Kernel panic

On a fateful day last month, I woke up in the morning to see this on my iMac.

Kernel panic

The exact text was:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff800bcc0b01): "Unable to find driver for this platform: \"ACPI\".\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2422.92.1/iokit/Kernel/IOPlatformExpert.cpp:1 533

Debugger called: <panic>

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff80856cbdc0 : 0xffffff800b822fa9

0xffffff80856cbe40 : 0xffffff800bcc0b01

0xffffff80856cbe50 : 0xffffff800bc92fcf

0xffffff80856cbea0 : 0xffffff800bc92b8f

0xffffff80856cbf30 : 0xffffff800bc8e769

0xffffff80856cbf70 : 0xffffff800bc936e3

0xffffff80856cbfb0 : 0xffffff800b8d7047

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Unknown

Mac OS version:

Not yet set

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 13.1.0: Wed Apr   2 23:52:02 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2422.92.1~2/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: E9CF78E2-1E9F-3B6F-81A4-FEE6C6D0E4D5

Kernel slide:     0x000000000b600000

Kernel text base : 0xffffff800b800000

System uptime in nanoseconds: 312086064

I tried checking it out on the Apple Support Community, but none of the recommended solutions worked. My iMac warranty had already expired too (almost four years), so I tried calling Apple to ask. I was told to contact A.Lab, one of their authorised service centres.

It turned out that the hard disk had crashed. (Thank goodness that I use Time Machine for regular backups.) But the bill was really shocking.

Replacement for hard drive, 1TB, 3.5", 7200, SATA = $457 (!!!)

Labour cost = $130

Pick-up fee = $20

Delivery fee = $20

Total = $627

This really hurt. I think I can get a similar hard drive for less than a quarter of the price elsewhere! The total cost of $627 was almost enough to buy a brand new iPad Air too. 

I am definitely not going back to their authorised service centres in the future.