Lots of places that offer nationwide Macintosh, iPhone, or iPod service will try to you lure you to their website by saturating their webpage with geographic keywords that make it appear that they are “in” your area.

If you’re looking for “local” Macintosh, iPhone, or iPod service or repair that’s really local to the Baltimore, Maryland or Washington DC areas, then you’ve found the right place.

MacMedics has been repairing Macintosh computers in Maryland since 1989.

When you’re looking for local Mac, iPhone, iPod, or even iPad service from a reputable service provider, come see us at MacMedics.

Thinking about going to the Apple Store for service? Our service is faster, usually less expensive, and carries our full MacMedics 1-year service warranty. See our Blog post about that here. The majority of our our Apple warranty repairs are complete and ready to return to you within 24 hours. Need a rental while your unit is in the shop? We can do that too!

Be sure to see our Blog post on why shipping your broken Mac or iPhone off to parts unknown is something that you should really think twice about.

Getting An Accurate Macintosh Repair Diagnosis Is Important. You’ll Always Get One At MacMedics, And Never For More Than $49

Recently, a MacMedics client showed me an on-line review of another Apple Authorized Service Provider that shares the Metro area with one of the MacMedics offices. To keep things as fair as possible I won’t name names or locations.

Here’s a copy of the review that was marked 1 out of 5 stars:

“Let me fill you in on my story. I’m a sophomore in college, and I own a MacBook Pro. One day the display just stops working. External displays don’t even work. So I bring it to an Apple store nearby. They tell me they can’t cover it under the warranty because of the “external damage” (really nothing more than a few scratches and a small bump or two). So, they want to charge me $1300 for repairs. I figured I’d just take it to an Authorized Service Provider, and have them fix only the parts that aren’t working. Little did I know that about a week later I’d get a call saying they couldn’t do anything for me and that they’d have to charge me $125 for “Diagnostics” when they can’t even tell me what’s wrong with the thing. Overall, if it’s a hardware problem, I’m not even sure if it would be worth trying to save the computer. You may as well just buy another one?”

Let me tell you why this type of situation never happens at MacMedics:

1. If you bring in a unit that is obviously beyond our help, we won’t try to entice you to check it in for a diagnostic if we don’t think it’s going to be worth fixing. In many cases, if you stop by with your sick Mac, we’ll be able to tell pretty quick if we think it’s worth fixing or even worth looking into. We’ll often plug a unit in to see what’s up with it while-you-wait if we have the open bench space when you stop by. We know that nobody wants to be without their computer, and in many cases if we find out your issue is a simple problem like a bad power adapter, bad battery, corrupt power manager, or a bad stick of RAM it can often be repaired right on the spot.

2. If we have to open up your MacBook or MacBook Pro to look inside for trouble, and we deem that it needs a repair that is either too much for you, or just to expensive in general our fee for the diagnostic and surgery is only $49. That fee is only charged IF you decide NOT to fix your Mac laptop.

3. If you bring us a Macintosh computer for service, we will usually have an answer for you within 24 hours. Never a week or more as was the case in the review mentioned here.

4. If your unit is super sick (like it needs a $1200 repair) it may still have salvage value. A. We’ll help move you into a new Mac and transfer all of your data (if your data is healthy) for a flat fee of $99. B. If you unit has any value to us, we’ll offer a trade-in value for it. (That’s not something Apple does or anyone else we know of.)

5. If your MacBook laptop has suffered a liquid spill, we offer a $99 “estimate” service, which will get you an estimate on the total repair, and 1-way take apart on the laptop. We’ll remove the logic board, look under the hard drive and even try some basic cleaning and testing to see what is wrong with your MacBook. Unlike out $49 fee, the $99 liquid estimate is work we have to perform, so it’s really like the first leg of the repair, so any needed repairs and part are in addition to the $99 estimate fee. See this MacMedics Blog post for more info.

6. Our in-shop techs will be honest with you. We will try to find the cause of your computer’s issue, and report back to you with ALL of your options. If we can repair your Mac cost effectively, we’ll go in that direction. If your repair is more than 50% the cost of replacing the unit, we’ll most likely recommend replacing it.

In some cases of a major hardware failure, MacMedics, might be able to move you into a pre-owned Mac. We often can move over your upgraded hard drive and/or RAM to try and maximize the value of what you have already paid for.

We really do love what we do, and no matter what your situation is, we would LOVE to talk to you about your problem. Give us call, send us an e-mail, or just stop by either of two Apple Certified Mac Labs in Millersville or Lanham, Maryland.

We Fix Macs! MacMedics Can Fix Or Service Any Macintosh Ever Made.

MacMedics can fix Macs. Of course all of the recent Macs are no problem, even the last few generations are no problem for us. If the Apple Store or anyone else has turned you away because they say your Mac is too old to work on, then come see us!

