[Pierre B.]

And the week and much more.

It was unbelievable. In an incredibly maladroit gesture from my part, I dropped the old black Macbook, that was already on with the display open, from about 70 cm on a wooden floor. The Macbook hit with one corner and then fell on its display which was forced to close under the weight and the impact shock. I heard the characteristic sound of the optical drive, like when the Macbook is starting or waken up from sleep mode.

I did not know what to expect, what would be the extend of damage. I put it back on the desk and opened the display. It woke up properly and the login window showed up. I was not convinced that it is still functioning. I logged in and I saw that there was nothing strange in its behavior, everything was as previously! It just got a barely visible dent in the corner that took the impact shock and that's all. Just incredible. Apparently the Sudden Motion Sensor parked the hard drive when the fall acceleration was detected and this saved all the data.

But there is also the part of the resistance of the outer shell to physical stress. I still cannot believe it. I have seen PC notebooks with cracks on their shells after only normal or even light use on a desk (barely moved from there) and now this four-an-a-half years old Macbook, with heavy-duty processing and travel, taking such a shock and coming out almost intact! Mad. Two days have passed and it works like nothing happened. Fingers crossed.

Kudos to Apple for this design. OK, I admit that I was lucky also.

It is the first time I see something like that and I just wanted to share.

[Spheric Harlot]

In my case, the 'Book was open and running (and hooked up to the car stereo), as a sudden deceleration from about 55 km/h to zero within ca. 6m (as a Mercedes crashed into my van) left it hurtling from the seat into the dash and onto the floor.

Hard drive was okay and served me well for a few years after that.

[Waragainstsleep]

I'd run a backup if you don't have a recent one, they can still fail after the event.

[mduell]

70cm onto wood isn't that bad, I've dropped PCs without SMS from higher with no ill effects.

[Pierre B.]

Originally Posted by mduell 

70cm onto wood isn't that bad, I've dropped PCs without SMS from higher with no ill effects.

Probably, I don't know. But in my case it was a little bit worse than a fall.

Here is how it happened. I had the Macbook on my left on the desk. In a moment of distraction I forgot it was there and I extended abruptly my left arm. That was it. My arm hit on the open display and gave initial momentum to the Macbook, making it turn around its edge before the fall starts. It fell with the display open. I was very lucky that the impact happened with an angle that forced the display to close and not extend further, in which case it would break into pieces.

Fortunately, after all this time the Macbook still works without the least hiccup.