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Should Apple Give Back Replaced Disks?
theodp writes "As if having to pay $160 to replace a failed 80-GB drive wasn't bad enough, Dave Winer learned to his dismay that Apple had no intention of giving him back the disk he paid them to replace. Since it contained sensitive data like source code and account info, Dave rightly worries about what happens if the drive falls into the wrong hands. Which raises an important question: In an age of identity theft and other confidentiality concerns, is it time for Apple — and other computer manufacturers — to start following the practice of auto mechanics and give you the option of getting back disks that are replaced?"
* File a police report detailing how your drive was stolen from you.
* Complain to your state attorney general.
* Complain to the BBB.
* Make sure the Apple Store manager and Apple HQ gets copies of all of the above.
I'll bet you have your drive back in a few days.
Why did he send them sensitive data?!
WHY?
I also had a drive go bad on me with the iBook G4, only when I called them to replace it, they wanted to charge me $702 (Yes, you read correctly) to replace the drive. I told them the laptop itself is only $999 to begin with. I had also paid for my Mac software -- and unfortunately I was forced to either pay to have my hard drive replaced, or lose my near $1k software investment. I chose to abandon Apple products entirely (iPod, iSight, iBook...) and now have first hand experience on what it means to avoid proprietary software.
Apple is worse than Microsoft -- tying your data straight to the computer you own. OSx86 is not a solution either.
If there's sensitive information on the drive, you have every right to want it back (especially if it wasn't warranty work).
It's so trivially easy to encrypt data on a Mac, any decently saavy user gets exactly what they deserved in this kind of situation. Public service announcment: It's FOUR clicks to turn on FileVault, (seamless encryption for your entire home folder.) STOP BITCHING AND USE THE SECURITY FEATURES GIVEN TO YOU. BY APPLE. Oh, and did I mention it's just as easy to create a secure disk image, just for your "code" to live in? Protip: look in Disk Utility.
If it wasn't warranty work, why didn't the guy hire someone to replace the drive himself, since drives are dirt cheap @ retail prices? The drives are NOT (despite the tags on this article) proprietary. If it's that big a deal and it WAS under warranty, why didn't he do it outside the warranty? An hour's labor and the cost of the drive, and he's done- could probably even have it done on-site. On most macs save the Macbook Pros, it's a few screws at most to get to the drive. A child could get to the drive on a Macbook, flat panel iMac, G4, or G5/Mac Pro. Apple can't deny a warranty claim unless they can prove you did the damage or your drive caused the problems you're having, thanks to the Magnuson-Moss Warrant Act.
Apple deserves the highest possible mark of shame for this disregard for the security of their customers' information, it's absolutely not permissible.
Um...what? This is standard practice in the industry; components replaced under warranty have to be replaced, even if you're a big-shot enterprise comapny with a several-thousand-dollar 4-hour 24x7 support contract. "Highest possible mark of shame"? Jebzus, save the drama fo you momma.
PS: If you're that bothered about your data, and the drive failure is not complete- use dd to write /dev/random to the drive (with the skip-on-errors option) before you return it. If the failure is serious enough that such a method doesn't work, then your data is most likely not retrievable by a casual user- someone would have to go to the trouble of ripping apart the drive and repairing the mechanism, and guess what? You're one guy with "valuable code" in a sea of hard drives with nothing more scandalous than some racy photos in iPhoto and maybe some hot & steamy emails to old flames...
If you think someone will go beyond casual efforts because your stuff is that important/valuable/risky, why didn't you encrypt it?
Please help metamoderate.
Ah, the Windows Experience :)
This is the sig that says NI (again)