if you're going to pay a third party to try and recover the data anyway, why not go with 3)?

Is apples data recovery too expensive?

Apple will not give you the drive they replace because they have to return it to the manufacturer (or destroy it) to get credit on the bad part they had to replace.

"would you ever consider buying a refurbished hard drive???"

I doubt anyone would buy a refurbished hard drive but there is probably a good chance that the one you get as a replacement is refurbished.

"I'm able to recover this data and back it up."

So where is the problem? He backed up the data. Get a new drive and send them your old one. That's SOP for RMAs.

Come on , Back up your files 1 TB drive are under 100 bucks.

If it's more expensive to do data recovery through Apple, he may just have to suck it up and do it. I don't see how he has much of a choice here. Just have Apple do the data recovery. Sometimes you're stuck between a rock and a hard place and the only thing you can do is learn your lessons and move on. There's not always a great solution. Sometimes you pay for your mistakes.

/will go home today and back up her hard drive

The reason Applecare won't let you keep the bad drive is because they have to either destroy the drive or send it back to the manufacturer to get credit for the bad drive they replaced. Like JustinSane07 said, that's standard operating procedure.

Send it to a dedicated data recovery firm like DriveSavers for their best shot. A lot of data recovery firms will even try to remove the original drive platters and insert them into another drive...something Apple won't do.

If it fails, you can try the applecare route.

I've been through this with my MacBook and AppleCare twice now. Apple's usual policy is to keep your dead hard drive, but they can make exceptions for folks like lawyers who have legally privileged information on their hard drives. I explained to them that I had information which I'm legally obligated to protect on the dead hard drive and they agreed to return the dead hard drive instead of keeping it. I've now got two dead MacBook hard drives, both returned by my local Apple Store.

@JustinSane07: The subsequent one month's work on the drive, which could be irreplaceable.

@JustinSane07: He backed it up a month ago, before he was told that the drive was A-OK. His girlfriend continued using the drive. He may not have the backup anymore. She may have stored additional stuff on the drive that she wants saved. Etc.

I guess I don't see the problem.
Apple is willing to replace the hard drive provided that you return the old one. If you don't return the old one then you pay for the replacement part.
That is how EVERY warranty replacement works.
Go to an auto parts store. They will replace the part but only if you have the old one with you OR pay for the new part.

Why should they let you keep the old part at no charge. For all they know this is a new scam.
(Not attacking the OP, just pointing out why the parts have to be returned)
Alot of times the company handling the warranty needs the part back to get credit from the company that actually made the part.

Hard drives are funny things. They can act totally normal and then just fail.
Sorry for the frustration but you have a choice, pay for the part and keep the old HD or send it back.

This is fairly standard procedure for most hardware replacements. Part of it is that they really do refurbish hard drives - I wouldn't buy one, but I've seen them for sale, and I've had other companies like Lenovo ship out refurb hard drives for warranty replacement.

The second reason is to make sure that the people doing the replacement are really replacing defective parts, and not just ordering parts to keep.

You could definitely replace the drive yourself for less than $300 - it's a standard SATA laptop drive, which you can probably buy for less than $100. If you are handy with a screwdriver, you can probably find take-apart docs on ifixit or another site and do it yourself, and keep the old drive. Might void your warranty in the future though.

Why didn't the OP use TimeMachine? It comes with every copy of the OS - nowadays it's just not smart to not do backups, and with TimeMachine it's set it and forget it....

My neighbor borrowed some garden shears from me last week. He promptly broke them. He took them to the store to try to repair them and then told me he'd replace them (which he did about an hour ago). Great! Of course, the old ones are his now, broken as they are. That's what "replacement" is - you give back yours and they give you theirs.

I suppose a good solution would be data recovery via a third party and THEN send in for warranty replacement.

Quick question: how the hell does a new hard drive cost $300? Unless you're running a SSD, which I doubt you are, a new hard drive can he had on the cheap. Just don't buy it from Apple. They'll be more than happy to charge you out the ass for a shitty refurbished Hitachi drive. Newegg is your friend.

I don't understand why she is complaining. Apple is offering to fix the drive which is exactly what they should do. Data is not the responsibility of Apple and because she didn't back up her data she thinks she should be able to keep both hard drives. It doesn't work like, when you total out your car and your insurance company buys you another one do you get to keep the old car? I didn't think so...

