My MacBook (last of the white case MacBooks - 2.4 ghz) may need to be repaired under warranty. The Super Drive is giving me some problems. Sometimes, it doesn't recognize a CD. Today, it wouldn't recognize a commercial DVD. It kept spinning and then spit it out. It did this twice but the DVD works fine on my regular DVD player.

Now that my MacBook is my only computer (I used to have a G5 tower), it has all my data on it. What's the best way to protect that information when I take it to Apple for repair? Is the best thing just to remove files? I have the last few years tax forms on it. (My user account is password protected and I have automatic login disabled.)

Michael

It is possible to diagnose this problem without access to your user account. If the computer won't boot from a known good CD then it is most likely the optical drive that is at fault.

Setup a temporary limited access account if you must.

I'd back up any personal data and delete it from the MB.

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mikebw
It is possible to diagnose this problem without access to your user account. If the computer won't boot from a known good CD then it is most likely the optical drive that is at fault.

Setup a temporary limited access account if you must.

Even if you setup a guest account the HD is still accessible via target mode I believe.

How sensitive is your info? Most people don't really care what other people have on their hard drive. I'm sure all techs see tons of porn, financial info, etc on people HDs and I doubt they even bother to look at it.

If you have proprietary info that is important to protect, you can encrypt it or delete and wipe. You can also call Apple and ask if it's ok if you remove the HD for said reason.

No brainer. Clone to an external drive and delete all personal files. You need a backup anyway, and it makes it a bit more difficult for your ID to "wander".

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Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

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modelamac
No brainer. Clone to an external drive and delete all personal files. You need a backup anyway, and it makes it a bit more difficult for your ID to "wander".

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

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Wailer

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mikebw
It is possible to diagnose this problem without access to your user account. If the computer won't boot from a known good CD then it is most likely the optical drive that is at fault.

Setup a temporary limited access account if you must.

Even if you setup a guest account the HD is still accessible via target mode I believe.

How sensitive is your info? Most people don't really care what other people have on their hard drive. I'm sure all techs see tons of porn, financial info, etc on people HDs and I doubt they even bother to look at it.

If you have proprietary info that is important to protect, you can encrypt it or delete and wipe. You can also call Apple and ask if it's ok if you remove the HD for said reason.

Anyone could clone the drive via Firewire target mode, but they would not gain permissions to access your user folder by doing so.

Although anyone with physical access to the machine (and a functional optical drive) could easily reset the password to the admin account via an OS X install CD/DVD's "password reset" utility.

SO- as has been said- if you have really sensitive data either encrypt it independently of the system, erase it from the drive, or even remove the actual hard drive from the computer. I have dealt with government agencies before that do not allow the drives to be removed from the premises so this should not be a big deal.

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mikebw
Anyone could clone the drive via Firewire target mode, but they would not gain permissions to access your user folder by doing so.

You could use BatChmod to change permissions on all the files and gain access to any of them.

Thanks for all the info. It looks like it may actually just be an issue with this one DVD. Although it plays fine in regular DVD player, the MacBook doesn't like it. I've tried a half dozen other DVDs and they all worked find.

I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks, again.

Michael

well, you beat me to it -- i was going to say:

have you tried other DVDs or CDs? might just be that one...

maybe a cleaning CD might help...

but you should have a bootable backup anyway...

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.