Hi experts! :)

My 27" iMac's hard drive is clunk clunk clunking. I've worked with PC's long enough to know it's on the way out. All the disk utility diags say it is fine though.... yeah. Time Machine fails to backup I managed to make a clone of the drive thankfully so if it does kick the can I'm good.

But getting an idea of how much this is going to cost is impossible from Apple. I don't have time to carry my 200lb iMac downtown to the Apple store for them to run diags to tell me it's fine. Or even if they say the drive is bad, then tell me how much it costs. They refuse to even ballpark it over the phone what a retarded system, makes me want to rethink the purchase.

Anywho, it's a 27" core i5 iMac with a 1TB drive in it. Anyone know what kind of dough I'm looking at for this? $500 is one guess I received, which is ridiculous considering I can buy an entire computer for $500....

Thanks!

With the hard drive shortage currently in effect, the cost of drives has skyrocketed in recent months - any drive will cost far more than it did back in the middle of 2011. (Hence high repair quotes.) But don't have an out of warranty iMac repaired at the Apple Store -- go to an independent Service Provider for better pricing.

Only reason I am thinking Apple store is because everytime I have gone they goodwilled it. It's 1 year 6 months and it's one of the shitty seagates :(

Calling Visa now to see if they will cover it.... Not holding my breath though.

I suppose I can go to the store, get a quote then go to an independent if they won't goodwill it.

I thought drive prices have started to come back down? I can boot externally until the prices drop :lmao:

So... looks like Visa may cover it! Woot! Can I get them to cover an upgrade to SSD? LOL

On a serious Diag note. Is there anything else recommended to verify integrity of the drive? Disk Util says it is fine.

If replacing is expensive, and if you can find one in stock, I bought a WD My Studio II 2T external firewire drive for about $200. (add some for the current shortage). Canada Computers on Spadina.

Right now I have Snowleopard running off another firewire external So I would not mess my Leopard Boot disk. (Which was replaced under Apple care in a day at Sherway Gardens last year when the 2yr old original drive died).

Running off my external now using tech tools to scan the system. Looks like VISA will cover the failure. WOOT! That's why I used my VISA to buy the product in the first place, but I had forgot about it!

I'm going to do a full surface scan to ensure the drive is toast. It was clicking again today. Would suck to bring it into Apple for them to say it's fine... when I know it isn't.

Glad to hear you can get VISA to cover it! I buy almost everything with VISA and have heard of others doing what you are doing but never looked into it myself. What is involved in getting VISA to pay for something?

Well easier than you might think.

I called them, they ask questions about the purchase date etc and sent me a form via e-mail.

I need to get a quote, they will even cover the quote if it costs money. Then send them the quote and my receipt and warranty statement from apple saying it comes with 1 year as well as a copy of my visa statement showing I bought it on my visa.

Then I have to snail mail it (which sucks) they said 7 days processing and when it is approved you just go do it.

So yes you will be out for a bit longer. I am not sure if they just credit you VISA or what, so you could probably take your chances pay for the repair and hope they approve it.

Lucky it's a hard drive so I have a bootable backup so I'm still good to go..... still surface scanning, nothing yet!!

wow! good stuff, how long after the original purchase are you eligible for repairs?

wow! good stuff, how long after the original purchase are you eligible for repairs?

Many VISAs will double the manufacturer's warranty, up to 1 year.

double as in 1 year original and now a second with VISA?

double as in 1 year original and now a second with VISA?

Right.

sounds like a lengthy process, but.....

It's an extra year of warranty so 2 years.

hope it works for you this time

Yeah did a full disk scan though and no errors........

Once my backup is complete I'm going to format the drive and try a full restore. But clunking and clicking should not occur no matter how messed up the file system is. I'll then use the machine like crazy, I've had this happen before, sometimes hard drive death starts slowly!

Restored it tonight still going.

Also noticed the hard drive is constantly gurgling away when I'm not even doing anything... which is annoying....

The noise is a matter of concern. I had an iMac drive replaced by Carbon Computing in Toronto a couple of years ago. I supplied the new drive (had a deal on a 1TB), and they charged me $80 for the labour, next day ready. I then learned that I could pay extra to have it done the same day, so I did. It was $20-30 if memory serves. The total with the cost of the drive would be ca. $200 then.

If the computer is under Applecare, Apple would probably replace the drive for free. A friend of mine had a drive that started making noise in a six-month old iMac and they replaced it free.

Disk Warrior or Techtools might give you some better idea about the condition of the drive.

Yeah tech tools says it is fine. Ill have to use it more and when it starts clicking instead of turning it off to save it, just go for it.

If nothing else you will develop a great back-up routine.

If you want to force a failure, simply fail to back up something you consider to be life and death crucial.:D For example a term paper three days before the due date.

Yeah already running time machine and my backp drive needed reformatting for some reason. I have 1 life or death file I now put it in Dropbox just in case LOL