A Business Solution (for us)
We thought we’d highlight a couple of major problems we had ourselves and how we solved them. Maybe there is a lesson for everyone here.
PROBLEM #1: At 10am Monday morning, the hard drive failed on our main laptop computer (we have PC and Apple): the Apple 17″ PowerBook. Now, because we BACK UP (*1st hint*) every Friday onto our Iomega drive, we had not lost any information including emails, Web site files, accounts. Nothing.
SIDE NOTE: When we originally purchased the laptop in 2004, we also purchased AppleCare (*2nd hint*) for 3 years ($249.00) and recently added ProCare ($99). AppleCare extends your computer’s 90 days of complimentary support and one-year repair coverage to up to three years of support, while the ProCare package gives you many personal benefits including jumping to the top of a line for repairs (*hint 3*).
SOLUTION #1: After talking toll-free on the phone with Apple, they recommended that the hard drive be replaced (for free, covered by AppleCare) and even made the appointment for us at our local Apple store. Using ProCare, we jumped to the top of the line and the hard drive was replaced by 4pm that day. Not only that but they used our backup Iomega hard drive to put all of our backed-up files on the new laptop hard drive. So we were back up running the same day.
During the day, we also purchased a replacement: the brand new Apple 17″ MacBook Pro with Intel-based chip (basically using the same chip as a PC, which allows it to run Windows as well as Mac OS X).
PROBLEM #2: We were informed that the 3-month old Iomega backup hard drive was failing but that they had managed to get the files onto the replaced hard drive!
SOLUTION #2: We contacted Iomega and they replaced it for free (not including shipping).
SOLUTION #3: We also purchased a 2nd Iomega drive to backup the backup!
So now we have a new and backup laptop with all current files, 2 backup drives and it only cost us $360 (AppleCare + ProCare + shipping to Iomega). And we were back up and running by 4pm that Monday.
THE LESSON? Buy any extended warranty on offer (*hint 4*) and BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP (*hint 5*).
