Phone, JOe Apple tech had nothing to say so he just made Tues apt store, but idea: still go,? Think 1 / 4 chance they could fix this quickly/ cheaply? If not, if they say leave it a few days, and it be... 200- 400, would you just take it home and buy Mac Mini..and sell it... my guess you would do that even you would have done last month!
Your
guess is probably spot on
The decision of what to do is, of course, yours. Personally, I would be VERY reluctant to spend any money on an iMac that old unless it would pay for itself two or three times over in increased sales value.
Idea: Could then sell it locally... (as I did with laptop) 6 months ago... ask $450, and when the person is here live.. just say (if still working good at that moment), 'I recommend getting a new internal drive, it's working fine now, but since from 2016, it really could go any moment" That Kosher? True working fine, and saying in person to recommend a buying a new one -- ? This way don't have to put a warning in the ad. just announce it from get go in person before the buy..
- You don't KNOW you have a failing disk drive, and can't KNOW you have a failing disk drive until your iMac has been torn down and checked by a certified Apple technician. The CRC errors could be in the ribbon cable, the connectors, or the drive.
- Chances are anyone buying a computer this old will not have the knowledge to comprehend what is implied by the high CRC rate or the potential cost to repair.
- labor charges to diagnose the problem can account for up to 80 or 90 percent of the total cost to repair. (In an analogous situation some years ago, when I was informed of the total cost to repair, it was so high I elected to let Apple keep the computer and cannibalize it for parts in exchange for the cost of the diagnostic labor.)
- If you sell locally, a dissatisfied customer knows where you live and how to find you.
What I would do in your position is irrelevant. My advice would be:
- Put yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer of your iMac as/is, when making your decision
- If you are determined to hang on until if and when Apple releases an M1 or M2 27" or 30" iMac, get an external Thunderbolt SSD, as I suggested, and use it as your boot drive (if you don't have a Thunderbolt port consider something like this and Firewire 800.
- Reconsider my other suggestion of an M1 Mac mini and a big display. IMHO, you would be getting equal computing power and more future flexibility for less $€£ (but you already know that was my recommendation
)
NOTE: you could run Apple Hardware Test and if it passes you could legitimately make that claim as a selling point to offset the CRC errors. (AHT won't catch the CRC errors.)
