Need MacPro help in Austin Texas

September 18, 2012 11:25 AM

Can anyone recommend a good and affordable Mac hardware and software tech in Austin, Texas? I've had a series of drive failures and I'm in way over my head. Need help replacing drives, reinstalling OS and, if possible, cloning from a failed drive.

A series of drive and OS disasters has left me feeling helpless. I've always been able to muddle through before so I'm unprepared with professional connections. All the computers in question are Mac Pro towers from 2007-2009 running Snow Leopard and Mountain Lion. My computer cred at work is in a shambles. Hope me please!

posted by a humble nudibranch to computers & internet (5 answers total)

http://www.austinmacworks.com/
posted by mattbucher at 11:35 AM on September 18, 2012

Aren't there two Applestores in Austin? Try asking if any of the Genii do work on the side.
posted by Gungho at 12:11 PM on September 18, 2012

Mac Pro drive replacement is dead easy
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_HardDrive_DIY.pdf
Just buy some replacement drives (you'll probably want bigger if those were the original drives) and slot them in. Boot from the most recent installation DVD you've got (it should go right to the DVD if the drive is blank, or hold down "C" key to force boot from DVD drive). Then update.

You might want to leave the failed drive installed in addition to the new one at first (there are a bunch of drive bays in a Mac Pro). You can try to repair it with Disk Utility. I used to use Disk Warrior when Disk Utility failed. I haven't had to do this in a while, and I'm not sure if the current version of DW is all that much more powerful that Disk Utility. If you can get the old drive to mount, try to copy the files to the new drive. If you can't get it to mount or find your files on it, it's probably time for professional disk recovery, but only if those files are really valuable and there's no backup--expect it to be expensive.
posted by trrll at 1:52 PM on September 18, 2012

I have replaced the drive but I don't have an installation dvd that will work with my computer. I have Snow Leopard (from another computer) but it won't allow me to install on the new drive.

Yeah, the failed drive doesn't have any vital files. It only has all my applications that I just installed. The computer was "new to me" and I was loading all my apps on it. I hadn't made an image of it yet. :(
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:03 PM on September 18, 2012

By all means hire a tech if you're overwhelmed and it's going to be the best way to get things running again, but the Genius Bar at any Apple Store can definitely help you with your questions about reinstalling the OS and replacing failed disks. A tech is probably overkill unless you're really stuck or need hardware repairs that you can't/don't want to do yourself.

It sounds like you need a generic OS installer for Snow Leopard (or perhaps Lion). The CDs that used to come with new Macs are generally specific to that model, more or less. A basic Snow Leopard DVD will work on any machine that meets the system requirements for the OS. The Genius Bar can probably set you up with one for a bit. If you have a license for Lion and the machine can run Lion, you can make a bootable Lion install drive off of any machine running Lion.
posted by zachlipton at 3:54 PM on September 18, 2012