Now if they could only get around to fixing all the other problems that plague iMac's ( all mine suffer DLS (dead logic board syndrome ) after 2-3 years.
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Apple Recalls Some iMac Seagate 1TB Hard Drives
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Seagate are not that as bad as people are making out. They discontinued the ST31000528AS in march this year and that was a very good HDD. According to Tom's Hardware, it ran cooler, used less power and was quieter then it's immediate competition. Was ideal for the iMac.
You're one of the lucky few. I've replaced probably hundreds of Seagate drives in the work I do. The Seagate Momentus 160GB were the biggest pieces of junk, found mostly in white MacBooks, Dell Inspiron 15xx, and HP Pavilion dv series notebooks.
I've seen a fair number of dead Fujitsu, Hitachi and WD drives as well, but the Seagate's take the cake.
I am receiving my 27" iMac 3.4GHz with the 256 GB SSD and 1TB HD this Monday. Now I have two things to look out for, the Segate HD and the yellowish LCD panel. Could be a very frustrating Monday for me.
I have never been that big a fan of Seagate HDs as they have always been louder then their WD counterparts.
I have never been that big a fan of Seagate HDs as they have always been louder then their WD counterparts.
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Dam im part of the program, but i haven't had any issues with my hard drive as of yet
same here!!!
i have yet to get an email, but when i entered in my Serial Number, it says i qualify for this..
I think that means you will get an e-mail. Or it means that you never registered the iMac to a working e-mail address.
So Apple will fix my 27" iMac that's already under warranty for free? Big deal.
Pay my $2000 data recovery bill, install an SSD and we'll talk.
Pay my $2000 data recovery bill, install an SSD and we'll talk.
True, but frequently not the issue with drives in general. Typically issues relate to they don't come ready after a startup (could be crashed or starting to, as one of many examples) or the drive has difficulty reading (due to a variety of issues...some of which apply to SSDs, by the way). Data integrity issues can happen, but not so common.
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My experience with computers, hard drives, etc (summary, both good success and issues abound).
2008 iMac: HGST inside. HGST inside Time Capsule. No issues with hard drives. The Time Capsule went belly up 1 year ago, due to a "known power supply issue with the TC" which I didn't know about until I ran into this issue. Datecode of TC was not within Apple's input for most problematic date range, but they replaced it. A hassle, though Apple did cover all expenses. Hard drive itself was great.
2009 HP MediaSmart Server: 1 Seagate 1 TB, 3 Seagate 3TB. No issues. Super quiet. I can hear the NAS box fan(s), not the drives. These are running 24/7.
Dell Lattitudes (over many years): Note, these had heavy use...have owned 3, all had big issues. Memory, batteries, video cards. All turned out to be "common" issues. Note all are electrical components (yes, we can argue batteries are chemical too), so don't be surprised when your SSD fails one day also. Never had a hard drive issue with these.
DVRs: Had 3 DVRs go bad due to the hard drives, all after about a year or so. All were WD. I think maybe the issue related to the DVRs running really hot...heat is never good for electronics of any kind. I am used to not counting on recorded shows being around forever. Had a number of other DVR issues, but primarily could be "fixed" with multiple reboots...
Unfortunately, as one person said about quality these days, I think there are lots of issues going on all the time...a few select make it to major recall status, though as I found out with my TC, and my car (obviously unrelated), many issues are "well known" by the dealer but don't make it to recall status. Would be interesting to know what prompts a recall, and what doesn't
I would bet it's money driven. Companies issue a recalls when it's cheaper to fix the problem than to deal with the law suits and angry customers.
As long as they're sending an external drive to store your recalled drive storage, all good.
What a stupid comment - it's a seagate issue not Apple. I was impressed that Apple followed up, if Ihad bought another PC it would have been ignored unless it failed while under warranty.
I just wish Apple would image my drive when they replace it, I hate installing Windows and all the programs again, at least the Mac side I can install quickly and use time machine to recover.
My new 2011 iMac (brought 7th June) died when I installed the Lion update on Wednesday, and it was pretty obvious after spending the evening trying to fix it that it was the hard drive that had gone.
I took it into the Apple Store the next day and they agreed, wanted to replace the hard drive which they said would take 5-7 working days. As this was my main machine I run my business from I begged with them and brought up how my previous iMac had a graphics card that died and how it was the 5th mac I've owned etc. and I eventually walked out with a brand new one that had just come in, after the guy spoke with his manager (with a Weston Digital Drive in it). What was most revelling to me was when the guy told me that mine was the second one he'd seen that day with the exact same issue. Am glad to see that Apple have picked up on it - but if you've got one of these drives then I strongly recommend getting it replaced asap..
