Apple Acknowledges Reports Of MacBook Hard Drive Failures

[MacRumors]

Apple has acknowledged to InformationWeek that it has received reports of MacBook hard drive failures and is looking into the problem.

Seagate was not immediately available for comment, but Apple spokesman Cameron Craig said the company was aware that there might be a problem. "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it," he said.

UK data recovery firm Retrodata earlier this month discovered a flaw in the some hard drives employed in Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. The firm's analysis at that time had indicated that Seagate hard disks in the models with firmware 7.01 were unusually prone to read/write head failures that caused physical gouges in the hard drive platter, making recovery impossible.


Article Link

[schalliol]

Since Apple is acknowledging this, I sure hope that we get either an extended warranty or offer for replacement. My MBP has a drive that fits in this group, though it seems to work now. It's out of warranty and I'd rather not foot the bill if it fails prematurely.

[cornopaez]

Does anyone know if there are particular simptoms of this kind of failure? Or is it maybe just kind of random... and puff! all the info is gone.

[thingamajigidid]

Originally Posted by schalliol

Since Apple is acknowledging this, I sure hope that we get either an extended warranty or offer for replacement. My MBP has a drive that fits in this group, though it seems to work now. It's out of warranty and I'd rather not foot the bill if it fails prematurely.

if i were you i wouldn't wait till it failed to get it replaced...
not sure what apple is planning on doing right now... but i would take my computer in.. be like.. look i am not planning on waiting till my information is gone because of the hard-drive.. i rather you guys fix it now.. then play the waiting game..

but hey.. backup drives are always cheap now a days. just incase..

[coumerelli]

Originally Posted by schalliol

Since Apple is acknowledging this, I sure hope that we get either an extended warranty or offer for replacement. My MBP has a drive that fits in this group, though it seems to work now. It's out of warranty and I'd rather not foot the bill if it fails prematurely.

It's not (quite) ready for Leopard (should be in the next couple/few weeks?), but if you want a super simple solution for keeping your data 'safe' from absolute catastrophe then SuperDuper! is your answer.

But, yeah, I'd also like to have a dependable replacement drive if I were in that group.

[macomposer]

I've had a dead one sitting on my desk for a few months, and I bought another drive to replace it because I was out of warranty. I hope they do an exchange program so I can send that paperweight in for a new drive!

[lanray]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3B48b Safari/419.3)

my friend works at a school where a lot of Macbook drives have failed. I'm not sure if Apple has covered them, though I'd be surprised if they didn't. It's for sure an issue for them.

[diehldun]

sorry, i'm a little unfamiliar with this issue (I have a MBP), but is there any way to tell which MB (or MBP?!?) is affected? I just want to make sure all the photos on my mom's MB aren't in jeopardy...

I am glad, though, that (it seems) Apple is addressing this

[n00basaur]

How do I check to see if my hard drive has the firmware number in the op?

[GSMiller]

Originally Posted by n00basaur

How do I check to see if my hard drive has the firmware number in the op?

I'm wondering this too. My friend just bought a MacBook and I'd like to see if she's affected.

[schalliol]

Originally Posted by thingamajigidid

if i were you i wouldn't wait till it failed to get it replaced...
not sure what apple is planning on doing right now... but i would take my computer in.. be like.. look i am not planning on waiting till my information is gone because of the hard-drive.. i rather you guys fix it now.. then play the waiting game..

but hey.. backup drives are always cheap now a days. just incase..

I've got Time Machine going, as well as other backups, so I'm not really worried about losing data, but I am worried about downtime. If there's an option of replacing it before it fails, I would be interested in doing that. However, I don't plan on taking the time to drop by a store and ask an Apple employee to do something that I'm sure they're not authorized to do.

[gutefahrt]

I bought a refurb MB and couldn't install Leopard. After about 4 calls to tech support trying different workarounds, the HD became corrupt. In fact, the whole 'puter became so messed, it couldn't even boot from the install DVD. I was able to return it without a restock fee and then bought a Santa Rosa MB.

[amac4me]

Hopefully those who have had issues get them resolved quickly. I hate hearing stories of people loosing data due to hardware problems.

