Macintosh disaster redux

Everything comes in threes, I guess.

Not a week after fixing my work computer's faltering HDD (see last post) my home computer (also a Mac) decides that it's time to dive for the floor. Wunderbar.

The root volume becomes unrecognizeable, and repeated attempts to reformat it are failing, as Apple's provided disk utility software keeps finding bad blocks on the disk which the formatter is failing to nab. Note that this is not software written by Apple, nor provided by just anyone who buys a Mac. Oh no, this is the software provided if you buy Apple's "Protection Plan" extended warranty.

Why am I now oh so glad I purchased this plan? Because the Maxtor 240GB HDD provided with my Mac has kacked itself only a few weeks past the point when Apple's standard one-year warranty has expired. If I hadn't shelled out the extra money for the APP, then replacing this drive would be on my dime. As it is, I'm so hoping that I can make the repair on Apple's dime. Thenk-you-veddy-much.

So, the APP has (it seems) now paid for itself, and I still have a few years left on the warranty.

Moral of the story? If you purchase a Macintosh computer, especially if you buy an Apple monitor with that computer, then I think the APP purchase might just be a useful expense. Normally, I eschew extended warranties of all sorts, as I view them as cash grabs. However, this makes two major purchases I now have extended plans for (my Macs at home, and my car).

In both cases, bitter experience has taught me that these items are wont to cause me problems (whether they do on average, or not, I have no idea, but they certainly seem to cause me problems). And sometimes those problems are very expensive to fix (esp. in the case of my car). The extended warranty has now come in handy on both cases.

But I'm still not a fan of the extended warranty, despite the mounting evidence.

Macintosh disaster redux

Everything comes in threes, I guess.

Not a week after fixing my work computer's faltering HDD (see last post) my home computer (also a Mac) decides that it's time to dive for the floor. Wunderbar.

The root volume becomes unrecognizeable, and repeated attempts to reformat it are failing, as Apple's provided disk utility software keeps finding bad blocks on the disk which the formatter is failing to nab. Note that this is not software written by Apple, nor provided by just anyone who buys a Mac. Oh no, this is the software provided if you buy Apple's "Protection Plan" extended warranty.

Why am I now oh so glad I purchased this plan? Because the Maxtor 240GB HDD provided with my Mac has kacked itself only a few weeks past the point when Apple's standard one-year warranty has expired. If I hadn't shelled out the extra money for the APP, then replacing this drive would be on my dime. As it is, I'm so hoping that I can make the repair on Apple's dime. Thenk-you-veddy-much.

So, the APP has (it seems) now paid for itself, and I still have a few years left on the warranty.

Moral of the story? If you purchase a Macintosh computer, especially if you buy an Apple monitor with that computer, then I think the APP purchase might just be a useful expense. Normally, I eschew extended warranties of all sorts, as I view them as cash grabs. However, this makes two major purchases I now have extended plans for (my Macs at home, and my car).

In both cases, bitter experience has taught me that these items are wont to cause me problems (whether they do on average, or not, I have no idea, but they certainly seem to cause me problems). And sometimes those problems are very expensive to fix (esp. in the case of my car). The extended warranty has now come in handy on both cases.

But I'm still not a fan of the extended warranty, despite the mounting evidence.