This week we worked on two pretty old Macintosh systems.

Case #1: Replacing the hard drive in a Titanium PowerBook G4. Some people really love old Macs, we sure do. The old Ti-Book had been serving it’s owner’s needs since 2001, but the hard drive died. He saw no reason to retire the machine, so he asked us to replace the hard drive.

No problem. Even though PATA hard drives in the 2.5” form factor are getting harder and harder to find, we still have them. Old hard drive comes out, new hard drive goes in, and we transfer all of the data over to the new hard drive.

See this image large size here.

Case #2: Macintosh Classic (from 1990) that is dead, but it’s owners want the data off it. This one is still a work on progress. We’ve worked on this form factor Mac countless times, but in this case one of the case screws is fused in place, so thus far, we’ve not been able to get the Mac Classic apart. We will drill out the screw on Monday to get to the hard drive. This unit has a SCSI hard drive, something that MacMedics is familiar with. We have to pull data off old SCSI drives on a regular basis, so we’ll hook it up to one of our custom rigs to grab the data.

Before you make an appointment for the Genius Bar, drive to the mall, find a parking spot, and then lug your Mac through the Annapolis Mall to get to the Apple Store, please consider supporting your local neighborhood Mac shop!

Need more convincing? Take a look at these comments that were sent to Apple from clients who we performed Apple Warranty or AppleCare service for recently:

The service was the best I have ever had on any product. Thanks!

I could not be more happy with the combined service of Apple and Mac Medics. Mac Medics had it couriered to their location and I had it back on Tuesday after the Holiday. I mean serious who works this fast? While the rest of the country enjoyed their 3-day weekend somebody was working on my problem. My satisfaction is off of the charts and I have told many peers and coworkers this amazing story. Thanks again!!!!

Stop! Before You Make A Trip To The Annapolis Apple Store, See This Checklist First

Visit MacMedics in Millersville (near BWI airport) or Lanham, Maryland (near RT 50 & I-495) the next time you need Mac sales or service.

See our Blog post with all the details on why to come see MacMedics instead of trekking to the Apple Store. Clients that come to see us, often tell us they will never go back to the Apple Store for Macintosh sales OR service!

Or review this quick top 11 reasons here:

1. No appointment is needed: No need to call ahead when you’re ready to come visit MacMedics! Just walk in and our Apple Certified Techs will take great care of you.

We had a new MacMedics client call us on the phone and then come by the office with their sick iMac. The complaint was the unit was super slow. Right away I’m thinking a bad hard drive. The client tended to agree with me. The iMac fits our profile for hard drive “retirement” anyways since it’s right at the three years old mark. This is a fine time to “upgrade” and “retire” a desktop hard drive. (MacMedics recommends desktop hard drives be retired after 3 years and 2 years in laptops)

In this case the client was in a hurry, so in trying to find the fastest solution we looked for the “sniper shot” hard drive fix to see if we could put her back in shape without replacing her hard drive. She had a presentation to work on tonight, and she felt most comfortable with the idea of getting her unit back on-line. We offered a low cost rental, since she had her Time Machine data, but she really wanted her iMac back.

We felt comfortable trying some “fixes” on her hard drive, because she had an up-to-date Time Machine back up. Well, when it really came down to it, those fixes and even a new install of her operating system failed to solve the problem. This told us that it was in fact the hard drive that was the cause of the problem.

The client opted for a new hard drive, AND an upgrade to a 1 TB hard drive (from a 500 MB. Read more about iMac hard drive service and upgrades here.), since her hard drive was dying. Because of what we had learned about her drive being super slow, we decided to multi-task and run utilities on her Western Digital TIme Machine volume while the new OS was also installing. As we started looking at it carefully, we learned that the Time Machine drive was also failing.

We’re not big fans of this brand of hard drive, and when we told the client it was failing, she was shocked to hear it. We learned that the drive was less than a year old (don’t forget hard drives can die at anytime. See our website http://www.HardDrivesDie.com for more info.) When I told her that Western Digital was not my first choice for storing data, she was again shocked as she bought it from the Apple Store.

Here’s the facts folks. Any hard drive can die at any time, and just because it was purchased at the Apple Store does not give you an extra layer of protection. The other thing to remember is that the process of TIme Machine running every hour is rough on hard drives. The other item everybody needs to know, is there’s no such thing as set-and-forget-it the world of hard drive back ups.

All hard drive back up systems need to be tested and monitored on a regular basis. Time Machine is no exception. It does a great job of providing extremely easy to use back ups, but it should not be the only back up you trust your data with. (See my previous post about Time Machine here.) We recommend a double back up. TIme Machine for your first layer of back up, and a “clone” back up for your second layer of protection. Ideally, you should also have some sort of off-site back up as well.