[Corran Horn]

Originally Posted by GSMiller

I'm wondering this too. My friend just bought a MacBook and I'd like to see if she's affected.

Go to System Profiler and under Hardware select Serial-ATA.

(At least that's how I looked... saw that I had a Fujitsu drive and stopped looking there...)

[WildCowboy]

To check your drive, click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner, then "About This Mac." Click "More Info..." to open System Profiler. Under the "Serial-ATA" section, find your hard drive. If it's a Seagate and has "7.01" listed as the Revision, then yours is affected.

[thingamajigidid]

Originally Posted by schalliol

I've got Time Machine going, as well as other backups, so I'm not really worried about losing data, but I am worried about downtime. If there's an option of replacing it before it fails, I would be interested in doing that. However, I don't plan on taking the time to drop by a store and ask an Apple employee to do something that I'm sure they're not authorized to do.

i am sure glad you have a backup drive.. but you as the consumer, shouldn't be told hey you have a "potential - bad drive" .. but heres a good reason to buy a backup drive.. buy it.. to back up just incase..

even though you should have a backup just incase.. because any drive fails...
just that a potentially bad hard drive is more likely to fail faster

heres to the wait...
i wonder what will happen to the already.. dead and replaced hard drives people had with no warranty...

[spikeymike83]

mine says 7.01 but I'm not sure if I have a Seagate drive. Would it say "Seagate"? Thanks in advance, I am a long time reader, but don't post very often. My MBP is a 2 GHz Core Duo if that helps any. I am trying to put a pic in, but if it doesn't appear, the model of the drive is: ST98823AS

[schalliol]

Originally Posted by thingamajigidid

i am sure glad you have a backup drive.. but you as the consumer, shouldn't be told hey you have a "potential - bad drive" .. but heres a good reason to buy a backup drive.. buy it.. to back up just incase..

even though you should have a backup just incase.. because any drive fails...
just that a potentially bad hard drive is more likely to fail faster

heres to the wait...
i wonder what will happen to the already.. dead and replaced hard drives people had with no warranty...

Agreed. Certainly I don't want to have a drive fail, and I agree that I shouldn't have to suffer if the failure rate is high.

[Vader]

To check if you have the 7.01 version, check system profiler under Serial ATA.
Mine is this:
Revision: 0081001C
so I guess I don't have the faulty drive.

Edit: People beat me to mentioning the system profiler.

Also, my drive is a Fujitsu, so no faulty drive for me!

[The Toddfather]

I purchased my first Mac (black MacBook) early this year and the hard drive failed when it was less than five months old. Although they replaced it, it was a huge inconvenience. I've owned over twenty PC's prior and never had a problem like this before, not what I expected for a machine twice as much as a PC.

[Crash-n-Burn]

Originally Posted by spikeymike83

mine says 7.01 but I'm not sure if I have a Seagate drive. Would it say "Seagate"? Thanks in advance, I am a long time reader, but don't post very often. My MBP is a 2 GHz Core Duo if that helps any. I am trying to put a pic in, but if it doesn't appear, the model of the drive is: ST98823AS

You have a Seagate drive.

[WildCowboy]

Originally Posted by spikeymike83

. . .the model of the drive is: ST98823AS

Yes, that is a Seagate drive. All of their drives these days have model numbers beginning with "ST."

[happydude]

if apple does issue a recall or warranty notice of some sort, i hope they include a data recovery method for HD's that still work but are under recall. as is, i think they charge somewhere between $75-100 to have data backed up if they are working on your computer/replacing hardware.

[Floptop]

ST means seagate drive. Thank the dude that mine isn't revision 7 whatever.

[spikeymike83]

Thanks for confirming.

I just installed Leopard so I backed up my iTunes and iPhoto. Not too concerned about losing anything else. However, as much as I love my Mac, I hate that its faulty, especially since its not even fully paid for yet. Additionally, I love that my warranty has run out.

Should I take it into a retail store, or just back up things I want to keep safe until Apple says otherwise? I don't have a big external drive, i just made CDs of my music and photos and have documents on a flash drive.