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OS Mountain Lion

My Visit to the Apple Store & Time Machine’s True Test

By Technology, Thinking2 Comments
Apple-logo After my iMac’s hard drive failed (see My iMac and The Blue Screen of Death), I was quoted 5-7 days for repair.

On Thursday (day 4) I gave them a call to find out if they’d had chance to take a look at it. The Apple Rep. said that it was still in the queue, that there was nothing she could do as it hadn’t been the 7 days quoted and that they would call me when it was ready to pick up. I thanked her for taking the time to check.

By Saturday (day 6) I still hadn’t received a call from Apple. I became increasingly frustrated at the lack of communication from Apple and the lack of a working iMac. I started to read reviews of bad customer service experiences and even thought about going back to Windows on the Lenovo Ideacentre A720 27 inch All-in-One PC.

Steve called Apple. The Apple Rep. said that it would be ready in a few days. This was outside the 7 days quoted. Steve asked why they hadn’t called to let us know, the Apple Rep. was unable to give an answer. The Apple Rep. sounded generally unconcerned and was generally unhelpful.

So Steve & I decided to go into the Apple Store (Trafford Centre) on the Sunday (day 7) and speak to them. We arrived at around two in the afternoon and headed to the Genius desk. They said that it wasn’t ready so I politely asked to speak to a Manager. The radioed Manager arrived, I explained my story and he didn’t look like he was going to help.

apple-mountain-lion-hard-drive-icon But then a second Manager interupted, spoke to the first manager and then addressed me. He said it would be repaired that day and advised me to come back twenty minutes before closing.

At five thirty Apple called to say my iMac was ready for collection. Steve & I went to pick it up. I spoke to the Apple Engineer who said he had replaced the hard drive. He said that as part of Apple’s new Quality Improvement Program he did a test and it had red flagged the graphics card, so he had replaced that as well. Both covered under the EU law. I thanked him and took my iMac home.

The repair being done on the day did restore some of my faith in Apple. However some of my disappointment remained and I realised it was because of the lack of communication when Apple knew they wouldn’t meet their quoted turn around time. I think because Steve & I turned up at the Apple’s Store they prioritised my repair; otherwise I could possibly still be waiting now.

I got my iMac home and Time Machine’s true test was about to take place. I set my iMac up as a new one and then restored from my Time Machine backup using Migration Assistant:

apple-os-mountain-lion-migration-assistant

The restore took time but worked perfectly and this rebuilt some more of my faith in Apple. I had to re-enter the product key for Microsoft Office and re-sign into a few other Applications, then I was back in business. Relatively hassle-free.

The lesson learned from this experience: don’t rely completely on one machine. I’m considering getting some sort of other computer/laptop so that I can continue as normal if my iMac goes down.

Write soon,

Antony



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My iMac and The Blue Screen of Death

By TechnologyNo Comments

I’m sat here writing this post on an old, dodgy and excruciatingly slow old Windows 7 laptop. Why? Because my iMac (see iMac Part 1 & iMac Part 2) has shown me: a black unresponsive screen, several not-booting-up grey screens and the infamous blue screen of death.

I won’t bore you with the tedious details of how this occurred; but when the Recovery software wouldn’t work I knew I needed a genius appointment.

apple-mountain-lion-hard-drive-icon Steve & I booked an appointment with an Apple Genius in our local Apple Store and went along. The genius did some testing and discovered that the hard drive had failed. I’ve never been so thankful to be in the European Union (EU).

I’ve had my iMac about a year and a half. EU law means Apple have a two year warranty rather than their standard one year warranty (without Apple Protection). The genius arranged for the repair, told us they’d pay the cost and that it would take about a week.

For the next week I have no access to photos, music, TV, films (both downloaded and DVD’s) and a limited ability to browse the internet. These are things I can easily live without for a week. But there’s never a convenient time for a computer to break and the timing is particularly bad.

This week I have some important documents to write and need to reference some other documents in my Documents folder. This will create some hassle and difficulty.

Luckily, I learned the important lesson about backing up files some years ago. I use Time Machine which saves a backup volume to a separate hard drive and then copies new or changed files once an hour. I can’t use Time Machine’s backups or access the folders/files until I get my iMac back.

That’s where my manual backup on another separate drive comes in. I backup important files (Documents, Pictures, Music & Movies Folders) whenever I make significant changes to them. So at least I’ll be able to access the reference documents I need while the iMac is away for repair.

I bought an iMac because I heard loads of people say: “It just works.” I’ve told many of my family & friend’s how great the iMac is for that very reason. I was disappointed to learn that Apple use Seagate hard drives, which are notorious for problems. If you don’t believe me just do a Google search. With the price of the iMac you’d expect good quality. But after learning about the use of Seagate hard drives I’m starting to worry about what other low quality parts are in my iMac.

I’ve become a bit disillusioned with Apple not standing by the iMac for more than their standard one year warranty (outside the EU). Do Apple really expect customers to buy such an expensive device for it only to last a year? Probably not. But the fear of problems with such an costly device and a short warranty is most likely a deliberate act to sell it’s Apple Protection to customers.

When I bought the iMac I was an Apple enthusiast; but not so much so any more. I just want a reliable hardware with software that “just works.” If Apple can’t provide this, then perhaps I’d be better back on Windows? At least with Windows I know where I stand.

I’ll give you an update on the iMac when I get it back. In the meantime I’m using the free time enforced upon me to catch up on some reading.

Hopefully write soon,

Antony

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