As we store more and more of our digital identity and life on hard drives, it’s akin to more “eggs in one basket”. When you have more data stored in one place, you increase your risk, if that single hard drive fails, you could stand to lose all of the data stored on it. The other thing to keep in mind is as the amount of data you have active and live on your computer grows and grows, TIme Machine loses some if it’s ability to keep a longer record of you past data. The larger your Time Machine hard drive volume is in ratio to your main hard drive, the longer Time Machine will keep you data backed up. Of course having any back up is better than no back up, but Time Machine’s real advantage is in it’s ability to to keep months and months (even a year) of data for you to look back on if you should need a file that you accidentally erased 6 months ago (or longer).

As was the case today with our new client, she came very close to losing her data as, both her primary and her TIme Machine back-up drives were both failing in different ways. That could have proved disastrous.

What can you do to prevent this? Make a clone of your drive. For as little as $99 you can by a portable USB hard drive and either clone your whole hard drive, or just copy your user folder to it. You can also start burning some of your data to DVDs or CDs and storing that data off site.

No matter what you need in terms of a back up, MacMedics can help. Call any of our offices, and we’ll be glad to help you add your first, second, or third layer of back up. It’s important, so don’t delay.

Tip: If you bought a Time Machine drive when you purchased your new Macintosh, it needs to be installed in order to protect you. Don’t start generating data you care about AND can’t stand to lose if you’re NOT backed up. If you’re reading this, and you need help checking you back up or getting it configured, call us we can help. It does not matter if you’re local to MacMedics here in Baltimore, Washington DC, or Philadelphia. We can come on-site, or we can visit your computer via our Desktop Support Software. A back up coaching session over the phone can be set up and running in about 15 minutes. PLEASE, don’t wait!

You can read some of my other posts on Time Machine here:

Congratulations your hard drive made it through another Friday the 13th!

Back up and secure your data! (Then test your back up system!)

Do you use Time Machine as your only back up? Double it!

Installing a second hard drive into a MacBook Pro = Very Cool. Having a mobile bootable backup anywhere = PRICELESS.

Leopard’s Time Machine might not be a powerful enough back up for you.

The Apple Store won’t upgrade your hard drive for you. But, MacMedics can, and we can do so either in or out of Apple warranty.

Here’s a common hard drive scenario that we help MacMedics clients with every day.

Your hard drive has failed, but you’d like to replace with a larger hard drive.

This makes perfect sense. Your MacBook with a 120 GB hard drive kicks the bucket, and in the process of replacing it, you’d like to upgrade it. MacMedics can help!

In Warranty: If your Mac is under warranty AND it’s hard drive fails, we can upgrade you to a larger capacity hard drive “under warranty”. All you do is pay for a new hard drive in the capacity of your choice.

Here’s how it happens:

1. We diagnose your computer’s hard drive as failed.
2. We order a new hard drive from Apple.
3. We install a new third party hard drive in the capacity of your choice.
4. We will install a new operating system on your new hard drive. (good time to upgrade your OS if you wish!)
5. You pay MacMedics for the cost of the new hard drive.
6. We send your old hard drive back to Apple.
7. We give you the Apple replacement hard drive to keep.

Your total cost: Just the price of a new hard drive, assuming we don’t also have to worry about or recover any of your data.

The free “original” size hard drive is yours to keep and you can sell it, keep it as a spare part, or use it to upgrade one of your other Macintosh computers.

Installing a new, large, faster, and more robust hard drive in your Macintosh does not void your AppleCare warranty. The only caveat that you have to keep in mind is that the Apple warranty WILL NOT cover the third party hard drive under Apple’s warranty. But if it should fail it is covered by a 1-year MacMedics warranty.

Out Of Warranty: If your Mac is out of warranty, we can also replace your hard drive with any size hard you would like. Most hard drive “upgrades” or “retirements” are done for our flat fee of $150 plus the cost of the hard drive. (Black or White original MacBooks are done for $99)

Obviously, if we have to recover your data from a failing hard drive, and provide other services in order to get your computer back in shape other charges may apply.

Here’s how it happens:

1. We diagnose your computer’s hard drive as failed.
2. You choose a new hard drive size and speed.
3. We install that new hard drive for you.
4. We clone your data from old hard drive to new hard drive
5. We test and run updates on your computer.

MacMedics keeps all popular hard drive sizes and speeds in stock at all times, so we can get you back on-line as quickly as possible.

This is just one more reason that MacMedics is often a better choice than trekking to your local Apple Store and dragging your iMac or Mac Pro through the mall. See our complete Top Ten reasons of why not to wait in line or fight the crowds at the Apple Store here.

If you’re a creative professional working for an ad agency, graphic design or photography studio with Apple Macintosh computers in the Philadelphia Metro, South New Jersey, or Wilmington, Delaware areas, we’d love to help you.

