My 30-second elevator pitch has evolved to include ATM repairs.

So someone in the elevator will see my MacMedics jacket, shirt, or tool bag and asks, “What exactly is MacMedics?”

I say, “MacMedics is an Apple Authorized Macintosh service and consulting business. We service and maintain Macs at ad agencies and other places where pre-press and graphic design happens like corporate graphics or marketing departments. We like to say we’re in the ATM repair business, because when your Mac is broken or slow, you’re not making money.”

I got a huge dose of this wisdom this recently. A guy who lives and works near our shop has a video production business. He’s been asking about maybe getting a new Mac for the last year or so.

We exchange e-mails every so often when he has a question about his Mac or to ask if we need any video production help. I saw him at Subway not too long ago and he let me know that he might be getting a new Mac soon.

He came into the shop with his older MacBook Pro that was really sick. He had tried to run a Firmware update while he was in the middle of a project and it failed, thus making the unit inoperable. It’s not a common occurrence, but we do see it from time to time. As soon as it happened he ordered a new MacBook Pro from somewhere else, and then brought that in so we could transfer his data from the old unit to the new unit. Sadly, we could have saved him even more time if he had purchased the new Mac from MacMedics.

Normally this is not a big deal. We set it up the new MacBook Pro to migrate and it failed about 75% of the way thru. We tried a few other things and tried again, and it failed a second time. We then began to suspect the drive might be failing as it was getting kind of noisy and it was getting pretty hot as well.

I decided to go ahead and clone the drive on our data recovery equipment, so I could copy the data off the drive quickly. I then had to fix that data in order to get it into to shape to migrate it. His hard drive was a huge mess. The report on the drive was seven pages long. The total process ended up taking several hours and it delayed him over 24 hours from the point where his old unit blew up.

So, he’s a professional guy who makes his living with this MacBook Pro, and he had no back up, and he’s never had the unit serviced or looked at. This MacBook Pro is really his ATM cash machine as it provides him with all of his bread and butter for his business.

This is a fantastic case study in why a little preventive maintenance goes along way. If you treat your Mac like your very own ATM machine, you’ll never have these problems. Let’s get real here? Are you going to let your ATM degrade to a point where it stops dispensing cash.

1. This unit is well over two years old, so if we had seen it at any point recently, we would have replaced the hard drive and serviced the unit.

4. A little bit of annual maintenance and an automatic and tested back up system pay for themselves very quickly.

We’re friendly with this fellow, so if had stopped and called us on the phone, we would have been able to tell him all of this. We love to talk shop. If you have a question, just pick up the phone and give us a call!

This iBook hard drive came into the MacMedics Lab for data recovery. The hard drive came out of an iBook G4. Sadly the client did not have their data backed up. This hard drive has a serious problem and it now sounds like a chicken!

Please ensure you have an automated, functional, and fully tested back up system in place. Hard drives can die at any time. See our website www.HardDrivesDie.com for more information.

Don’t Beat Up Your MacBook Pro Unibody – Your Hard Drive Is Directly Under Your Right Hand!

A client brought us his MacBook Pro Unibody 15” yesterday. He got mad at his Mac and smashed his fist down onto the palm rest.

Sadly, this was a not a good thing for the health of the MacBook.

Here’s the carnage report:

1. Dented Palm rest (We did our best to bang the dent out)

2. Dead hard drive (It’s no longer spinning)

3. Lost hard drive data (Since the drive is not spinning, we can’t recover the data)

4. Voided Apple/AppleCare warranty. (Because the damage was due to abuse the repair could not be handled under warranty, and the client had to pay for a new hard drive)

Are You Snowed In Baltimore Or Washington DC Today? This Would Be An Excellent Time To Check Your Time Machine Or Other Macintosh Backup System.

Are you snowed in the Baltimore-Washington area? A snow day is an excellent time to review your Mac’s back up plan, add an extra layer of protection, or test the back up you already have running! Don’t forget, there’s no such thing a set-it-and-forget it backup plan! (This post has links to all my other posts on this topic. Read, learn, and protect your data.)

We also see a rise in data loss that can be attributed to folks moving data or computers around during bad weather. If you are moving your data, switching back ups, or upgrading to a new computer, or doing ANY type of data housekeeping, please read this Blog post first.

