The Adventure of My Defunct Hard Drive: Apple Wants Your Money or Your Life

[politicat]

43. Sorry about the data loss (truly) but... It was warranty service.

Yes, the owner purchased the computer, including the hard drive.

But ya know, I bought a car, including all of the components. When the AC compressor failed prematurely and it was replaced under warranty, I didn't get to keep the old compressor. That's how warranty works.

I am truly sympathetic on losing data, because I've had it happen (on PCs, which is why I've been an Apple user for years now.) It can happen on any hard drive, under any OS -- these days, all computer companies use standard drives from Toshiba, Samsung or Western Digital. However, the documentation that comes with every computer says to back up the machine. Every "For Dummies" book, every Intro to Computing class starts with regular backups. (If somebody is worried about backups being stolen, encryption takes 2 clicks and typing a password twice, and comes free with every OS.)

It is not Apple's fault, nor was it HP's fault in my case, that the user failed to RTFM. Some lessons get learned the hard way. Data recovery is tough, thus expensive.

Hard drives fail. If he was getting click of death, he'd probably been getting it for at least a few days if not weeks. It is vanishingly rare for a hard drive to keel over without at least a little warning. That click is the check engine light coming on -- machine goes to shop now, not when the round-tuit appears.

The author doth project his own error -- rather than kicking himself for being a problem between the keyboard and the chair, he's kicking the dog.