News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

July 24, 2006

stores

Back in black

Posted Jul. 24, ’06, 8:49 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Stores

My temporary black MacBook I’ve become quite accustomed to spending a decent amount of time in the Apple Store. Over the last couple years I’ve dealt with a number of troublesome pieces of equipment from power adapters to logic boards, and I’ve had good and bad luck with Geniuses and other Apple personnel.

Yesterday was one of those occasions where the people were more than helpful, but the technology was sorely lacking. Having been able to clone the drive off my MacBook, I took the notebook into the store and explained the issue. The Genius as the CambridgeSide store had given me a case number, so it was just a matter of shipping the MacBook out for repair.

Not willing to be without a computer for a week (if nothing else, then for the sake of you, dear readers), I opted for a loaner MacBook. Since my white MacBook has an 80GB hard drive, the standard 60GB MacBook was going to be a little short on space, so I opted to borrow a black MacBook. So far, so good.

We strung a FireWire cable over and started up the migration assistant. Unfortunately, since my MacBook’s hard drive was pretty full, this process (which ought to take twenty minutes, according to the Genius’s guess) took more like an hour and a half. For those who’ve wondered: yes, watching progress bars does become zen after the first half hour. I ended up being the last person at the Genius Bar, and one of the last people in the store, so a big thanks to everyone at the Chestnut Hill Apple Store for being patient and understanding.

The transfer actually worked pretty well, though a handful of things didn’t make it, most notably my Windows XP installation (the files all got transferred, but not the partition itself; not surprising, given I’m using an NTFS partition). The black MacBook is nice, but I miss my full gigabyte of RAM (this has the standard 512MB), and both the up-arrow key and right side of the trackpad seem a little glitchy. Oh well, it’s only a week, after all. Here’s hoping the loaner doesn’t start doing the random shutdown dance.


3 Comments

Jason said:

Loaner? They do that...

My PowerBook 17" started acting up, so I dropped by the Apple Store in DC. The tech told me I needed to ship it due to a problem with the mother board. I asked about a loaner (I use my machine for work, and also can't imagine 7 whole days without her).

He told me they don't do that. I cried a bit and then decided to wait. Latter on the problem just disapeared. Go figure.

Do you know if the loaner thing is a program they offer or is this your Mac Blogger musscles flexing?

July 24, 2006 9:17 AM
jMac said:

how exactly did you get them to let you have a loner macbook??

July 24, 2006 10:04 AM
Dan Author Profile Page said:

"Do you know if the loaner thing is a program they offer or is this your Mac Blogger musscles flexing?"

Jason, I'm not sure I have any such muscles, nor could I flex them in that manner :). When I inquired, they told me that what they do is make available refurbed or display models as loaner, though as collateral, you essentially buy the computer. Then, when you return it, they waive the restocking fee, so you basically get all of your money back. So as long as your credit limit can handle it, hopefully no problem. I'll let you know how it goes when I try the other end of the deal.

July 24, 2006 11:33 AM

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