My iMac is broken

My sympathies.

Ours died (dead HD) just over three weeks before the 3 year Apple Care cover ran out. So it all got fixed at their expense. It's been on 'borrowed time' since then. (Weekly backup with Super Duper! just in case.)

I really hope you still have cover and I hope you have a bootable backup to restore from.

John I've got an original snow leopard dvd,is that what you mean?

It is, and I have one somewhere. But I strongly suspect, as chebby suggests, a dead hard drive. I have a time machine backup, but it's not very recent (d'oh). Genius bar beckons I think (which will no doubt cost an arm and a leg).

Surely, an HDD's demise is covered by the Sale of Goods Act's six-year rule - ie, any fundamental failure within six years of purchase date deems the product "not fit for purpose"?

In which case, the retailer is resposible for repair and/or replacement.

'Tis "da law!".

Sorry to hear that John,Mine is a year old now so I must do something along the lines Chebby has.Hope it works out well for you mate.

Paid.

(And the only time I ever had to use it  'in anger' it worked perfectly.)

Plus one for super duper (paid), it's ace!

While we seem to have several Mac-ites 'gathered' in one place - can anyone recommend an external HDD for Time Machine/backup that's reliable and not too pricey, please? (My MBP's HDD is 320GB.)

Ta 

I use a WD 'My Book' 320GB connected with Firewire.

However it does 'hum' a bit in use. That's not an issue for me as (a) it is in a spare room next door to where the hifi is, so cannot be heard (b) it is only ever in use for the duration of the incremental backup (about 10 minutes).

All our other computers (three Dell Latitude laptops and one Dell Vostro tower) each have their own dedicated WD 'My Passport' USB external drives using Acronis True Image backup software.

The 'Passports' are very quiet. Actually silent, unless you clamp it to your ear!

I would not know what to use for Time Machine as that drive would have to be left on all the time wouldn't it? (I have TM disabled as our use of the iMac doesn't need continuous backup.)

I like ICY Docks, they are aluminium HD caddys that you can swap the disk around using nifty adapters...

They suit the iMac, and you can buy the adapters for cheap rather than several caddys.  Saying that, with the Thailand floods it not necessarily cheaper to do it yourself anymore.

I think you'd really struggle to argue that for a hard disk drive.

I use a couple of these, but no idea how easy they are to get hold of now (clearly not available from Amazon any more). The main thing that was important from my perspective was ensuring they were formatted with the correct partition type so you can boot your Mac directly from the Super Duper backup (link) - makes things easier if your disk does fail.

However, I'm looking to move to a Synology NAS (once they bring out the cheaper versions of 412 range) as this will mean an easier way of ensuring regular backups.

Apple time capsule 2tb model.  Altough all this talk is making me nervous...  When i access the tc everything on it comes under "data"

If i have a breakdown on my macbook  will the "data" being itunes, photos etc all sort itself out on the replacement hard drive/computer??

So do I.  And tbh even if the repair was free, it doesn't bring back the missing stuff.  Photos and music are (mostly) backed up, recent documents less so, and my mailbox hasn't been done for three months.  The inbox can be reconstituted, sent items can't.  Grrr.

Yes you will have an option when starting up a new computer or your old computer with a new hhd to setup from your TC