Ok, it wasn't a free repair; I had Apple Care (which the business purchased for the computer) so I wasn't charged. But I had to pay for Apple Care. I consider it part of the cost of the computer.
I was without the computer for a few days, but I was able to work on my husband's computer using my files which had been backed up on Carbonite. I can't say I was as productive, but I was still able to work.
And I had backed up using Time Machine, so within two hours of getting the computer back (with a brand new hard drive) I was up and running again. The only things I was missing were some printer drivers. And I had to reload Autocad.
Apparently if I had backed up using Super Duper instead of Time Machine (they are similar) I wouldn't have had to reload Autocad. But I reloaded it while I was at the gym, so no loss of work time. Seriously, my laptop was in the corner and I just went over to check on it between tracks, entered serial numbers, etc.
My computer is now so FAST! The old hard drive must have been slowly dying. It slowly got slower (ha!) so that I didn't notice how slow it actually was. But it's so great now!
Here was the only cost of the computer hard drive disaster: I felt sorry for myself so I went to Palacio down the street and got a lemonade (they make it fresh from real lemons!) and then went to the gluten free bakery and got a sticky bun. I think the total for both was less than $10, and I felt a lot less sorry for myself afterward.
So the moral of the story - back up often and in multiple ways. And sometimes you need to get yourself a treat.
Update on Computer Hard Drive - "Free" Repair
April 11th, 2014 at 03:06 am