Apple Expands Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program for 2009-2011 iMacs

My iMac comes up with... SMART sensor reports failed drive.. blah and won't boot. Tells me to backup immediately which I did. Moved it all to a different machine with an SSD. Tired of getting burned by magnetic media.

The machine has been reinstalled onto an SD card and has been pumping out seti units in the corner since the drive failed. I put in the serial number and bingo, it qualifies. \o/

Will they let me swap it out for an apple SSD and pay the difference? Its a descent iMac, I'd like to put it to better use, but I've lost all trust in magnetic media. I guess I'll have to call the dealer and ask.

Just as a side note, this only affects some HDDs within a particular model range of Seagate Drives ST31000528AS AP24, AP25 revisions. The built in checker on http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/ is able to determine this. What I'm not sure about is if the checker is able to verify if a HDD replacement has already taken place. So if you have had a drive replaced by Apple and the checker states you are eligible for a drive replacement, just check your HDD revision number in system profiler.

Also, an interesting point to highlight is this

"If you believe you have paid for a repair or replacement due to this issue, contact Apple regarding a refund." The link goes through to worldwide AppleCare numbers so save yourself the time and journey by not bothering to go to an Apple Store for a refund. AppleCare should be able to do this over the phone, sweet deal! I would imagine you will need the iMac serial number and possibly repair number or receipt so you can confirm the price paid for the replacement.

----------

MCP-511 said:

My iMac comes up with... SMART sensor reports failed drive.. blah and won't boot. Tells me to backup immediately which I did. Moved it all to a different machine with an SSD. Tired of getting burned by magnetic media.

The machine has been reinstalled onto an SD card and has been pumping out seti units in the corner since the drive failed. I put in the serial number and bingo, it qualifies. \o/

Will they let me swap it out for an apple SSD and pay the difference? Its a descent iMac, I'd like to put it to better use, but I've lost all trust in magnetic media. I guess I'll have to call the dealer and ask.

Click to expand...

That sucks... well, if it's eligible, you can get that drive replaced. However, in my experience, Apple has never upgraded HDD's to SSD's even if you offer to pay.

Willis said:

That sucks... well, if it's eligible, you can get that drive replaced. However, in my experience, Apple has never upgraded HDD's to SSD's even if you offer to pay.

Click to expand...

I figured as much. A free replacement is a free replacement nonetheless, so I should be happy it qualifies. It didn't even last a year before it went. I found an authorized dealer close, so I will make the arrangements to have it done. I wonder what they replace it with, hopefully not another Seagate! If they do that, I'll unload it while it still works.

So my iMac is apparently eligible for this program. Now to decide if I want to bring it in or not.

TMRaven said:

Way to go Apple! I have a late 09 iMac I purchased in early 2010, and its hard drive has been slowly dying for the past year or so, but I've been waiting for SSDs to drop in price so I could do my own replacement, because Apple was wanting to charge me 200 bucks for an out of warranty hard drive swap.

Now I can get it fixed for free! Props to Apple!

Click to expand...

You should still get the SSD, the difference is immediate.

Oh finally! I've had this 2010 iMac for well, 2 years now. I have the Seagate 1 Tb HDD and it's loud as hell, like someone making popcorn in a microwave constantly. I've gotten used to it but I've always been planning on changing the hard drive but I've read it's a daunting task. I'm definitely taking it to be replaced.

This is why all apple stores received a huge service part shipment of various H/drives this week. Guess someone didnt mess up the orders.

H2SO4 said:

You should still get the SSD, the difference is immediate.

Click to expand...

I really do want to go the SSD route, but since the replacement is free, I'll go ahead and get apple to replace it and wait another year or so until SSDs come down even further in price I think.

My other big concern is the fan issue with earlier 27 inch iMacs. If I understand correctly I have to short something out so the fans don't go haywire.

H2SO4 said:

You should still get the SSD, the difference is immediate.

Click to expand...

Does anyone think there is an option to upgrade your hard drive to an SSD plus, or even from a 1TB to a 2 TB?

[Mine's been dog slow for the past year or slightly less. Thrashing constantly. Even recently tried reloading the OS to try to get it back to normal. A little better but not great. Hope this fixes it.]

This is great news! I've been expecting a hard disk failure for 6 months now as the computer had been acting incredibly strange, then suddenly, it just failed Thursday. I was dreading having to carry the computer through the Tokyo trains to get to an Apple store. This way, apple will pay for pick up and delivery, and I get a shiny new hard drive!

Oh crap. Mine died a few months back. Got it replaced with a 3TB at a local computer store, but now I have got dust caught between the glass. A bit late Apple, but appreciated :/

SOLLERBOY said:

At least this explains the sudden drop in performance from my late 09 imac. It's getting quite slow. I just don't fancy having to go to an apple store with it. I had to go recently with my 4s and it's so awkward, theres no set procedure for going to the genius bar, I was just stood there like a dork until someone came over. Can't imagine what it will be like with the imac.

