Apple Restricts Hard Drive Replacements on New iMacs

[Nightarchaon]

I see two things in the near future

A class action law suit against apple for not allowing users to replace user replaceable parts

And

A firmware update to stop the iMacs from doing this shortly afterwards

.

Why apple doesn't move the drive to the edge of the iMac and allow it to be slid out like the ram is beyond me.

 

[SuperCachetes]

I can't believe this. What does Apple expect to accomplish out of being so narrow-minded?

See below:

This confers that the next desktop Mac I buy will most likely be a MacPro.

I'll be saving for a replacement Mac Pro when the time comes (next year).

Sounds a lot like a shrewd but controversial upsell to me. The people who don't care will still buy iMacs like hotcakes, and the ones who were going to buy an iMac but wanted control over the components will now be forced up to a Pro. Boo.

 

[rjohnstone]

What the...
I just bought a 21.5" i5 iMac for my wife LAST FRIKKIN NIGHT!
I got a tasty discount from my company's EPP.

I purposely got the one with a 500GB drive because it would be cheaper for me to upgrade it myself. At least I know I can upgrade the ram for less money.

Pissed

 

[grahamnp]

Seriously!? Void the warranty and then move on, let the end user do whatever they want. If there is evidence of the user damaging the machine during the uprade, refuse any warranty claims. This is just them being pedantic.

 

[Ashyukun]

Yeah... I was looking forward to picking up an iMac to replace my aged MacBook once Lion comes out, but this gives me more than a bit of pause- and likely will my friend at work who has also been considering one. I mainly intended to do video work with it, and as such planned on using externals for the big storage but being able to jump up to a bigger internal was something I would like to be able to do and their restricting it is just pointless money-grubbing.

PLEASE tell me they didn't put something stupid in the RAM so we can't upgrade the memory on our own... THAT would definitely make me drop my plans to get one.

 

[What?Say,What?]

But remember whe...

Remember when IBM couldn't get a G5 into a laptop? Too hot!
Look at the iMac... 3.4GHz, 2GB graphics, 27" screen... Max Ram 16GB...
I bet it gets hot in there... It's not a GAPING cavern like a mac pro to allow a huge block of fans in there or multiple wide fan-zones.
However, Apple you seem to be acting highly iillogical,
1) Each gen of Intel chips gets both faster and cooler, or you can choose to run fast or cool.
2) Is apple known for it's hard drive failures? No... so wtf? Yeah we know all hard drives fail eventually (even SSDs have that cell ware that is being greatly curbed with newer ones however).
3) Doesn't apple use pretty HQ HDs? Hitachi, Fujitsu, Toshiba? I only ever buy Hitachi in 3.5" for all my mac's and external HD's I've had ever since WD bought Seagate (shortly after a new Seagate failed after a month they acquired it). To My knowledge apple doesn't use WD's too much right now...
but the point is... I ALWAYS want to know exactly what the part number is for the harddrive I'm getting in an apple machine! Often I recommend ordering a Hard Drive with any new apple purchase... but now?
4) Apple just came out with Lightpeak/Thunderbolt. Why didn't they partner up with Hitachi or WD to implement this technology if it's so important/necessary? MB because some HD companies don't want to get branded "joins with apple to make drives cooler so they last longer" because then it might appear that their drives don't last as long as the competition without some special cooling system...
5) No as has been said, FORCING people to go with their highly 'taxed' HD options is def going to be a no go for us apple modders. I don't have an extra 100 bucks to throw away on some apple HD upgrade when I can get the same thing for that much less. (obviously the ram too, which again, is getting to be 'old').

Yet another reason NOT to buy an iMac (primary reason being glossy screen). But sadly, this is not a concern for the vast majority of iMac users... but they are just pushing more people to other choices... doesn't seem smart.

 

[trifid]

Another reason to hate AIOs more. Going backwards to stone age

 

[one1]

Why apple doesn't move the drive to the edge of the iMac and allow it to be slid out like the ram is beyond me.

Well in that respect I don't see it as being apple, but more of the drive being so big that it needs to be dead center where the iMac is deepest. If the LCD didn't take up most of the room in the iMac it would be different, but for those of us that have been in there we know there is very little room left at all with the LCD in place.

 

[Repo]

Why apple doesn't move the drive to the edge of the iMac and allow it to be slid out like the ram is beyond me.

Money.

 

[darkplanets]

****** move. I realize that SMART temp reporting is so-so at best, but custom firmware? Really?

On the plus side, I give it a month before someone comes up with a workaround, at least firmware wise. Can someone say flashing?

I guess with each step forward (separated graphics, potentially upgradeable) we take a step backwards (this).

