Apple Restricts Hard Drive Replacements on New iMacs

[Yeziam12]

Not so great a move...but

I was considering an SSD for my next iMac anyway and an ATA drive too.

But with this news, I'll definitely have an SSD and an external drive instead of an ATA drive on board. Not so bad, just not the usual good stuff from Apple.

 

[afrye707]

Pretty weak. BTW, if your drive fails, and you don't want to pay Apple, can you use a FireWire, or USB hard drive with OSX on it? I have OSX on a drive, and use it for testing.

One word thunderbolt. Think about it who cares about an internal drive when I can run 4 hard drives with one thunderbolt cable. That's what I am going to do. Get a 4 bay enclosure run one ssd and a couple TB problem solved.

 

[melb00m]

That's an option, but if you want to run OS X on the SSD that's probably not the best solution. Who wants his operating system on an external drive? I just might replace the internal drive with an SSD and then connect big magnetical drives via thunderbolt. Hopefully we're going to see some thunderbolt harddrive cases soon?

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

One word thunderbolt. Think about it who cares about an internal drive when I can run 4 hard drives with one thunderbolt cable. That's what I am going to do. Get a 4 bay enclosure run one ssd and a couple TB problem solved.

Who buys an iMac to save on desk clutter only to clutter the desk up with a big hard drive bay enclosure? Might as well just get a traditional tower and stick the 4 drives inside as usual, IMO.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I have to say, the Mac Pro is well on its way to having that "10 year shelf life" referred to with those older PowerMacs.....

I've got a 2006 model that's still going strong in 2011, and I have zero interest in getting rid of it right now. (That's saying a lot, since I'm kind of a "power user" who usually rotates out a computer after 2-3 years.

If you upgrade the RAM and add an SSD drive as the boot drive, plus throw in a better video card, it still keeps pace with the latest and greatest stuff on the market for 95% of what you'd ever do with one.

Agreed. My job is running a bunch of 8 core MacPros and they are still some horses when it comes to number crunching. They've wanted to get some new towers but I keep telling them to just upgrade the ones they have now . . . especially since they are running with 4GB of RAM.

One word thunderbolt. Think about it who cares about an internal drive when I can run 4 hard drives with one thunderbolt cable. That's what I am going to do. Get a 4 bay enclosure run one ssd and a couple TB problem solved.

I wouldn't waste my time or money. It's seems that it's going to take MONTHS for manufacturers to actually ship any TBolt accessories, and I know that they are hell bent on jacking up the price. The four bay models will cost a good deal more than ones currently on the market, which run about $1200+ for a decent configuration.

Who buys an iMac to save on desk clutter only to clutter the desk up with a big hard drive bay enclosure? Might as well just get a traditional tower and stick the 4 drives inside as usual, IMO.

Agreed! Especially for the average user. I personally wouldn't mind having a MacPro with boot SSD and RAIDed 1TBs for backup . . . with a TBolt enclosure as scratch though. So just one 4/5 bay enclosure for me.

 

[AidenShaw]

What's an Android phone have to do with it?

One word thunderbolt. Think about it who cares about an internal drive when I can run 4 hard drives with one thunderbolt cable. That's what I am going to do. Get a 4 bay enclosure run one ssd and a couple TB problem solved.

I checked Newegg, and "Thunderbolt" seems to be an Android phone from HTC. What does that have to do with an Apple?

ps: It's summer.

 

[MJL]

1. I know an awful lot of relatively new Mac owners out there, and absolutely NONE of them made the purchase because it was "shiny". In a few cases going back several years, they were all people working in I.T. in predominantly Windows environments. Like myself, they saw all the struggles with everything from Windows system registry corruption to a constant stream of update patches, even for an OS that was nearly 8 years on the market (Windows XP), for many things that should have been fixed LONG before that. They reached a point where they were really starting to dislike computing, and realized they needed to have something different at home from what they got paid to fight with all day long at work. OS X filled the bill. ......

a lot are going to buy an used MAC to get their feet wet....

Apple loses that customer for good

Spot on - that's me! I used to be an IT person (hardware and software architect, 400+ staff) and left the paid workforce 10 years ago. Back in 1987 I used a MAC as a terminal on a Sun workstation for data modelling and recently I bought a MAC Mini G4 because I will buy a new machine next year and am considering moving away from from Windows ( Win7 business ) to Apple.

There are already a couple of things that are starting to put me off from going the Mac way: ridiculous upgrade prices at purchase time, no physical media for OS, cloud computing (if I wanted a dumb terminal I might as well buy a thin client), overheating hardware (I do run some of my stuff at 100% CPU for extended periods like 12+ hours) and now this HDD issue. While I can understand that Apple wants to tightly control their hardware this is going too far imho. The least they should do is making either an approved list of HDD / SSD or make these available at a reasonable price for the competent user to install these themselves. With the G4 I can only upgrade to Leopard (from Panther/Tiger) and Apple still sells those, unfortunately they want three times the price of Snow Leopard. IMHO that's stupid, even Microsoft allowed you to "downgrade".

I've had IBM Thinkpads for over 10 years (always had two at the same time, presently running a Z61M and a T61P) I now want to move away from Lenovo, the Thinkpads are no longer what they used to be (used to be over-engineered and highly reliable with driver support second to none. The latter has already gone.)

Normally I replace my HDD every 18 months so this move is an issue for me which may turn out to be the deal breaker.

If the Intel Mac Mini is still around at the end of next year and still is using "normal" interfaces then I might still go with Apple however I do ask myself if I want to learn something new that has no future because in due course I might not be able to stay with Apple. Hmmmm....

