Here at MacMedics we see more in-warranty MacBook hard drives fail than any other type of Apple hard drive (laptop or desktop). This may be due to an issue with a certain type of failure in some MacBook hard drives where the assembly’s read/write head detaches (ouch), making recovery impossible. As a result, we recommend that our client’s MacBook hard drives be “retired” after 1 year of use. If you have a MacBook computer used for mission critical needs (or you’re just really concerned about your data or spend lots of time traveling), then it might be wise to simply install a more robust hard drive as soon as you can. The MacBook’s factory hard drive could be installed into an external case to make a handy back up drive. You could also carry your original drive with you as a “spare-in-the-air” back up loaded with a fresh OS and all of your applications in case your drive fails (thus rendering your MacBook useless in most cases) during a photo shoot or at a client presentation. The MacBook hard drive can be replaced in the field in case of an emergency, so having a spare drive with you at all times makes pretty good sense. We think that it’s worth the $100 to have a laptop that you know you can could on when the chips are down.
