Sending Macs off for repair?

[Palmatum]

So, I recently got a Mac for working on and really don't like the idea of sending it off, should it break, with personal and business information on.

Is there no way you can remove the HDD or what?

Seems to me like they're trying to force me to buy their grossly overpriced external HDD's and having to boot from that each time I want to use it.

I'm a private person, so I don't like the idea of my information and that of my clients in the hands of someone I have no reason to trust.

[Deleted]

you don't want some tech guy find out about your stash of porn?

[Helieos]

Well with the macbooks u can take off the back but they use torque like screws and u need a special screwdriver or bit to do it. There's always a way to take out the HD of a computer it just depends on how motivated you are to figure it out and if you care about the warranty or not. I have never owned a under warranty Mac product so im not sure if taking it apart renders your warranty void.

[inux94]

^that's very mature of you.

OP, IIRC you break the warranty if you open it, I'm not sure as people have been swapping RAM without voiding the warranty

[Deleted]

you don't want some tech guy find out about your stash of porn?

I can see the point that Palmatum is making. There is no way in hell I would send my computer off for repair. Bank details, Business contacts, phone Numbers, Family pictures, There is all sorts of personal information that would be available to the tech's, not just my stash of porn.

Best Advice I can give you is to Back everything up onto a separate Hard drive, Wipe the Main hard drive clean of all your personal data (might be easier to reinstall the OS) and then just have everything saved to external hard drives.

Other than that I would say switch over to a PC for the day to day stuff, and only use the MAC for absolute essentials.

[Deleted]

Doesn't Mac have hard drive encryption? That's a pretty standard feature these days, so should be there...

[lakhesis]

It really depends on the mac.

I've got a mac pro, you can absolutely & very easily swap HDs on that.
I believe it's still personally doable with the iMacs, although I haven't messed with one in years.
By the looks of it you can upgrade Macbooks, although possibly not all varieties (e.g. wouldn't surprise me if some of the Airs would be less cooperative).

Google is your friend, and if you wouldn't already be completely comfortable replacing a hd on a windows machine, then I probably wouldn't recommend trying to upgrade an iMac or laptop.

Historically speaking, Apple has tended to deliberately make their machines hard to deal with unless you know what you're doing. E.G. they've routinely used unusual varieties of screw, and from memory they've even included parts which make a sound like you're breaking them when you dismantle them correctly to discourage tinkerers.

[Palmatum]

you don't want some tech guy find out about your stash of porn?

Very mature. No, it has personal and business information regarding myself and my clients. Plus other work related things that I don't want people snooping around.