@bostonmike: I have no idea why Apple doesn't understand that everybody has confidential information on their hard drives that they would want to protect. It's not just lawyers or doctors or business owners -- it's anyone who has bank records, medical information, social security numbers, passwords, etc. Even if I'm not going to attempt recovery on an old hard drive, I don't want other people being able to attempt recovery unless I've been able to keep the hard drive working long enough to be certain that I've wiped it clean.

A similar thing happened to my girlfriend, although she got her drive back after asking for it. They said that they don't give it back unless you ask, at which point they are required to since it contains personal/private data. Might be YMMV; I have had quite unpleasant customer service experience with Apple myself, unfortunately.

Also, unless David had an SSD, I don't see how a $300 estimate on a new drive is remotely reasonable. That might be what Apple charges, but you should be able to get a decent replacement elsewhere for $50-75.

@milrtime83:

I've actually gotten one before, they usually use them as warranty replacements.

@ShruggingGalt: I think it's only on Snow Leopard, actually.

Ok, so...whats the problem here? Thats pretty standard parts replacement policy. And its Apple, its their way or the highway. So go to newegg.com, buy a new sata HD for $100 thats most likely larger than what came in your mac install it and then try and recover your data through an external enclosure.

If the drive wont mount up no matter what you do, you can always go last resort route and throw it in two or three ziplock bags, toss them in the freezer for a while take it out and hook it up to the computer. Gives you some time to recovery data; sometimes

@katstermonster: Okay so then point 2. If he can recover the data now, why not do it then RMA the drive? I've done that before.

OR

And I did this with Western Digital, I had them send me the new drive first, I recovered the data from the busted drive to the new one, then sent them the busted one. It was an option right on their RMA page.

You can get Macbook hard drives (any 2.5" SATA drive will do) for $60 off of Amazon, and replace it yourself with directions here: [www.macinstruct.com]

If you're already going to pay for data recovery, another $60 or so isn't that much more. It's hard to have a lot of sympathy, though, given that the OP already had issues with the hard drive bad enough to take it to the Genius Bar and didn't immediately go out and get an external drive to back it up, given that Time Machine makes it so easy to do...

@lemortede: I see a problem. Apple should verify that the replacement is necessary, then return the dead hard drive to the customer. That's SOP at any other repair shop I've ever dealt with (Tekserve and TechRestore, specifically), because they are aware that there is probably data on that drive that I either want to try to recover or confirm is destroyed.

It's bad policy on Apple's part. You shouldn't have to give up the container that holds sensitive data during a routine HD swap out.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): Oops, nope. It can be on any OS, but it requires an external hard drive.

@YOXIM: I think labor factors into it as well. Like replacing a tire on your car costs $120, but the tire itself only costs $90.

@Chris Walters: BTW, I'm probably the only person who writes for or reads Consumerist who thinks AppleCare is a load of horsesh*t. In 12 years of owning Apple products, I've spent approx. $500 total in repairs (always with HDs), and in both cases I actually upgraded my HD capacity by 150% or more. I think I've come out ahead on repairs, *and* I'm never beholden to what a specific manufacturer thinks is the best/cheapest course of action.

@Slusy: Doesn't this void AppleCare though?

I think its reasonable that Apple needs the hard drive. Their problem is the hardware. Your problem is the data. Always, always, ALWAYS backup your data.

@lemortede: Yeah, the person in the story really is expecting too much. They want a new part right away, but they want to hold on to the original for "a couple of months" so they can do some data recovery. I'd personally investigate option #2 a little further, because in my experience, a $300 hard drive replacement involves installing a $80 hard drive. You could even consider going cheaper, and getting a smaller, slower drive as a stopgap. Then try to do the data recovery whenever you get around to it, and have the original drive replaced under warranty. Take the stopgap replacement, place it into an external enclosure, and use that to perform regular backups.

Backups backups backups my friend. Thats all your fault. All hard drives fail, its just a matter of when, could be today or 10 years from now. If you can afford a mac you can certainly afford a $9 4gb flash drive or external hard drive...

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): I have Leopard and I use Time Machine - it's kind of cool - I hooked up an Iomega FW drive, and it's only used for doing the TM backups...

Too bad Apple doesn't do advance RMA's the way that Dell...HP...IBM...Toshiba...oh, and every single drive manufacturer on the planet...actually do.

Apple, get with the 21st century and stop screwing your customers to the wall. I've been getting advance RMAs on busted hardware for years.

