Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Launches 27" iMac 3TB Hard Drive Replacement Program
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I recently fixed this for a client... 2 hours labor for a .05$ part. Sheesh. The adhesive to put the screen back on was more expensive than the part that broke!
i wonder how many more repair programs they'll be *thinks to self*
Apple's got quite a collection under their belt haven't they. Reckon their the only company with the longest repair list of repair programs?
Maybe we should start a list.... "Coming in at number #1 is Apple, close second is Segate, WD etc.." type of thing. We have lists for everything else, stats.... included, so why not. Would also help inform customers who to stay away from...
I'm critical of Apple for how long they take to initiate a Repair Program... And how they (sometimes) do their best not to shout to the world (of owners of the specified product) that there is a problem... BUT, at least they typically do acknowledge the existance of a fault (eventually) in a product... and it's usually pretty straight forward getting it repaired.
And I also won't be using HGST (formerly Hitachi) drives, either ... the only drives I have had fail in my Mac Pro. But then, I have not used Seagate since 2008 because they were the only ones in my external enclosures that failed. Their newer drives may be more reliable, but I don't want to take the chance.
We can agree to disagree
I've had poor experience with seagate drives. As I saw this story, my first thought was, 'bet it was a seagate'!
My Mac mini 2012 came with a 1 TB HGST HDD. I use the HDD today for (more or less) reliable backups.
Apple tax
margins on these items are quite low, so apple maximises them by charging extra cause they can. People have the notion that Apple parts are better, and are worth the extra cost. Not knowing they are just stock standard parts with an apple sticker. Lots of people are happy to pay the amount knowing that part will not cause issues, and has been tested by Apple. Same reason an indentical part from BMW cost almost twice than for a Toyota , and if you go to Kmart and install it yourself , you save heaps
I heard a rumor, that they use standard connectors in the future. The signs are:
• NVMe support in newer OS X versions.
• TRIM command support in newer OS X versions.
..which make no sense for FUTURE OS X versions, if Apple does not develop computers which use standard connectors (i.e. user replaceable SSDs).
A NEW Cinema Display with a Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.x) wallpaper?UGGH... I saw this and hoped it was an announcement for the updated 27" Cinema Display
When I pulled the dead Seagate 1TB drive out of my 2010 iMac it revealed itself to be the cheapest piece-of-junk hard drive I've ever seen. After opening it I was unable to see anyplace for the arm to park when the iMac was off. I replaced it with a real hard drive (WD 2TB Caviar Black) and it has been good ever sense.
My 2010 Mac Pro came with a 1TB Caviar Black but it was a 32MB cache model. The 64MB cache models had been out for some time by that point. Macs are finished beautifully but the components used inside are nothing special considering the price charged.
My 2010 Mac Pro came with a 1TB Caviar Black but it was a 32MB cache model. The 64MB cache models had been out for some time by that point. Macs are finished beautifully but the components used inside are nothing special considering the price charged.
Boom! But they do look lovely.
If you can stomach the cost that’s what your extra money buys you. A Rolls Royce might not be any more reliable than a Toyota or have any more features, but it’s beautifully finished, a pig to upgrade, has a great brand name, is expensive to repair and costs a whole packet more.
I might have experienced this failure. In my case, it was NOT actually the spinning drive, but the SSD side of the 3TB Fusion Drive that failed. So don't assume it was the disk. In my case, the behavior was very strange, just completely freezing, sometimes during boot. Disk Utility tests all passed. But I took the machine to a Genius Bar, where they ran a different test, and quickly a big red window came up saying "Failed Bad Sectors On SSD".
I would like to say that at every step Apple's customer support was superb.
Their telephone consultation (at no charge) guided me politely and patiently through a number of tests until we agreed the only thing to do was to bring the unit in to an Apple Store for hands-on analysis.
The Genius was well trained and the Genius Bar diagnostic software is way better than what's available outside an Apple Store.
It took about two business days for the Apple Store to source a replacement part, but they did and it's fixed.
Apple swapped the drive at no charge. None of this cost me anything except time and transportation, but I can live with that. Components fail.
I cannot be sure this is the same failure they're talking about, but my 27" iMac was the right vintage.
I would like to say that at every step Apple's customer support was superb.
Their telephone consultation (at no charge) guided me politely and patiently through a number of tests until we agreed the only thing to do was to bring the unit in to an Apple Store for hands-on analysis.
The Genius was well trained and the Genius Bar diagnostic software is way better than what's available outside an Apple Store.
It took about two business days for the Apple Store to source a replacement part, but they did and it's fixed.
Apple swapped the drive at no charge. None of this cost me anything except time and transportation, but I can live with that. Components fail.
I cannot be sure this is the same failure they're talking about, but my 27" iMac was the right vintage.
Weird thing in the story they tell people to backup before taking you iMac in, it's just common sense to have a valid backup anyway. But that aside you would think Apple would make a backup and do the transfer for you or assuming the drive hasn't failed use it to transfer data back to the new drives.
What an odd comment to make. These iMacs are from LATE 2012. They're 2.5 years old. Why are you calling them "the latest technology"?
The latest 27" iMac offers choice of 7200 RPM hard drives (in 2 sizes), flash storage (in 3 sizes) or Fusion Drive (in 2 sizes). Very acceptable.
I was just in the Apple Store (after this announcement, but before I saw it) and was told it would cost to fix my 3TB drive. Decided to do it myself given the cost of their service, only a 90 day warranty on their replacement part (can get a 5 year with a new WD Black and it would cost $100 less), and because of some other issues I had speaking with them about the service. Ordered all the parts last night, and now I see this... Always had good luck with their customer service, but this is frustrating.
Although mine doesn't fall in this range, I am grateful to MacRumors for letting me know about the battery in my iPhone 5 that got replaced 2 weeks before I got my 6+. Now the kids have a fairly new iPod! (and I have a backup phone!)
All Macs will soon, I think. Or at least ship with Fusion by default.
You won't stop companies like HP and Advent shipping **** though.
Why are you even questioning me about the "small number"? I quoted what was in the article. If you have disbelief in the information being posted then take that up with MR.
Just unlucky then. Statistics show that HGST are one of the most reliable manufacturers. http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/blog-drive-failure-by-manufacturer.jpg
WOW lol This looks like one of those comments that ends up as a meme on punctuation. So funny!
I think they've had these kind of repair programs for literally every post-2005 iMac model besides the ones our family has, and all of them have had problems. From now on, we're probably getting Hackintoshes.
