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27" iMac i7 - Late 2009 - drive failure warning
- Thread starter sparkie7
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Yet another victim
My ST31000528ASQ has just started getting S.M.A.R.T. failures and telling me it needs to be replaced.
Kind of crap for a 1.9 year old computer....
I'm covered by neither AppleCare nor Recall.
My ST31000528ASQ has just started getting S.M.A.R.T. failures and telling me it needs to be replaced.
Kind of crap for a 1.9 year old computer....
I'm covered by neither AppleCare nor Recall.
I still use 5xST31000524AS 1 TB and 1xST3500418AS 500 GB (certified repaired) drives.
One of ST31000524AS is having 7 reported uncorrectable errors and large command timeout, the other one is having just large command timeout and ST3500418AS is having small command timeout, but it's increasing.
These drives are really garbage. Grab an WD or Hitachi instead.
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I don't know what version of firmware Apple is using, but these drives needs to be updated to firmware CC49:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=213891
My Imac 27' late 2009 seagate drive has started to fail also. It come to a very bad state where it made bad noises and the computer would just hang.
I replaced mine with an SSD 512 drive from crucial. Now everything is just superb!! I also installed HDD Fan control, but it shows the temps too high - above 50-59 degrees and the fans still spin loud. I did read the SSD's don't get hot and you can run the fans low at any time.
I replaced mine with an SSD 512 drive from crucial. Now everything is just superb!! I also installed HDD Fan control, but it shows the temps too high - above 50-59 degrees and the fans still spin loud. I did read the SSD's don't get hot and you can run the fans low at any time.
Dust?
Normal use collect a lot of dust and particles, maybe after a year or so a clean up will do? Instead of loosing a drive? Just a thought.... The reason I ask this is that is when I upgraded my ram after 7 months use I noticed a lot of dust and particles around the original rams and in the empty slots so I cleaned that out, but its not a filter there so whats not stopped there will probably go further into the machine. So no wonder then that the fans have to work harder due to all the crap it have to carry....so before you get a failure it might be clever to get your iMac cleaned
I do not say that is what happen to the late 2009 drives, this is merely a tip to keep our beloved iMac's alive and kicking
Normal use collect a lot of dust and particles, maybe after a year or so a clean up will do? Instead of loosing a drive? Just a thought.... The reason I ask this is that is when I upgraded my ram after 7 months use I noticed a lot of dust and particles around the original rams and in the empty slots so I cleaned that out, but its not a filter there so whats not stopped there will probably go further into the machine. So no wonder then that the fans have to work harder due to all the crap it have to carry....so before you get a failure it might be clever to get your iMac cleaned
I do not say that is what happen to the late 2009 drives, this is merely a tip to keep our beloved iMac's alive and kicking
I've now got this same issue on 2009 iMac 27" i7..
i have the 256gb SSD and 1TB HDD option...
the 1TB HDD is Seagate and recently (probably for a 3-4 months) started making lots of HDD activity noise, especially when iPhoto was open... i just though iPhoto was the cause..
Today went into Disk Utility (just out of the blue) and saw SMART status: failing
Doing a Time Machine backup as i type and also on the phone with Apple.
Glad I took the applecare, so they should sort it.
I also have issues with the bottom 1.5 portion of screen.. on a white background you can see quite a lot of dots.. its not pixels.. just hard to explain... so hope they sort that too..
i have the 256gb SSD and 1TB HDD option...
the 1TB HDD is Seagate and recently (probably for a 3-4 months) started making lots of HDD activity noise, especially when iPhoto was open... i just though iPhoto was the cause..
Today went into Disk Utility (just out of the blue) and saw SMART status: failing
Doing a Time Machine backup as i type and also on the phone with Apple.
Glad I took the applecare, so they should sort it.
I also have issues with the bottom 1.5 portion of screen.. on a white background you can see quite a lot of dots.. its not pixels.. just hard to explain... so hope they sort that too..
iMac 27" late 2009 hard drive failure
Hi Guys,
I'm new to the forum, and have had the same problem as previously described by other members.
I too have a 27" late 2009 iMac with a seagate 1tb internal hard drive. Over the past few months I noticed that there was more hard drive noise than normal and using iPhoto and iTunes was near impossible!! in iTunes music would randomly pause and then continue and it was really annoying.