 

[diamond.g]

And you've done the benchmark tests to show that USB and FireWire-based hard drives are faster than the internal SATA connection, yes...

Of course and self respecting 2011 iMac owner would have gotten themselves a ThunderBolt enclosure by now...

 

[Full of Win]

Wait until they do this in the next revision of the MacBook Pro, along with non-replacable RAM. This place will melt down.

For a company that stared out having users make cases for their motherboards (logic boards), Apple has really gone down regarding The Makers Mantra.

 

[ks-man]

I can't believe this. What does Apple expect to accomplish out of being so narrow-minded?

95% of iMac buyers never would consider swapping the HD themselves.
4% might try it if it is simple but now won't consider it
.5% would do it but will still buy an iMac and bitch about it
.5% will choose not to buy an iMac now

(Edit - These numbers are pure speculation by me and may be completely inaccurate...)

Apple has never worried about angering the individual who likes modifying the hardware themselves. Apple likes a closed system that requires Apple to be the one stop shop for everything and this change is further proof of that. Every change similar to this that Apple has done over the past 3-5 years has started with a thunderous cry of BS but has amounted to little or no lost profits.

I imagine this will be the same.

 

[Ralion]

As an IT professional (specializing in Macs) I have replaced HUNDREDS of iMac HDs in iMacs that were out of warranty or if the client wanted additional space.

I personally recommended the iMac to all but the most hardcore graphics professionals, and I promoted adding a larger HD as an upgrade path to give the iMac some legs.

I first noticed this BS starting with the last gen of iMacs with manufacturer specific heat sensor cables. The need to buy the same brand of hard drive was an annoyance, but still a viable upgrade path existed. Now with the addition of proprietary firmware all I can say is...

KKKAAHHNNNNN!!!!!!!

I hope this is a generational anomaly, or that a workaround will surface. /endrant

 

[mixel]

Whaaaaaaaaaat?!

Not impressed! I hope they fix it back again on the next revision. At least means I have a reasonable reason not to get one of these now (other than the fart I can't afford one!)

 

[FroMann]

Straight up bull$*** Apple, whats next? We can't replace hard drives in our MacBooks or Mac Pros?

 

[ghostface147]

I don't see what the big deal is for the regular consumer. I assume since they see an all in one design, there isn't much room for upgrades. For tech weenies, yes there is need for this. Fortunately, my 4 year old MB Pro isn't restricted in this way.

 

[tdream]

I am not sure about performance (I think it will be similar) but booting off aTarget Mode Thunderbolt drive would work when/if the HD breaks down. Working at Apple and an Apple Service Provider.....Hard drive failures were VERY rare even on OLD stuff. Legacy stuff.

That's not the point. The only reason to do this is because of pure greed. They want to stop users upgrading the hard drives themselves and charge a small fortune to perform a very simple upgrade.

 

[PorterRocks]

This blows.

I just hope they didn't do the same with the SSD. I'm ordering my 27" with JUST the 256GB SSD.

**fingers crossed**

 

[mingoglia]

It's good to see the vast majority are sticking together on this one. I too agree this is complete BS. Ironically I'm on my MBP because my other office Mac has a dead HDD this very second that I haven't gotten around to replacing.

 

[dagamer34]

What's to stop them from doing this to laptops?

 

[alust2013]

TB boot drives for everyone, then eh? That seriously is absurd, they already make enough money, do they really need to make a couple bucks more with the HDD? The more apple gets greedy like this, the more I just want to switch back to windows for my next machine. Will I like it as much as OS X? No, but win7 doesn't suck, but at least I'll be able to do what I please with it, rather than be forced to operate per manufacturer's instructions.

 

[Repo]

Wait until they do this in the next revision of the MacBook Pro, along with non-replacable RAM.

I will intentionally go out of my way to buy non-Apple products if this happens, and tell others to do the same.

 

[tigress666]

Ah, I'll be honest. I think this sucks but since I'm probably never going to buy one it doesn't affect me much.

What it does do is make me worry this is the direction Apple will go with all their computers, including the laptops which I do buy.

And I'm sorry, even if you aren't going to upgrade, hard drives crash all the time. My MB's died at just a year old (literally a month after the warranty expired). It's ridiculous that they think the hard drive should only be replaced by them.

I agree with some one else, the RAM and hard drive should be user replaceable (and honestly I think the battery too for the laptops).

 

[ed724]

Not for Apple

I'm (was) hard core Apple, but after reading this, I gotta say, "Hacintosh". Sorry Apple, but you're beginning to really suc. In fact, I'm not sure I'm going to like the iOS'shness of Tiger (oops, I meant LION) either. This is a sad day for Apple fans.