Nobody learns if nothing is brok3n

The Super Drive died and your HD needs to be reformatted?

I have been in a relatively similar situation. I put my other mac into target disk mode and used its optical drive access my OS X install/restore CD. That should work even if the comp in target disk mode is PPC.

Sad to hear about the warrantee situation. Why are you not covered? I am curious as I need to choose whether or not to extend my warrantee to 3 years. I have never bothered in the past.

I've had some hard times with Apple - mostly because in my country, there is no official Apple, just some "dealers" who go after the money not caring about the platform, turning down most of the warranties - I had to actually write to Apple.com, then get a phone call from Great Britain and then finally get the power adapter replaced. But I wouldn't switch away. I wouldn't know where else to go... Windows? Have you seen Vista? Uh... Yuck! ;) And some Linux distribution? Well, I just would miss iLife... And I do love Cocoa and ObjC. I hate doing school projects in C#... Then there are some minority OS's like BeOS (there are some projects keeping it alive), etc... Well is there any software for those?

I know it can be sometimes hard and Apple can be dumb sometimes, but let's hope it will learn from its' mistakes. My judgment isn't (probably) objective as I've never owned a PC...

However, I think Macs (as a hardware) are quite durable... Maybe it was just bad luck... I know a few people with some cheaper Acers and Dells and their laptops just fell apart after two or three years...

BTW: have you tried writing to Apple (not the store, but the company)?

What's wrong with your computer that's not covered by AppleCare? That warrantee's pretty comprehensive.

Basically I either dropped it or something fell on it or something. See here:

http://brok3n.org/archivesextreme/2007/12/i_wonder_how_mu.html

So then the superdrive is inaccessable, but I could use the machine. About 2 weeks ago disk arbitration stopped mounting the drive. I spent a bit trying to get the data off, finally got it off with disk recovery 2.

Basically they need to replace the bottom part, maybe the superdrive. That bit is going to cost, and it's outside of applecare.

Hmmm... I had similar issues with PC notebooks, and the warranties didn't cover it, since it was obviously mechanical damage of some sort caused by me. I agree that Apple hardware is kind of flaky, but it is not the worst out there. The kind of "no-questions-asked" service you are talking about can be quite expensive, although you can get lucky with lesser care levels with just about any system.

Since you are pretty savvy, you could go to Linux or whatever, but the main reason I stick with Apple is I don't have to fuss around with the system very much. The OSes are more similar every day, but there is just a certain level of refinement that is often missing from other OSes. Nowadays it doesn't matter too much as more of life is done through a web browser though... If you are going to buy a PC laptop, I say get a Thinkpad, the Lenovo's are still the solidest things out there.

There's obviously no easy fix for your squashed case. If the drive is still functional, you might be able to get at it by (forcibly) removing the squashed part of the case with a dremel tool. Consideration of such a feat makes me shudder but the case is already toast.

In addition to FW disk mode as mentioned earlier in the comments, I can think of two other options (which accomplish the same in the end).

The easiest is to use an external DVD drive, if you've got one around. Gone are the days of these being plentiful, but at < $75 it's worthwhile if you'll be keeping a Mac around without a functioning internal DVD drive. Just think of your MBP as an early-generation MacBook Air...

The second is to use an external hard drive. You'll need a fully functional Mac temporarily. Make a disk image of the Leopard installer, then using Disk Utility, restore the image to the external hard drive (you can partition the drive if you'd like). You can then add any utilities you desire to the drive, that may help you solve your drive problem. Lastly move that drive to your MBP and boot away. It'll think you're booting from an external DVD installer.

But if you want that case to look right, yeah, that'll set you back some bucks. I can't blame Apple for denying that under warranty (although that gives them no right to be rude!).

Don't do it Chris!

Seriously, every Apple product I've ever owned has been a much higher quality product than any Dell, Toshiba, Compaq, or HP I've had. Besides, you can't think that dealing with Windows isn't more of an expense and hassle than any damaged drive.

I'd hate to see you leave the Mac platform, Chris. Did you check with your home insurance to see if it covers accidental damage to your computer? If they don't already, you should add it, since it sounds like this has happened more than once. From what I hear, it's rather cheap.

I'll be interested to see what you decide, and, more importantly, why. I'm playing with the idea of getting a second laptop (sharing's a pain), and while the MacBook Air is very attractive for my needs, it's also very pricey. If I switch, I've got to go open source and deal with cross-platform issues and finding functional replacements for Quicksilver, KeyCue and Typinator, which isn't what I want to spend my time on.

As far as reliability goes, Consumer Reports surveys indicate that all laptops have the same repair frequency. The "best" are Lenovo and Compaq, at 20% of units needing repair, and the "worst" is Apple, at 23%, but "differences of less than three points are not meaningful," so, at best, Lenovo and Compaq can be considered to have a 1% lower repair rate than Apple. For desktop computers, Apple is significantly more reliable than all other brands reported.

@David: My renters insurance does not cover it. If I had known applecare didn't cover everything, I would have insured the laptop itself with my insurance provider. I've done that before.

@Tom: Toughbooks have a much lower repair rate of like 1 or 3 percent. Take a look at the wikipedia article for them. It's really interesting.

Um, why on earth would a waranty - even an extended one - cover accidental damage? I have to agree with Apple on this one. Nothing here is a fault of theirs, no manufacturing defect is involved - you just broke it. Shit happens sometimes.

If someone rear-ends me in traffic, do I expect the manufacturer to cover it under warranty? No, I go to insurance, just like I would for my laptop. As you mentioned, you're perfectly aware of using a separate policy for your laptop, so the fact that you didn't have one here; well, we're back to this being your fault. Take responsibility for it.

Computers break and need to be replaced. I had to replace my wife's aging iBook recently, quite a bit ahead of when I planned. I didn't appreciate the sudden $800 charge, but I sucked it up and dealt with it. No Wii or such for me. It all worked out. That's life.

If you really find yourself just as happy and productive on another platform then feel free to switch. We'll miss you and your development efforts, but certainly don't base it on this.

I shop at the Woodlands Apple Store, I just helped my grandpa get a macbook from there, and it's where I got mine. So, cool. I think you were in a really rare position where their hands are tied in terms of helping you, compounded with the jerks in the Galleria, making you want to switch. Don't do it. There is still good in Apple yet.

Everything you need to use is the same except for Quicksilver and Growl? I dunno man, seems like having Growl and Quicksilver around would be pretty big motivators to stay on os x. That, and there is nothing on windows or linux that even comes close to being as awesome as Cocoa development is. Just my two cents...