The hard drive in my daughter's macbook, purchased with applecare in October, has failed. She was told at an authorized service provider that a new hard drive was covered under Applecare, but recovering her data would be around $600.
Anyone know more? Seems like recovering the data should be covered.
Anyone know more? Seems like recovering the data should be covered.
posted by:
|
New York City
|
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 10:57 AMI don't know for sure, but I doubt they'll recover data for free.
Apple wants us to back up our own data, that's why they developed Time Machine and Time Capsule.
Anyway, without knowing the nature of the failure, here are some DYI possibilities:
Diskwarrior may be able to get the drive back in shape if the problem is a software issue. $120
File Salvage can recover lost files. $100
You may be able to run the macbook in Target Disk mode and copy the data over to another mac or external drive.
My iMac wouldn't boot last week and Disk Utility told me I had to reformat and reinstall, but Disk Warrior fixed up the bad links/checksums/whatever and got it back in about 20 minutes.
-
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 11:07 AMdepending on what kind of failure it was and your level of tech savvy, you can stick the harddrive in a ziplock in the freezer for about an hour and hook it up to an external drive enclosure and if the drive isn't too screwed you can get about 30 minutes of data recovery time.
For future reference, I would recommend a backup drive or online backup service, it amazes me how many people don't think this will happen to them, let this be a lesson to everyone else reading this thread, buy that backup drive already! ;) it's not a matter of if your harddrive will fail, it's a matter of when.
-
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 11:26 AMAppleCare is limited to the tools that Apple releases and blesses, and they really don't have any data recovery suites. Your service center is likely charging the hdd replacement to Apple, and selling you a data recovery option on their own.
The macbook HDD replacement is user accessible (pretty easy, too), if you call applecare you should be able to get them to send a new HDD to you under the agreement that you'll send the old one back within 10 days. Swap the drives out, and try to mount the old drive in an enclosure (a cheap USB 2.0 enclosure for a 2.5 inch drive should be less than $20).
Depending on how seriously damaged the drive was, you will probably be able to get it to mount and use migration assistant to pull the data and settings straight from it. If not, DiskWarrior is usually pretty good about scraping a drive and building a preview image you can copy data from.
Then you can erase it before you return it. -
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 11:40 AMWe've already tried to back up the macbook by connecting it to another machine in target disc mode. Didn't work at home. It's pretty unbelievable to me that apple and applecare can't help with this part. -
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 1:07 PMHere's an anaolgy: If your car catches fire and burns down to the frame because of an electrical fault, the manufacturer will replace it (particularly if it's under warranty).
If you happened to have your trunk packed with all your original paintings and you're an artist, there's not a damn thing they can do to replace them.
If those paintings are your livelihood, they should have been insured for loss. Then your insurance would cover for your loss of income.
Either way, the painting are burned and gone.
Likewise, the data on your harddrive is not going to be covered by a warranty on the drive itself (which is what Apple Care is), and should be covered by insurance, if the data represents your livelihood.
The difference is, it's really easy to make backups of your data. External drives are cheap, and your data is important.
-
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 1:30 PMagreed, Apple should be responsible for your hardware, but the data is definitely the users responsibility.
-
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 4:33 PM> We've already tried to back up the macbook by connecting it to another machine in target disc mode.
> Didn't work at home. It's pretty unbelievable to me that apple and applecare can't help with this part.
I'm not sure if I can explain it in a technical sense, but just because you couldn't get it mounted via target disk mode doesn't mean an enclosure won't work out for you. I've found that firewire enclosures work better than target disk mode, and ironically, USB enclosures will oft mount things that firewire enclosures won't (the only time that i've found USB to be advantageous).
(( this is my favorite toy for this kind of krap: www.amazon.com/Universal-.../ref=sr_1_3 --- how geeky is THAT!))
AND, you don't even need it to mount. If Disk Utility will just acknowledge the disk as attached, DiskWarrior stand a good chance of scraping the data off it and making a usable preview image that you can then transfer to the new drive.
Now, while you are at this juncture, considering the back up options for your household is sound advice. -
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 5:01 PMLet me emphasize some crucial points here (that Mr. Kitty and others have mentioned):
Put the drive in an external USB 2.0 enclosure, not a firewire enclosure.
Connect the drive to the computer and see if it shows up (mounted or not) in Disk Utility.
If it shows up, you will most likely be able to repair it with Diskwarrior. If it doesn't show up, you have nothing to lose by putting the entire enclosure in the freezer for a few hours and trying it again. The freezer causes some parts to contract more than others and can free up a frozen mechanism. It will also give you a chance if there is a thermal-related problem on the drive.
Applecare will not pay for your data recovery services. The most they will do is graciously not laugh at you. They will cover the cost of the defective hardware and nothing more. They won't even guarantee you'll get your data back even when there is nothing wrong with your hard drive. They reserve the option of reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling the operating system as part of any repair process, although they customarily don't do that unless they need to. If you ever give them your computer for service, be sure you have a current backup (or two).
-
-
-
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 1:48 PMYou'll probably get cheaper data-recovery elsewhere. Most places I've heard about - secondhand - have quoted prices around $200.
But even still - a time capsule costs you, what, $300? And can back up more than one machine, too. One of the best investments you can make.
Crucial data should be stored off-site, as well. I backup key data to .mac.
I know, this is too little, too late for you, but if Apple will replace the drive under warrantee, and yet give you the old drive back, you can probably recover the data for less than $600. -
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 4:26 PMapple won't give you the drive back.
a third party applecare warranty center may be different, but AppleCare is rigid about having to have the defective part returned. -
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 5:09 PMI had a good experience with AppleCare replacing a failed hard drive. The local Apple store didn't have my hard drive model in stock, so they replaced it with an even larger drive that was on hand.
Most of my data was backed up on .Mac, but I didn't ask about getting my old drive back. I second all the advice about making regular backups of important data on your hard drive.
My only real complaint is that I can't renew or extend my AppleCare service for more than three years (i.e., after this August). Maybe that's the typical shelf life for an iMac, but it seems like I'm being forced to buy a new Apple computer every three years.
Any thoughts or advice about keeping an iMac for several months (or maybe even another year) after AppleCare has expired to get a little more use out of it and mostly, allow some more time to save up for a new Apple computer?
-
-
Re: does Applecare cover data recovery?
Mon, May 12, 2008 - 6:44 PMMy dear friend who is a former Mac Genius was able to get into the macbook and back up the data to her external drive. The 'book is out for repair under applecare.
Gonna buy an extra drive . . .
-
-
-