I took it into the Apple Store the next day and they agreed, wanted to replace the hard drive which they said would take 5-7 working days. As this was my main machine I run my business from I begged with them and brought up how my previous iMac had a graphics card that died and how it was the 5th mac I've owned etc. and I eventually walked out with a brand new one that had just come in, after the guy spoke with his manager (with a Weston Digital Drive in it). What was most revelling to me was when the guy told me that mine was the second one he'd seen that day with the exact same issue. Am glad to see that Apple have picked up on it - but if you've got one of these drives then I strongly recommend getting it replaced asap..
smail: No reason to panic if you ordered an iMac after July 21. Apple will not only recall any drives in that serial range, but also pull any of the same from the assembly line. They don't keep a week's worth of iMacs sitting in the warehouse. They are sold within 48 hours of build.
formkatze: You cannot buy a bare HDD from Apple's online store. You cannot pay for Amazon to install one for you. You are not comparing parallel ideas.
mumstalker and others:
Be careful about what is "part of the program". Having an iMac with Seagate isn't enough to be part of the recall. It must be a Seagate within the serial number range. If your HDD isn't in the range, and you talk to a tech rep who says wait until it fails, he is doing the right thing. If your HDD is in the range, and you talk to a tech rep who says wait until it fails, asks to speak to his supervisor -- not the level two support, but his department manager. Complain that he isn't following the recall program. That will fix his wagon. After that, ask to be transferred to the level two support, and all will be well.
I have always used Seagate drives, and have two fairly new ones as well as two WDs in my Mac. No problems from any of them. Seagate is not plagued with issues. This is only the second issue I have read about. The other was the firmware issue. If you read the dozen or so sites that report about HDD reliability, you find that Seagate and WD are about equal, but super-size drives (1.5-2 TB) are far less reliable than mid-size (320-750 GB) in all brands. We caution about installing the 1.0 version of an app, but we jump on the newest design of hardware.
As for Apple waiting for your data to be lost, they give you Time Machine. Use it. Anyone who depends on just one internal copy of all important data is not thinking wisely.
formkatze: You cannot buy a bare HDD from Apple's online store. You cannot pay for Amazon to install one for you. You are not comparing parallel ideas.
mumstalker and others:
Be careful about what is "part of the program". Having an iMac with Seagate isn't enough to be part of the recall. It must be a Seagate within the serial number range. If your HDD isn't in the range, and you talk to a tech rep who says wait until it fails, he is doing the right thing. If your HDD is in the range, and you talk to a tech rep who says wait until it fails, asks to speak to his supervisor -- not the level two support, but his department manager. Complain that he isn't following the recall program. That will fix his wagon. After that, ask to be transferred to the level two support, and all will be well.
I have always used Seagate drives, and have two fairly new ones as well as two WDs in my Mac. No problems from any of them. Seagate is not plagued with issues. This is only the second issue I have read about. The other was the firmware issue. If you read the dozen or so sites that report about HDD reliability, you find that Seagate and WD are about equal, but super-size drives (1.5-2 TB) are far less reliable than mid-size (320-750 GB) in all brands. We caution about installing the 1.0 version of an app, but we jump on the newest design of hardware.
As for Apple waiting for your data to be lost, they give you Time Machine. Use it. Anyone who depends on just one internal copy of all important data is not thinking wisely.
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My recent refurb came with an upgraded drive-
Got it two weeks ago, a 27" 2.7GHz Core i5. Was supposed to ship with a 1 TB drive, instead, it came with a 2 TB drive.
Got it two weeks ago, a 27" 2.7GHz Core i5. Was supposed to ship with a 1 TB drive, instead, it came with a 2 TB drive.
I am in system profiler at this minute, and my HD reports as
Model: ST31000528AS
edit: Google confirms it as a Segate and is littered with people with issues... ah fudgesticks. Should I contact Apple on Monday then to get this sorted?
edit2 : Run my serial through the Apple website, and mines clear.
*me gusta*
Mmmm ... mine is also a ST31000528AS (rev AP4C) ... but running my serial states that I do "qualify" for the recall.
Maybe a few more people could post their HDD models incl. revision number ...