@ironchef: DriveSavers starts at around $1200 just to attempt data recovery - I'm sure it's worth it for some, but a last resort for most... I took my mac HD to 3 places first and it was finally recovered....

@shifuimam: Apple does offer advance RMAs on certain parts, and depending on who you are.

They dont offer it across the board to consumers (who can just as easily screw Apple, and who screw Dell HP and all those other companies you listed ALL THE TIME) This is also due to the fact that so few products Apple offers are considered user replaceable.

But they do offer them to companies and school districts.

That being said when the flat screen iMac first came out and came with the replaceable part trays, they did Advance RMA on all of those parts. So its really just dependent on the product honestly.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power):

That's true. But you could take it to an Apple Authorized Service Provider to do it and that would preserve the AppleCare and still cost a lot less than $300.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): nope the hard drive has been user replaceable since the Macbook debut. Its on a tray that you flip a lever and remove via the battery slot.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): No it doesn't. On MacBooks, HD's are one of those things deemed "User Replaceable" because of how easy it is.

@bostonmike: because Apple takes those cores and refurbishes them.

Those hard drives cost MONEY that Apple gets out of the company for selling them a faulty drive.

When my school district replaces hard drives we get 20 dollars off of EVERY drive we send back as cores. Add that up and its a LOT of money we get back when you are returning 20-40 hard drives a year.

Now multiply that by how many Apple likely sends back. You see what we are getting at here? We are talking about thousands of dollars Apple makes back.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): @pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): @pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): Honestly, replacing a laptop hard drive requires the ability to use a screwdriver and (carefully) plug in a plug. While I can see why Apple would charge that much for labor, the OP can probably save a lot of money doing it himself, unless he's going to get the entire replacement for free under the warranty. He can probably get a better hard drive too.

He needs to consider the combined cost and time spent if he doesn't use Applecare and make sure replacing the hard drive himself won't void the warranty, and compare that with the cost of having Applecare restore and replace the hard drive. If replacing it himself is going to void the warranty, he should go with Applecare.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): Yes. Apple charges me a standard $300 fee for ANY repair on my super-out-of-warranty powerbook. The fee for a iMac or another desktop is much less.

That's just stupid. Here's one that will blow the Consumerist fans minds. I took my wife's laptop to get fixed at Best Buy due to a bad hard drive. Instead of shipping it to Sony, they replaced the 120GB with a 160GB they had in stock, and returned the bad hard drive to me. No charges at all since it was still under warranty.

Heck, do what auto parts stores do and tack on a core charge of $30-$40. If she never returns the drive, she's out a small amount but still has a broken drive. Once she gets the data off, give to Apple and get your money back.

@frari489: All data recovery is extremely expensive because it's one of those services where they've got you between a rock and a hard place.

I worked at an Apple Retail Store for quite a while and they don't have any data recovery that I know of short of taking the drive out and hooking it to a dock and trying various programs to try and get some data off it.

While I suppose you could loosely term that as data recovery, it's not like Drive Savers or Lazarus where they will take the platters out and put them in a new drive (part of the justification of the $1000-3000 pricetag).

The option we always gave customers was send the drive (in the case of the Macbook where it's user removable) or the laptop to a data recovery shop, when they've returned it, we will replace the HD under applecare and keep the old one so we can send it back to the manufacturer and get our credit for a bad part. While it does take extra time, it allows you to do data recovery and get a free HD replacement when you're done.

Good luck with the failed drive OP.

@JustinSane07: He can't recover it now: "What I want to do is replace the drive and keep the old one so I can do data recovery in a couple months when I have the budget."

He needs something he doesn't have, whether it be software, hardware, whatever. He wants to wait on the recovery until he has the ability to do it.

@pecan 3.14159265 (now with star power): Better do. Especially with all that extra data you are gaining:

[gizmodo.com]

@ShruggingGalt: I have Tiger, and now I'm looking at how much it'll cost to update, and whether I want to upgrade to Leopard and then Snow Leopard, or just head straight to Snow Leopard.

@Chris Walters: However Apple has never done this with iPhones or iPods or anything else that they sell. Why would this be any different?

@bostonmike: In my former workplace, we purchased Dell computers with a service contract which included (for an extra upfront fee on the plan) "keep your old drive" hard drive replacement. It was the only way to ensure the confidentiality of sensitive information we handled on those machines, and also have service plan coverage.