Plus I have over 700GB of stuff on it thank I'm keen to keep safe. It does have file vault enabled so I suppose a secure erase coupled with file vault will be ok?

Click to expand...

When you get to the Apple store just grab any staff member and tell them you have a Genius Bar appointment, they will get you sorted out.

Great news - contacted Apple and they will send over a local service provider to my house who will fix it here and then.

ErikGrim said:

Oh crap. Mine died a few months back. Got it replaced with a 3TB at a local computer store, but now I have got dust caught between the glass. A bit late Apple, but appreciated :/

Click to expand...

Look on the bright side, the 3TB drive your local computer store installed is more than likely much higher quality than the stock Apple drive.

About time! Noticed my failing hard drive about 8 month ago, but it's still running (lots of reallocated sectors).

For the first time I'm actually happy that I have a crappy Seagate in my iMac. Hopefully the replacement will work better.

Surprised there isn't a class action lawsuit with seagate the 1TB barracuda has been defective for years. I've replaced 4 in the last 3 years in family computers. Clearly these guys don't care about releasing defective products.

Sad thing is seagate is bundled with several computer manufacturers so they are hard to avoid.

This one hurts, my 2009 iMac HDD failed a few months ago and did the reinstall myself.

Can anyone confirm yet that Apple will in fact not let you upgrade to an SSD drive when you go to get the Seagate hard drive replaced?

Also, what if the Seagate drive that is being recalled works okay, can you still get it replaced? Mine is not giving any errors in the Apple Disk Utility.

auwkeung said:

For those who had their HDD replaced by Apple before...do they install OSX before handing it back to you or they just dump in a blank HDD and let you go?

Click to expand...

I had to have the HD replaced in my 2010 iMac last January. When they did the work, they asked me what OS I had on the machine - which was 10.7 - and they installed that same OS for me before returning the machine.

Once I get back in front of that machine, I'll check the serial number, and if it now qualifies (it didn't before) I'll go through the process of trying to get reimbursed for the drive they put in.

At that time, even though I was out of warranty, they only charged me for the drive and not for any labor to do the replacement.

At the time, I was happy with how things went down. If I can get the $220 back for the drive now, I'll be even happier.

I wonder if i can just take the bare drive in to get an exchange. Otherwise, i have to take the SSD out and put the HDD back in

obiwan22 said:

I had to have the HD replaced in my 2010 iMac last January. When they did the work, they asked me what OS I had on the machine - which was 10.7 - and they installed that same OS for me before returning the machine.

Once I get back in front of that machine, I'll check the serial number, and if it now qualifies (it didn't before) I'll go through the process of trying to get reimbursed for the drive they put in.

At that time, even though I was out of warranty, they only charged me for the drive and not for any labor to do the replacement.

At the time, I was happy with how things went down. If I can get the $220 back for the drive now, I'll be even happier.

Click to expand...

Call Apple. I'm already in the process of getting a refund.

took my 27" iMac in this morning at 1030am and they called me at 11am to let me know it was ready for pickup. Have had it running the last three hours and it's as QUIET as can be! Only time I heard the HD was when I started the iMac. No more popcorn popping or the sound of a vacuum! sadly, its still a Seagate, so for the moment its perfect.

UPDATE: just looked and the new HD is the same Seagate ST31000528AS but the its a Revision AP2E

I took my iMac in today and I was denied for the HDD swap because in February 2011 my hard drive "failed" while it was there for another repair issue so Apple decided to swap it. They deemed that swap as the HDD replacement... I just looked it up my system profile and I still have a Seagate 1TB ST31000528ASQ Rev AP24. I was told they are not putting a different HDD manufactures in the iMac (which sucks because I was really hoping to get something other than Seagate). So just a heads up if you have a late 2009 iMac and your HDD was replaced before this recall then you are still not eligible.


I only thought I was eligible because I had assume that failed drive back then was for something else but I think Apple was secretly swapping out all faulty drives without telling customers and just informing them that their drive had failed during the trip to the Apple store.

Well... Can't wait for Oct. 23 now. Time to upgrade to SSD!

I had better be another 7200 rpm drive

I remember ordering my iMac with the 7200 RPM drive. I hope they send one with the same speed otherwise I'll be calling Apple on this.

TofSanity said:

took my 27" iMac in this morning at 1030am and they called me at 11am to let me know it was ready for pickup. Have had it running the last three hours and it's as QUIET as can be! Only time I heard the HD was when I started the iMac. No more popcorn popping or the sound of a vacuum! sadly, its still a Seagate, so for the moment its perfect.

UPDATE: just looked and the new HD is the same Seagate ST31000528AS but the its a Revision AP2E

Click to expand...

Good news. I'm sure it's another Seagate because Apple made them pay for all this by forcing them to supply the replacement drives.