I did a check using disk utility, and it showed the S.M.A.R.T status as failing, I've replaced my hard drive today and the computer is like brand new! I restored everything from my time machine backup and my computer is just how it was before the hard drive replacement, but now with the added bonus of faster speed and no hard drive noise!!
I'm a little disappointed that these computers aren't covered by apple in their 1tb hard drive recall as my computer uses the same drive as the one they are recalling, anyway it was a relatively cheap fix.. and I love my Mac.
Scott
Hi Guys,
I'm new to the forum, and have had the same problem as previously described by other members.
I too have a 27" late 2009 iMac with a seagate 1tb internal hard drive. Over the past few months I noticed that there was more hard drive noise than normal and using iPhoto and iTunes was near impossible!! in iTunes music would randomly pause and then continue and it was really annoying.
I did a check using disk utility, and it showed the S.M.A.R.T status as failing, I've replaced my hard drive today and the computer is like brand new! I restored everything from my time machine backup and my computer is just how it was before the hard drive replacement, but now with the added bonus of faster speed and no hard drive noise!!
I'm a little disappointed that these computers aren't covered by apple in their 1tb hard drive recall as my computer uses the same drive as the one they are recalling, anyway it was a relatively cheap fix.. and I love my Mac.
Scott
Mine failed too after a year use i am sure is a temperature problem internal HDD in iMac's operate in very high temperature even with little work.
Fan issue hardware solution using board from old drive
My seagate died, but was apparently not in the recall - not quite sure why apple can randomly decided to replace some failed drives and not others that were clearly defective. I replaced the HDD with a SSD, and figured out a great way around the temp sensor issue. I used a small torx driver to remove the six screws holding the circuit board onto the HDD. I used the bracket that was holding the hdd to mount both the SSD and the circuit board from the old drive. the drive is attached with the hole that was holding the old HDD closet to the cables, and the card i mounted with the screw holding the bracket in. I put a piece of weather stripping between the SSD and the card where they touch. With the smaller size of the SSD there is plenty of space. I left the temp sensor plugged into the board from the old HDD and plugged the power and SATA cable into the new SSD. I used http://www.mactrast.com/2011/07/how-to-enable-trim-support-for-all-ssds-in-os-x-lion/ to enable trim support. On my crucial M4 seems to be working great. No fan issues at all.
My seagate died, but was apparently not in the recall - not quite sure why apple can randomly decided to replace some failed drives and not others that were clearly defective. I replaced the HDD with a SSD, and figured out a great way around the temp sensor issue. I used a small torx driver to remove the six screws holding the circuit board onto the HDD. I used the bracket that was holding the hdd to mount both the SSD and the circuit board from the old drive. the drive is attached with the hole that was holding the old HDD closet to the cables, and the card i mounted with the screw holding the bracket in. I put a piece of weather stripping between the SSD and the card where they touch. With the smaller size of the SSD there is plenty of space. I left the temp sensor plugged into the board from the old HDD and plugged the power and SATA cable into the new SSD. I used http://www.mactrast.com/2011/07/how-to-enable-trim-support-for-all-ssds-in-os-x-lion/ to enable trim support. On my crucial M4 seems to be working great. No fan issues at all.
I also have a late 2009 27" iMac which just had a hard drive failure. I had a new hd installed and restored from a time machine backup no problems for about a week when the drive failed again and said I had to backup and format the drive. Since doing this the same thing has happened again in the space of 3 weeks.
What can cause a hard drive failure so soon after having a new drive installed? It seems to me that there is a bigger problem at hand like a hd controller or something else (software related?) that's causing more issues?
If anyone knows what may be causing this I'd be grateful of any help.
Unfortunately my apple care has ran out and now it looks like I may just have to buy a new machine...
Help?
What can cause a hard drive failure so soon after having a new drive installed? It seems to me that there is a bigger problem at hand like a hd controller or something else (software related?) that's causing more issues?
If anyone knows what may be causing this I'd be grateful of any help.
Unfortunately my apple care has ran out and now it looks like I may just have to buy a new machine...
Help?