A new client in our Washington DC office, brought us a MacBook that had a dying hard drive. He needed the data, so Mike H, one of the talented MacMedics in Lanham was able to recover it all.

Folks, this would be so much easier if everyone had data back ups. I promise you that even without countless “Data Recovery” cases coming in every day, we’ll still be able to stay in business. If you don’t have a tested, working, and automatic backup working for, it’s TIME to get one. We can help if you need guidance.

If you have a back up, then test it, and please consider a clone back up and an off-site back up to boot. You can never have TOO MANY back ups.

Our client in Washington DC sent this:

“Dear Mr Stibolt

Steven S.”

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.

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.

Update 6/25/10 If you have just arrived from Dwight Silverman’s Houston Chronicle’s TechBlog regarding this topic, please see my response to that post. This is a delicate subject, and my comments were deemed too long (and maybe too self serving) to be posted. Seriously, please call us to at least chat about your issue, and $99 is a small price to pay to have ALL of the facts regarding your liquid spill case. If you don’t click this link or fully read this Blog post, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re out of the woods if your MacBook or MacBook Pro (or any other laptop) is working after you wiped it off, and dried it out. We see lots of cases where the computer will FRY it’s self after what’s left of the liquid inside starts to corrode and grows what we call creeping crud.

MacMedics Frequently Asked Macintosh Service Questions: Is It Worth Repairing A Macbook Pro With $1200.00 In Liquid Damage? This dollar amount is a pretty common price quote from the Apple Store. Before you accept a quote for an “advanced” Macintosh repair of any kind (from anybody), be sure to get a second opinion from the experts at MacMedics. We’ve been fixing Macs since before the Apple Store and since 1989 in the Baltimore-Annapolis-Columbia areas.

It is best to see the unit, but there’s no harm in calling us to go over the options and details. Give us a shout anytime at 1-866-MAC-MEDICS!

First off, this is a far too common of an issue. We just successfully repaired a MacBook that had a “Blueberry Smoothie” spilled into it. Folks, please keep liquids at least an arm’s length away from your Apple laptop.

Being in a situation where liquid is in play brings up lots of questions. I’ll try to touch base on a few of the major ones here. If you find yourself in this situation, just call us at 1-866-MAC-MEDICS or send us an e-mail. We’re happy to talk shop about your Apple repair or service problems at anytime.

The first order of business is get the the MacBook or MacBook Pro right into us. Even if it appears that the unit is working after the spill, don’t assume you’ve dodged a bullet. Once there’s moisture inside the unit, it can grow into what we call the “creeping crud” which is really just corrosion that grows kind of like mold inside your computer. If this grows to a point where it’s touching two points that carry current, then zap! and you get a short and could end with with a fried logic board.

What to do if you have a spill: Turn off the computer, upplug the power adapter, and if possible remove the battery. It’s pretty much pot luck on what to do next. If liquid went in the keyboard, then turn the unit upside down with the screen open. Use a stack of books to place the unit on it’s keyboard, with the screen open. Depending on the situation hitting it with a hair dryer might help too.

How to get started: For $99 we’ll open the unit up take a look around inside. If we see surface damage we can clean, we’ll attack it. If we have to go deeper with the unit we’ll let you know and as in the case of the “Blueberry Smoothie” unit we just wrapped up, it ended up being about $300 in labor to fix the unit. If the unit is beyond repair, the $99 still buys you some rudimentary liquid removal, and we’ll give you the facts on what’s going on as well as a written report you can submit to your insurance company.

This is far better then just signing the death certificate yourself, and even if the news is bad, $99 is a small price to really know what’s really going on. Moving forward you can know that if you need to buy a new unit, your old unit at least had the best chance possible.

Is it worth fixing? If very well might be. In cases of liquid spills (coffee is the most common) the Apple Store is likely to quote you $1200.00 for your repair. Even if you have minor damage (that might seem major) it’s usually the same price. Here at MacMedics, we’ll just fix what’s damaged, and accurately diagnose the problem you have. A common issue after a liquid spill is a bad keyboard, that might be $200 to fix. Another issue we see frequently is a unit that can’t charge the battery or can’t run off the battery. Again, a repair like this at MacMedics is generally going to be $200 to $300.

