From the Ground Up

The other day I posted about how I recently installed the Developers release of Lion to an external drive, and then realized that my iSight camera was no longer working. I visited my local Genius Bar yesterday to have them take a look at the issue and see if there was a quick and easy solution to it. What follows is a rough timeline of what started as a simple repair:

1:55 PM – Arrive at the Apple Store and check in with a Genius Bar representative for my 2 PM reservation.
2:30 PM – Finally get seen by a Genius 30 minutes after my scheduled appointment. He does basic troubleshooting (checking system profiler on my install, booting an external drive with the snow leopard install disc and checking system profiler, clearing SMC) and determines that its either a loose connection on the logic board or the camera has failed. After checking the cost of replacing the iSight camera ($450 for those that are considering it – they need to replace the entire display assembly), we both determine that it might be worth it to open the computer up and check all the cables, and if that doesn’t fix it to leave it alone – I don’t use the camera that much to begin with. [Side Note: The iSight camera still isn't working after re-seating the cables]
4:45 PM – I finally get back to my house after running some other errands in the mall, and go to turn on my MBP. Rather than booting up, I see a flashing folder with a question mark on it.

This is typically associated with a drive failing. I promptly call the Apple store and set up another appointment to have them fix the computer, as they were the last ones to do anything to it before the issue.
5:45 PM – I return to Apple for the second appointment and deal with the same tech as before. He boots the system off of their install drive again and verifies the permissions of my HDD. Once both partitions are scanned, he clicks on the SSD and its completely unformatted – my entire OS X installation vanished in the ~2 hours since I was last there. Since I have a Time Machine backup on my HDD, it wasn’t the end of the world. We created a new partition on the SSD and started the Time Machine Restore process. Given that it was going to take 45 minutes – 1 hour to complete, the tech told me to come back in a little bit rather than sitting there and watching the entire time.
6:15 PM – After wandering around the mall to kill some time, I go back to Apple with the hope that my computer is back up and running. When I walk up to the Genius Bar, my computer is displaying an error message that the Time Machine Restore was not able to complete successfully, and to please restart the computer. I have no clue how long it was sitting there with the error on the screen, but the tech hadn’t seen it before I got back. We restart the computer and fire up Disk Utility once more. However, this time the SSD isn’t present at all – it’s completely dead. Wait – aren’t Solid State Drives supposed to fail in the 1.5-2 million hour range? My drive had 5,000 hours on it, and that’s with a HUGE overestimation. After arguing with the store manager a little bit about who is at fault for the failure [he informed me that unfortunately, they see drives crash all the time at the Genius Bar and its just a coincidence that my drive happened to fail while they were handling it. I don't buy it - my MBP had drive issues after I brought it in for them to fix the Logic Board over winter break also], I leave and head home to tear the computer apart.
7:30 PM – I sit down with the original hard drive [which now has Lion installed on it], a screw driver and an iFixit guide and start tearing the computer down. I get the SSD out and try docking it on my desktop, but it won’t show up on the desktop or under Disk Utility. I quickly install the original HD and put the system back together.
8:45 PM – I call Apple to see if I can bring the computer back once more to have them reload Snow Leopard on it. I remembered the tech mentioned that they had a copy of 10.6.7 that they could image onto a system, and considering I don’t have any means of inserting a CD into the system and can’t find an 8 GB flash drive, this seems to be the next easiest way.
8:50 PM – I’m once again at the Apple store. I don’t even need an appointment at this point. I walk up to the Genius Bar and talk to the same tech who just hands me the network boot cable and lets me go to it.
9:15 PM – The imaging finishes up and I go through the basic set up. I’m at a clean desktop. I thank the tech for the final time and leave, again.
9:30 PM – I rearrange the partitions on the new boot drive to handle 4 different scenarios: 10.7 Install, 10.6 Install, Lion, Snow Leopard. The 10.7 Install and Lion partitions were already there, so it just seemed to make sense. I resize everything appropriately, restore the 10.6 install disc to its partition, and begin the Time Machine Restore. After about 30 minutes the process is finished and I’m finally back to the desktop that I had before this all started (from around 2 PM).
11:30 PM – My MBP is finally back in some working order. I need to delete all of my Time Machine backups to allow the ‘new’ system to start creating backups. I call it quits around 12, and take it as a small win that I’m back up and running.

I immediately RMA’d the OCZ Vertex drive that failed once it was out of the system. After reading a little bit on various forums, it appears that OCZ drives are relatively prone to failure, but they are decently good about replacing/refunding them. I’m still very skeptical of how the drive failed – I brought the computer in and booted off of the SSD when I showed him what was wrong with the system. The only thing that could be considered ‘different’ from my normal use of the computer was that the tech didn’t shut the computer down; rather, he just held the power button to shut it off, almost as if it was a forced shutdown. I think in the future, barring any catastrophic failure that requires an Apple tech, I won’t be bringing my computer back to the Genius Bar.

Given that I’m going back to school tomorrow, and the MBP has become my main computer, I decided it would be more beneficial for myself if I took a trip down to Micro Center today to pick up a new SSD, rather than waiting for the replacement. I set out with the intention of picking up a Vertex 2 80 GB, but the sales rep working talked me out of it – apparently all OCZ drives have reliability issues. He suggested going with an Intel drive, but it was a little too pricey for me. So I ended up with a Samsung 470 Series 60 GB. I came home and tore open the computer again, swapping out the old HD with the Samsung SSD. I booted off of the old HD with the 10.6 Install and restored my system once more.

Here are some quick pictures I snapped (on my iPhone) while doing the Samsung SSD:

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

And with that, after a long and crazy 24 hours, my MBP is back to where it started and will hopefully not be getting opened up anymore in the near future. If it wasn’t for the Time Machine backups, I don’t know how I would deal with the system crashing as fast as it did – within a 2 hour period, the SSD went from proper operation to complete failure. Even hard drives don’t go down that quickly; you usually get some warning signs before the drive ultimately craps out. Ultimately, the computer is back to where I need/want it to be, and will not be having any more changes made to it in the foreseeable future.