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

[MacRumors]

Apple yesterday expanded its iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program, significantly increasing the number of machines eligible under the program to include iMacs sold between October 2009 and July 2011 with 1 TB Seagate hard drives.

Apple has determined that certain Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems may fail. These systems were sold between October 2009 and July 2011.

Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) will replace affected hard drives free of charge.

Apple launched the program in July 2011, but at that time it covered only those machines sold between May 2011 and July 2011. Apple has apparently now determined that the issue extends further back in time than previously thought, and has now included machines sold as far back as October 2009.

The original program was originally valid for one year, scheduled to expire July 23, 2012, but as that deadline passed the company extended the program for an additional year. With the program now covering a number of other machines, some of which were sold as much as three years ago, Apple has again updated the coverage terms.

The program covers affected iMacs for three years after the first retail sale of the unit or until April 12, 2013, whichever provides longer coverage for you. Apple will continue to evaluate service data and will provide further updates to this program as needed.

This is not the first time Apple has had issues with Seagate hard drives in its products, as the first several generations of the MacBook had the potential to experience data loss when the read/write heads on the Seagate drives failed prematurely, gouging the hard drive platter. Apple acknowledged the issue soon after it was first reported in late 2007, but waited over two years to launch a repair program to address the problem.

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

[adcx64]

At first glance I thought this was about new iMacs.

Yawn.

[Yamcha]

Thats good to know.. Might be buying a used iMac 2011 If we don't see an update this month..

[TVreporter]

How do you know what drive is in the iMac? I have a 2011 refurb I bought earlier this year, would this still qualify?

[Pakaku]

Originally Posted by TVreporter

How do you know what drive is in the iMac? I have a 2011 refurb I bought earlier this year, would this still qualify?

Boot up Disk Utility, in the Utilities folder, and it should list all the drives and their brands in the left-side collumn.

[justperry]

Originally Posted by TVreporter

How do you know what drive is in the iMac? I have a 2011 refurb I bought earlier this year, would this still qualify?

There is a link in the article.

http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

And the above poster showed you how to know what drive is inside.

[spork183]

Originally Posted by TVreporter

How do you know what drive is in the iMac? I have a 2011 refurb I bought earlier this year, would this still qualify?

refurbs are covered like any other mac, though it may have a different drive already. You never know why it was refurbed. But yes, if it fits the manufacture date criteria, it will be covered.

[12dylan34]

*Sees picture of iMacs

"Oh yes! finally some news about new iMacs!"

*reads article title

[drummerdude1390]

Typo in the article? The top paragraph says 1GB, quoted text says 1TB

[Thunderbird]

I too, had a Pavlovian response to the iMac picture.

I guess a lot of us are getting a little twitchy.

[DamonBowser]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Apple yesterday expanded its iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program, significantly increasing the number of machines eligible under the program to include iMacs sold between October 2009 and July 2011 with 1 GB Seagate hard drives.

I think you mean 1TB I would never buy an imac with a 1GB hard drive!

[G51989]

Maybe Apple is realizing that when you design a computer to be running to hot 100% of the time, they fail.

[Devie]

So mine is elligible.

There are no options to just replace the damn thing myself. Sigh, if I go through with it I'll be out a computer, and someone will have my drive, which even with me formatting it could result in them having sensitive data. If I don't my drive might fall over, which might be ok as I have a time machine backup anyway...

Just ship me a damn hdd please apple.

[krravi]

Originally Posted by TVreporter

How do you know what drive is in the iMac? I have a 2011 refurb I bought earlier this year, would this still qualify?

I bought a refurb iMac 27 a few weeks ago myself. I went to that Apple site and all it does is asks your Mac serial #, which you can find in "About this Mac". Enter the serial # and it tells you if your hard drive needs a replacement or not.

But looking in Disk Utility is a great idea, mine is a Western Digital.

[Agent-P]

I also thought this was finally some news about new iMacs.

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Apple yesterday expanded its iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program, significantly increasing the number of machines eligible under the program to include iMacs sold between October 2009 and July 2011 with 1 GB Seagate hard drives.

Well, I would hope those are replaced, especially when I thought I bought a 1TB hard drive.

[yearofthe]

*Logs onto Macrumors*
*See's picture of iMac's assuming it's about the new upcoming iMac*
"Ah, redemption with Macrumors restored!" I said
*Reads article*
%#($@* #*@&#%!!!!

[yuenadan]

The hard drive in my iMac is dead (been running on an external firewire drive), so I was so happy to read this article. But then I checked and my drive is Western Digital, not Seagate. (sigh)

[Yamcha]

Originally Posted by G51989

Maybe Apple is realizing that when you design a computer to be running to hot 100% of the time, they fail.

While heat can contribute & decrease the lifespan of a hard drive, this was actually a firmware issue with certain 1TB drives, at least thats the explanation Seagate gave.. I was one of the people stuck with the 1TB faulty drive, performance was horrible, not usable for OS use, was fine as back up drive..

[wkennedy74]

Well go figure, I just replaced my drive myself a week ago :-/

[rusty2192]

My Late 2009 21.5" had its 1TB hard drive fail about a year ago. Luckily I had Apple Care so it didn't cost me a fortune to fix. It looks like now it may have been covered. I just checked and it has a Hitachi drive in it now (the replacement from Apple). I'm not sure what was in it originally.

[Nyy8]

"include iMacs sold between October 2009 and July 2011 with 1 GB Seagate hard drives."

Umm I think there is a mistake there

[sap12690]

just checked and my iMac is elgible, how would I go about doing this? Would they be able to replace the 1 TB hard drive with a 3 TB hard drive if I pay more?

[Cerender]

Originally Posted by wkennedy74

Well go figure, I just replaced my drive myself a week ago :-/

Wow! Same here! AND I entered my serial number and it said not eligible.

[TMRaven]

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!

[figaro331]

I knew it, since Seagate have bought Maxtor their quality went deep down. For the past 4 years I've had to replace 7 Seagate drives of different kind-from 3.5" external, internal to 2.5" external and internal.
I will never buy anything Seagate ever !!!