Even if you do need a new logic board, it’s quite likely that our price will be lower then the Apple Store, and unlike Apple, MacMedics puts a full 1-year warranty on our repairs. (Apple is only 90 days). The other factor is turn around time. At Apple, almost all liquid spills get shipped out for depot service. This can work against you as the unit is out of your control, and you could end up with a repair that is far more than what was quoted. As an Apple Authorized Service Provider, Apple frequently sends clients to us for major repairs because they know our prices are likely going to be better than theirs. Liquid Spills, major case damage, and MacBook and MacBook Pro LCD and glass repair referrals from the Apple store are a daily occurrence at both of our MacMedics repair centers.

There’s not much good news when you spill something into you MacBook Pro. If the unit is a total loss, and you do end up buying new, MacMedics will take the old unit as a trade in (in most cases). As an Apple Authorized Value Added Reseller, we carry the full line of Macintosh MacBooks. We can also help with removing the hard drive from a damaged unit, and if needed cleaning it. If the hard drive is a loss too, and we can’t do anything with it, we can put you in touch with one of our clean room data recovery partners.

One thing that many people forget to check is your home owners or renters insurance. If you laptop suffers major damage, in many cases your insurance will cover it. The deducible is usually pretty high ($250 to $500), but that’s better than getting nothing. Also, American Express offers 90 of accidental damage or loss/theft protection when you buy with your AMEX card. Also, many other “high-end” credit cards also offer various protection levels from 90 days to 1-year. (I have a Capital One VISA and it offers 90 days of damage protection.)

There’s also a company called SafeWare that will insure your Apple laptop or iPhone against damage. It’s also possible to buy an extra insurance rider that can help protect your laptop if it get lost, stolen, or damaged.

UPDATE 1/2/10: I’m re-posting this Blog POST from a few weeks ago, because lots of folks are spending time during the New Year holiday to do some house keeping on data from 2009. I’m sure lots of people got new Macs for the holidays too, so be sure to read the Blog post below.

Two things to remember:

1. Never delete data that has not been certified in it’s new location or on a new computer.

2. Never use a computer to process and generate mission critical data without a back-up.

When folks buy a new computer and then transfer the data to the new unit, they are often anxious to re-purpose or re-sell the old computer. So much so, that once they see the new unit is up and running, they will ERASE the old unit and put a fresh OS on it in preparation for it’s new life. In many cases they have already made a deal to sell their old Mac and the sale is “pending” on them getting the new Mac up and running. So there’s often some pressure to get the job done quickly and complete the transaction.

With all hard drives (and new hard drives in NEW computers) there’s a 30 to 60 day “burn-in” that if the drive is going to give up on you there’s a pretty good chance that it will fail in that time frame. There are almost no DOA hard drives, so the ones that have issues are the ones that develop one in that first 30-60 days. If a hard drive comes off the line at the factory and it’s got an issue, they catch those, and destroy them. In fact, it’s been quite some time, since a hard drive has arrived here at MacMedics “Dead On Arrival”. In a few cases we see them dead, when they have been improperly packaged for shipment. We cannot afford to have one of our client’s computers to have a sick hard drive installed in it, so if a batch of hard drives comes to us and they were shipped by an idiot, then back they go. Thankfully we buy by the case, so the factory shipping container is usually very sturdy, so this is not an issue very often.

NEVER EVER put new data on a new hard drive (then delete your old data or sell an old computer) and assume that you’re safer then you were with the old drive. Data SHOULD always be in two places at once!

If you need to erase an old computer and you’ve just transferred ALL of your data to a new shiny computer, don’t let that “new computer” feeling of safety (because it’s new I’m at LESS risk!) distract you! If it’s a new Mac, then run a quick Time Machine back up or clone your drive with SuperDuper BEFORE you erase that old data. Don’t forget to ensure that new backup is also working correctly. This is a common issue, so DON’T fall into this trap!

See my website at http://www.HardDrivesDie.com. Yeah! It’s that common of an issue that I made a website all about it. It has my TOP 5 list of data protection-preservation tips. Also see my Friday the 13th Blog post on topic of hard drives.