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Suspected hard drive failure - repair cost?

S

scharah

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
50
1
Hi, I have an appointment at the Apple store on Friday (which I've waited stupidly long for!) regarding my MBP - just looking for some advice before I go.

Basically I opened up the MBP and it came on from it's sleep, but the cursor wouldn't move. It wouldn't respond to any commands, so I held down power to force shut down.

When I powered it back up, I got the dreaded grey screen + folder with "?" symbol inside it.

I phoned Apple Care, we tried hard disk recovery but that didn't work. We then tried internet recovery, and that didn't work either. It basically can't recognise the hard drive. I've been told it could turn out to be as simple as the cable connecting the start-up disk being faulty/knocked out of place, or as unfortunate as the hard drive packing in (which will also mean I've lost an awful lot of stuff).


In the worst case scenario that the hard drive is completely knackered - how much am I looking at for repair? And is it likely that I'll be able to retrieve any data from the hard drive? If so, any idea of cost/best place to go for this? (I've heard that Apple store don't offer this service).
 
What model Mac? There are a couple of years that have been known to have HDD cables go bad and behave like a bad HDD. Make sure they check that before doing ANYTHING ELSE. If they check the cable first and it turns out it's bad, you haven't spent a lot of money on a drive that wasn't the solution and you'll get your Mac back just like it was (except functional now).

For the cable and labor, I wouldn't spend any more than $50 or $60 but the cable is easy to replace yourself if you have any experience with a screwdriver and take your time to be very careful.
 
hallux said:
What model Mac? There are a couple of years that have been known to have HDD cables go bad and behave like a bad HDD. Make sure they check that before doing ANYTHING ELSE. If they check the cable first and it turns out it's bad, you haven't spent a lot of money on a drive that wasn't the solution and you'll get your Mac back just like it was (except functional now).

For the cable and labor, I wouldn't spend any more than $50 or $60 but the cable is easy to replace yourself if you have any experience with a screwdriver and take your time to be very careful.
Click to expand...

thanks for the response!

It's a 2010 MBP, 13".

I don't think I'd be confident enough to do the labor myself, unless there was a step-by-step youtube tutorial (which there probably is actually) but I'd most likely end up paying someone to do it for me.

Do you know anything about data retrieval costs, in the instance that the Hard Drive itself is the problem?
 
scharah said:
thanks for the response!

It's a 2010 MBP, 13".

I don't think I'd be confident enough to do the labor myself, unless there was a step-by-step youtube tutorial (which there probably is actually) but I'd most likely end up paying someone to do it for me.

Do you know anything about data retrieval costs, in the instance that the Hard Drive itself is the problem?
Click to expand...

The cable is basically this, except you're not swapping the drive.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2010+Hard+Drive+Replacement/4305

Here's a Youtube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnNA2Dyxe3s

12 screws total, just have to be cautious about putting the 3 longer ones back in the right place.

Data recovery varies, it depends on what needs to be done to retrieve the data, how much there is and what the place charges per hour.
 
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