like a service that allows areas of my hard drive files and folders to be password protected etc.

Thanks again!

 

[CD1212]

Is it better to put an iMac into sleep rather than shutting down?

I had not heard this.

 

[xmnj]

Is it better to put an iMac into sleep rather than shutting down?

I had not heard this.

Yeah, I would not say better, it's more of a personal choice. I like having my mac wake up and ready to go, instead of waiting for boot up.

 

[6891seb]

Is it better to put an iMac into sleep rather than shutting down?

I had not heard this.

Yeah, I would not say better, it's more of a personal choice. I like having my mac wake up and ready to go, instead of waiting for boot up.

From what Ive read so far online. Most peeps who put macs to sleep rather than shutting down everyday do this because the sudden surge of electricity from turning on everything may cause an issue, the same reason that a bulb only ever blows once its sturned on. But really its a matter of choice.

The mac is so dammm quiet when in sleep mode, why not

 

[John T]

Is it better to put an iMac into sleep rather than shutting down?

Yes it is - in fact Apple recommend it.

Initial switching on of electrical equipment puts considerable load on PSU components which result from the initial power surge.

 

[turbobass]

Yes it is - in fact Apple recommend it.

Initial switching on of electrical equipment puts considerable load on PSU components which result from the initial power surge.

Hi there -- I've heard this severeal places but I'm not sure there's evidence for this.

The manual says to put it to sleep if you're going to be coming back to it in less than a few days but I don't see where it is making the justification based on this based on power consumption.

It seems far more likely that they're just advising you on how to get the best response-time from coming back to your machine...

Here's more of a full quote from page 15 of the manual (no mention of power damaging the equipment...which you think they'd mention):

Putting Your iMac to Sleep or Shutting It Down

When you finish working with your iMac, you can put it to sleep or shut it down.

Putting Your iMac to Sleep

If you‘ll be away from your iMac for less than a few days, put it to sleep.When your

iMac is in sleep, its screen is dark. You can quickly wake your iMac and bypass the startup process.

To put your iMac to sleep, do one of the following:

Choose Apple () > Sleep from the menu bar.

Press the power button (®) on the back of your iMac.

Choose Apple () > System Preferences, click Energy Saver, and set a sleep timer.

Hold down the Play/Pause button (’) on the optional Apple Remote for 3 seconds.

To wake your iMac from sleep, do one of the following:
Press any key on the keyboard.

Click the mouse.

Press the power button (®) on the back of your iMac.

Press any button on the optional Apple Remote.

When your iMac wakes from sleep, your applications, documents, and computer settings are exactly as you left them.

Shutting Down Your iMac
If you won’t be using your iMac for more than a few days, shut it down. Choose
Apple () > Shut Down. To turn your iMac on again, press the power button (®)

Can you tell me where this evidence that turning your Mac on could potentially damage it as a statement from Apple?

I think this is superstition but just want to be sure To each his own!

 

[Fuith]

If you're really that worried about it you can do a 'zero-data' format on your hard drive. Doing this rewrites your hard drive with junk data once or several time (up to you), making recovering files next to impossible. Just hold cmd+R on startup, then follow these steps http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/03/securely-format-a-mac-hard-drive/

 

[macmongral]

If you're really that worried about it you can do a 'zero-data' format on your hard drive. Doing this rewrites your hard drive with junk data once or several time (up to you), making recovering files next to impossible. Just hold cmd+R on startup, then follow these steps http://osxdaily.com/2010/05/03/securely-format-a-mac-hard-drive/

You guys crack me up the OP said he could not turn the mac on so how the hell can the op format the drive , please read and think before posting


keyboard not connected press F1 to continue

 

[John T]

Hi there -- I've heard this severeal places but I'm not sure there's evidence for this.

The manual says to put it to sleep if you're going to be coming back to it in less than a few days but I don't see where it is making the justification based on this based on power consumption.

It is an established fact by anyone with any knowledge of electronics.

 

[turbobass]

It is an established fact by anyone with any knowledge of electronics.

Then it should be easy to provide evidence for it? I understand in general about power, and good power, square waves, etc...but...

I think this is a "Monster Cable" type attitude many have to how it actual affects their beloved hardware -- the turning off and turning on of your PC would be cause for concern, but only for your PSU, which should be conditioning and supplying power well within the tolerance level for withstanding such a simple and common action such as **turning on your computer**.

Now, I've seen it quoted many times from the Mac manual saying that "Apple says to do it" and "it damages your computer" as if making a logical connection, but the manual itself obviously does NOT provide the proof that you are assuring me "everyone" assumes is true, as I've posted above, so now I'm asking for the second and last time: is there any **real evidence** that this damages your PSU?

As for OP -- to answer your question about FileVault, I've had some similar ones and gotten some great responses here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1337681/

 

[John T]

Then it should be easy to provide evidence for it? I understand in general about power, and good power, square waves, etc...but...

You don't need evidence, you need knowledge!

In simple terms, pretty well all electronic equipment contains a PSU (sorry! Power Supply Unit.) The purpose of this is to adjust (increase or decrease) the mains input voltage to that required by the equipment. From one extreme, for example in computers, this can be in the region of 5-12 volts and in another extreme in valve (tube) amplifiers anything from 300 to 1000+volts. When the equipment is switched on, the PSU experiences an initial mains "surge" when the components - i.e. electrolytic capacitors "charge up". Once charged, they effectively "idle" once the output voltage has stabilised.

It is this initial switch-on surge, charging internal components that can reduce the effective life of these components.

Our friend Google can further elaborate. A quickly located link is here. There are plenty more!

 

[turbobass]

You don't need evidence, you need knowledge!

No, I need evidence. I understand that these things are potentially damaging to PSUs, but that's what they're meant to tolerate, so I really don't care if -- in the grand scheme of things -- powering on and off my iMac is damaging my PSU components to the degree that it <doesn't matter>. At all. What I'm looking for is the fact that it does, which <neither> you nor Google have provided.

Thank you for taking the time to explain it though, your linked article was very interesting and your description I believe to be good and correct!