 

[EraqEE]

I was actually considering an Imac instead of a Mac Pro because of its superior specs but now I'm thinking of buying a non Apple product and installing Linux on it.

I'm afraid Apple might pull the same stupid move with their laptops, that's why I'm considering Linux as my choice of Operating System instead.

 

[mandis]

And I remember when Apple seemed to be over their proprietary nonsense and made good hardware with a reasonable amount of user serviceability.....Wasn't even that long ago.

Do you remember the original macbook? I had the black one back in 2007 and replacing the hdd and memory was done through the touch of a button. Not to mention the replaceable battery...

Those were good days!

I'm staring to think that windows/pc will be my platform of choice from now on. The thing is, i have a lot of knowledge on computer hardware and when a hardware problem arises chances are that I'll be able to fix it. I simply cannot abide to the logic that I'll have to bring it to the apple store and be at their mercy.

Sorry Apple.

 

[zarathu]

I love these discussions where the dude says, "I'm never gonna buy a mac again!", because of some choice Apple Makes with the hardware or software.

This is just dumb and hard to believe that the poster actually owns a mac in the first place.

Heck, we don't buy our macs because we are into the hardware, we buy them because even old system Panther years ago is so much better than what's in the PC world that its a joke to even hear those comments.

We buy our macs because using the computer is so incredibly easier and more fun than the PC world of Windows that we learn to live with any variety of in-house stuff that Apple chooses to put together for their marketing.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I love these discussions where the dude says, "I'm never gonna buy a mac again!", because of some choice Apple Makes with the hardware or software.

This is just dumb and hard to believe that the poster actually owns a mac in the first place.

You must have a hard time believing in a lot of things, then.

Heck, we don't buy our macs because we are into the hardware, we buy

You mean you don't buy them for that reason. I own both Macs and PCs and it wouldn't be a huge deal to stop buying Macs. And just because someone says they won't buy a Mac from Apple again, that doesn't mean they plan to stop using OSX. I've got one Hackintosh already (Netbook) and if Apple's hardware doesn't fit my needs when I go to buy my next desktop, you can be sure I'll be making another Hackintosh. I have no allegiance to Apple what-so-ever. Like anything else, I buy what's best for me, not what's best for Apple. I need a machine with a high quality desktop graphics card (not some two-bit mobile card), but I don't need a professional level workstation priced at over 3 grand. Apple offers gamers and mid-level consumers that want a real desktop with expansion capability absolutely NOTHING right now. So it shouldn't be a shock that some people are dismayed by Apple's moves to restrict what kind of computer hardware they can have.

Just blindly giving Apple your money no matter what they put out is just plain stupid, IMO. It means Apple doesn't have to do anything to keep your business. And as far as OSX development goes, I don't see where they are improving it leaps and bounds. I refuse to even upgrade to Lion on my MBP because it offers no real benefits, yet kills many older games I have that run under Rosetta. I don't like what they've done to Spaces and most of the changes I see are to make OSX more like an iPad. I don't need that either.

 

[zarathu]

you must have a hard time believing in a lot of things, then.

........

rotflmao!!!

 

[err404]

I simply cannot abide to the logic that I'll have to bring it to the apple store and be at their mercy.

It all depends on where you want to spend your time. Sure, I could buy a pallet of parts from Newegg and scratch build a machine. I've done it many times. I've also spent weekends trying to track down issues and waiting for replacement parts to arrive. It was great fun for the first couple of times; but over the years it's grown old. These days I want to spend my time using my machine, not maintaining it. Personally I love having a nearby store that will address my issues on the spot. Even if I were to buy a PC, I wouldn't waste my time building it myself.

That said; if the Hardware is your hobby, don't by a Mac.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Geezis!

I've never read such whining and kvetching all my life!

(1) I run my iMac at 100% cpu for months at a time (Corei7 2.8) and would have no problem at all with swapping the drive for a replacement even if I had to run a fan control software.

(2) do you always believe what everyone tells you? I'd take things with a grain of salt. For every problem there is a solution.

 

[namethisfile]

well... stick to a mbp or mba or mac pro.

or hell... pc.

i have been bored this week and went over to newtoast or newbacon or other and configured the hell out of stuff. i have to say, it beats going to an apple store or internet from my experience.

of course, going thru the whole process and ordering it is another story. i don't really need a gaming pc. or do i?

also, i don't see the big outcry over three extra pins. maybe, apple will sell these hdd's online and their stores. also, negates the use of thermo stickers.

 

[MacDav]

Amused

I've replaced the HD in an iMac. It's not something I want to do again. I only buy MacPro's now. The new iMacs come with Thunderbolt ports which are just
as fast as the internal ATA HD. So no need to take the iMac apart anymore,
just plug in a Thunderbolt drive (they are bootable) and you're good to go. Of course the pickin's on Thunderbolt drives is pretty slim right now, but long before your iMac HD dies there will be many to choose from. Yes, I agree that Apple should let it's customers torture themselves by replacing the HD in an iMac if they so desire. For me it's not worth the trouble anymore. If you like getting all worked up about it... have fun.

 

[zarathu]

The new iMacs come with Thunderbolt ports which are just
as fast as the internal ATA HD.

and now we have only to wait for SOMEONE, ANYONE to actually make a thunderbolt drive or even a casing to put a drive in.

 

[brdeveloper]

Apple is promoting Thunderbolt technology artificially. However, if next iMacs come with 128GB SSDs by default, that would be not so bad. It would force us to have backup (possibly RAID1) magnetic units.