Apple Notifies iMac Owners of Expanded Seagate Hard Drive Recall

bank account no. wanted for recall rebate???for real???

I received this notice today. I talked with apple rep on phone and sent in my repair invoice - all seems legit....but not sure about giving my bank, routing no in an email? Any one care to comment/


Dear Apple Customer,

Product Serial Number(s): xxxxxxxx
Case ID: xxxxx
Follow Up Number: Follow-Up:xxxx

We need additional banking information to complete your refund.

Please contact your bank to verify the following information, and reply to this email without changing the subject line.

Bank Name:
Bank Account Number:
Bank Routing Number (9 digits):

After we receive your banking details, we will submit the wire transfer to complete your refund.

If you have any questions, visit:
http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

Sincerely,

Apple Repair Operations

This transmission may be privileged and may contain confidential information intended only for the person(s) named above. Any other distribution, retransmission, copying, or disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please delete this message from your system.

Are the replacements 7200 RPM If the Original Was?

When I purchased my 2.8 GHz Intel i7 I'm pretty sure I had a 7200 RPM drive. Are the replacements 7200 RPM?

I just had my HD replaced at my local Genius Bar under the recall. Took less than 24 hours.
My computer is SO FREAKING LOUD now. Never heard it like this and now - even when nothing is running- I can hear it across the living room.
Anyone else????

SO, checked in profiler, my drive is a 1TB ST31000528AS iMac is just under 12months old (11 months and change i think)

Apples site checked my serial number as not eligible for replacement.. should i push for one anyway ? is the ST31000528AS likely to fail going down the road ?

Nightarchaon said:

SO, checked in profiler, my drive is a 1TB ST31000528AS iMac is just under 12months old (11 months and change i think)

Apples site checked my serial number as not eligible for replacement.. should i push for one anyway ? is the ST31000528AS likely to fail going down the road ?

Click to expand...

Thats my problem also. Mine was made before july 2011 bought it september 2011, it has the seagate drive but they say its not affected... I am doubting all of this. I dont want this thing to fail and have to pick up the cost

I got the email about this, and my mac serial number is eligible on the site.

Checked my harddrive serial number and it is 'WDC WD1001FALS-40Y6A0' - that's not Seagate is it?

asayer said:

I got the email about this, and my mac serial number is eligible on the site.

Checked my harddrive serial number and it is 'WDC WD1001FALS-40Y6A0' - that's not Seagate is it?

Click to expand...

That's a Western Digital drive :S

I too received the same request for information and I can't believe this is the way Apple would ask it's customers for refund contact information. Surely confirmation address and sending a cheque/money order is more appropriate. The site is not 'secure' .....if that even means anything these days!

redrunner said:

I have an iMac that had the defective Seagate drive. I had the drive replaced at my own expense at an Apple Store earlier this year. After receiving the recall notice, I contacted Apple Support, and they promised to refund the repair cost.

Recently I received a subsequent e-mail (apparently from Apple), that is asking me to e-mail my bank account/ routing numbers back to Apple so they can deposit the refund directly in my bank account.

I'm very uncomfortable about e-mailing this information to anyone. I don't know why Apple couldn't just mail a check, or put the refund back on my credit card. This sounds a lot like a "Nigerian scam", and seems very un-Apple like. I even wonder if someone inside Apple is running a scam.

Has anyone else received this notice?

Click to expand...

Replacement success, but with an *

Hurricane Sandy knocked me out of my original appointment. I waited 2 weeks, and the Hingham store replaced it same day - 4 hours to be exact. *Lesson learned the hard way: neither WiFi nor Ethernet are a good way to restore or transfer files from a Time Capsule if you have any meaningful size. It took me 60 hours on Ethernet, it was originally 125 hours via WiFi. Apple Genius suggested buying a 1 TB portable with Firewire 800, and using that as the primary back up, which would have taken about 8 hours to restore the data. If you are considering replacing your HD, think about this before you go ahead and take your machine out of commission for a few days.

clukas said:

Will I be able to keep my old HD? (In UK?)

Click to expand...

I suppose Apple wouldn't want these drives turning up on eBay, moving into new Macs, and then having to replace them for free.

jazz1 said:

When I purchased my 2.8 GHz Intel i7 I'm pretty sure I had a 7200 RPM drive. Are the replacements 7200 RPM?

Click to expand...

I had a 5400 RPM originally, but the REPLACEMENT was a 7200. this was not just an oversight as it was written up this way in the original service order.

gnasher729 said:

I suppose Apple wouldn't want these drives turning up on eBay, moving into new Macs, and then having to replace them for free.

Click to expand...