We’re MacMedics Philadelphia, and as Apple Authorized Service Providers and Apple Authorized Value Added Resellers, MacMedics Philadelphia has what it takes to solve your Mac IT problems. We’ve been providing Macintosh Solution to Creative Professionals since 1989.

We’re here to provide the very best Macintosh Service and Consulting available, and we don’t require contracts or any other type of future commitments in order to receive very efficient and fast Macintosh service.

MacMedics brings the kind of technical and management capabilities that you would expect from a full-time IT professional — without the expense of a full-time professional. We don’t take sick days and we’re always just a phone call or e-mail away. We also offer remote desktop and telephone technical support.

If you’re not 100% happy with your current Mac Tech or Consultant, 2010 might be a great time to make the switch to MacMedics. Please call MacMedics for your free on-site Environmental Assessment. We would be delighted to give you a free second opinion on your Mac network or server installation. Please see our previous Blog post on topic.

Time Machine is an excellent way to back up your files! It's only cool and powerful if you actually turn it on and USE it!

So your computer’s hard drive and hopefully your back up system made it though Friday the 13th. Good job.

Now that we’re approaching the end of the year and the holiday season is coming up right quick, this WOULD be an excellent time to test your back up (or start one) before you get wrapped up in the holidays.

We’ve been over this before, but here on the front lines of data loss we see this just about everyday. It’s senseless the number of pictures, school papers, financial and business documents, and music get lost when a back up system can be had for as little as $99!

You need to make your back up system automatic, or use a program like Time Machine. That’s the first step. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY can keep up with a “manual” drag-n-drop back up! To boot, quite a bit of the data loss we see here at MacMedics happens when someone copies over important data during a drag-n-drop Finder copy. Sometime, folks think they have the data copied, but something goes wrong and they just end up with an alias, then they go and delete the original data, because they think they just copied it.

The second step is to regularly test that back up to ensure your files are there and you’re able to grab them anytime you need them. There’s no such thing as a “Set-It-And-Forget-It” back up system.

If you need help getting your back up set up, our advice is free, and we have external portable and desktop hard drives in stock!

If you have data you care about it needs to be backed up! Just because your computer is new or you just replaced the hard drive offers you very little protection. Hard drives can die at any time, and in fact there’s an increased risk of that occurring in the first 30 to 60 days of a hard drives’ life.

See our website http://www.HardDrivesDie.com for more info on “retiring” older drives and ensuring you have a safe back up.

The pictures we take at the holidays are the most cherished and valuable. Make sure the picture you take this holiday make it onto you back up system as soon as you import them onto your computer. Also, as an added tip: Don’t have iPhoto delete your pictures off you camera. Leave them in two places, in iPhoto AND on your camera until you have them BACKED UP. You ALWAYS want to have your valuable data in TWO PLACES at all times.

Before you make an appointment, drive to the mall, find a parking spot, and then lug your Mac through The Mall In Columbia to get to the Apple Store, please consider supporting your local neighborhood Mac shop! Visit MacMedics in Millersville (near BWI airport) or Lanham, Maryland (near RT 50 & I-495) the next time you need Mac sales or service.

See our Blog post with all the details on why to come see MacMedics instead of trekking to the Apple Store. Clients that come to see us, often tell us they will never go back to the Apple Store for Macintosh sales OR service!

Or review this quick top 11 reasons here:

1. No appointment is needed: No need to call ahead when you’re ready to come visit MacMedics! Just walk in and our Apple Certified Techs will take great care of you.

11. The Apple Store Can’t Upgrade Your Hard Drive: MacMedics Can! See our new blog post from 1/30/10 to get all of the details. A common issue we help clients with here at MacMedics is “upgrading” or “retiring” a failed (or perfectly good) hard drive. What many people don’t know is that we can “upgrade” your computer to a larger size hard drive, even if your hard drive has failed under Apple warranty.

Before you make an appointment, drive to the mall, find a parking spot, and then lug your Mac through the Towson Town Center to get to the Towson Apple Store, please consider supporting your local neighborhood Mac shop! Visit MacMedics in Millersville (near BWI airport) the next time you need Apple Authorized Mac sales or service.

See our Blog post with all the details on why to come see MacMedics instead of trekking to the Apple Store. Clients that come to see us, often tell us they will never go back to the Apple Store for Macintosh sales OR service!

Or review this quick top 11 reasons here:

1. No appointment is needed: No need to call ahead when you’re ready to come visit MacMedics! Just walk in and our Apple Certified Techs will take great care of you.

11. The Apple Store Can’t Upgrade Your Hard Drive: MacMedics Can! See our new blog post from 1/30/10 to get all of the details. A common issue we help clients with here at MacMedics is “upgrading” or “retiring” a failed (or perfectly good) hard drive. What many people don’t know is that we can “upgrade” your computer to a larger size hard drive, even if your hard drive has failed under Apple warranty.