I dont think this would happen, im sure apple know which drive went inside which macs. As far as I know, they only contacted affected customers, so this would not be an issue. I have an appointment next week and will update this post whether apple let me keep my old HD.

Southshore said:

...It took me 60 hours on Ethernet, it was originally 125 hours via WiFi. Apple Genius suggested buying a 1 TB portable with Firewire 800, and using that as the primary back up, which would have taken about 8 hours to restore the data.

Click to expand...

Just curious, how big is your time machine backup? And were you using Gigabit wired Ethernet? (Time Capsule/Airport Extreme have it, Express doesn't).

Theoretical max of Gigabit is 1000Mbps and Firewire is 800Mbps. Though I'm curious to know what ends up faster in reality, for example if the CPU of the router is the bottleneck.

And now I'm kinda thinking maybe it's time for a Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter...

Most of my data is on externals. Still, I moved over 620'ish and it took me roughly 24 hours via ethernet/Time Capsule.

Question about recall

My computer is in the recall. Is there any way to back up some programs? For example, I have a GPS and I can't find the original disc. I need the program to update the GPS. My external hard drive is a My Book.

Thanks for any help that you can give!

praetorian909 said:

Just curious, how big is your time machine backup? And were you using Gigabit wired Ethernet? (Time Capsule/Airport Extreme have it, Express doesn't).

Theoretical max of Gigabit is 1000Mbps and Firewire is 800Mbps. Though I'm curious to know what ends up faster in reality, for example if the CPU of the router is the bottleneck.

And now I'm kinda thinking maybe it's time for a Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter...

Click to expand...

Back up was 730GB. iMac is late 2010, so I only have USB 2 and Firewire to choose from. Time Capsule is same vintage, ethernet only. It all worked fine, just took a very, very long time.

clukas said:

I have an appointment next week and will update this post whether apple let me keep my old HD.

Click to expand...

When I got mine replaced, the genius was pretty upfront with me and told me off the bat that I would not get my old HD back and that it would be shredded. I would guess everyone would be the same unless you got a genius who wants to be nice and make sure it gets saved for you.

oacory said:

When I got mine replaced, the genius was pretty upfront with me and told me off the bat that I would not get my old HD back and that it would be shredded. I would guess everyone would be the same unless you got a genius who wants to be nice and make sure it gets saved for you.

Click to expand...

yep, I just picked up my iMac today. I was told the HD was send back to the warehouse and would be destroyed.

clukas said:

yep, I just picked up my iMac today. I was told the HD was send back to the warehouse and would be destroyed.

Click to expand...

They destroyed mine too. I didn't even hear about this recall until after my drive crashed. Thankfully, this time, I finally had everything backed up.

how to recover data from clash hard drive

Hello,

I have an iMac with a very very noisy seagate HDD. I also received the mail from apple to get a replacement drive.

Are the new drives much quieter? And faster? I was thinking of asking for an SSD (expensive) but that seems so... stupid because the replacement HDD is free. But i think i got spoiled by my speedy iPad

What is your experience with the new drives so far?

iCole said:

Hello,

I have an iMac with a very very noisy seagate HDD. I also received the mail from apple to get a replacement drive.

Are the new drives much quieter? And faster? I was thinking of asking for an SSD (expensive) but that seems so... stupid because the replacement HDD is free. But i think i got spoiled by my speedy iPad

What is your experience with the new drives so far?

Click to expand...

I can't say if it is any faster but mine is definitely much quieter. Apple will only replace your drive with a like drive - no ssd's.

[/COLOR]

But the issue isn't about you having a Seagate, it's about a certain batch. Yours could be fine. They are just replacing it to shut you up because you were a nag, not because they screwed up and didn't put in your serial number when it should have been. They won't tell you that that is the reason because they don't want you emailing Tim Cook etc and saying they insulted you or some other mess. But that is the more likely reason for the 'exception'[COLOR]

I'm well aware that its a certain batch, I've had production floor jobs before. I wasn't going to trust them if they said it wasn't the right batch considering the fact that they didn't even have the right manufacturer on record.

Thanks for the tips.

I contacted Apple today, escalated from a regular advisor to a SENIOR Advisor (very important), he was very helpful, I emailed him a screenshot confirming that my iMac 27 had the Seagate drive model and Revision AP25 and he authorized the recall repair.

On Apple's recall website, my iMac's sn# resulted in a "your iMac is not affected by this recall"...baloney!!!

Revisions AP24 and AP25 ARE affected by this recall!

Thanks for all the input on this thread...was very helpful!

The external 1TB branded Iomega with a seagate ST31000528AS, was sold on the Apple web site. This thing had less then 50 hours and went belly up, click, click. Wonder if they will be taking these back as well.