Apple Restricts Hard Drive Replacements on New iMacs

[MatLane]

Terrible move in my opinion

Fair enough, Apple has never been 100% up with the 'upgradability" of your Mac. They slowly started to make there products more accessible like the 08 refresh of the MB's and MBP's....


This is a great way to now make you buy the goods from them.......in some ways i suppose it's not a bad thing......as in if there are any problems with your machine, you can go straight to apple instead of contacting other manufactures (with terrible customer service)


Not at fan of this move and it has put me off slightly from investing in a new iMac. I shall stick with and upgrade my current macbook pro

 

[quizdogg]

Y'all don't get it

Apple does not care about you (the ultra enthusiast types who would open up an iMac and replace parts). You account for about .001% of the market. Honestly if every single one of you stopped buying all apple products they would never see any sort of fiscal change in quarterly earnings.

You are fooling yourself if you actually believe apple cares about anything other than being the biggest and most profitably consumer technology company. And why should they? They are a for-profit business in a capitalist nation. If they feel that altering the internals of an iMac could in some way hurt it, then that would mess with their brand reliability. That brand is in the top 5 most recognizable brands in the world at this point. This isnt even a decision for them, its an obvious action. The only way to combat somthing like this would be to cause a big enough public stink, that it would be an even bigger hit to their brand then an over heating iMac line would.

Honestly they could put 5 year old drives and processors in these things at this point, and their main customer base would never know, and would continue to buy everything they slap a big ol' on. Its what I would do if I was trying to create even more profit and please stock holders (and already had a brand that has this level of garanteed purchases built in). I would just be happy that they haven't gotten to that point yet.

 

[Hexley]

I don't want to buy a Mac Pro!

 

[mayhone1]

Apple does not care about you (the ultra enthusiast types who would open up an iMac and replace parts). You account for about .001% of the market. Honestly if every single one of you stopped buying all apple products they would never see any sort of fiscal change in quarterly earnings.

You are fooling yourself if you actually believe apple cares about anything other than being the biggest and most profitably consumer technology company. And why should they? They are a for-profit business in a capitalist nation. If they feel that altering the internals of an iMac could in some way hurt it, then that would mess with their brand reliability. That brand is in the top 5 most recognizable brands in the world at this point. This isnt even a decision for them, its an obvious action. the only way to combat somthing like this would be to cause a big enough public stink, that it would be an even bigger hit to their brand then an over heating iMac line would.

Honestly the could put 5 year old drives and processors in these things at this point, and their main customer base would never know, and would continue to buy everything they slap a big ol' on. Its what I would do if I was trying to create even more profit and please stock holders (and already had a brand that has this level of garanteed purchases built in). I would just be happy that they haven't gotten to that point yet.

This actually makes alot of sense to me...

 

[ladeer]

Isn't it really hard to replace a HD on iMac right now? In fact, Apple doesn't even officially endorse that, because you have to take the screen off? I think people will replace HD in MacBoo Pro (much easier, and officially endorsed) or Mac Pro, but not many people would replace iMac hard drive, simply because it's a much harder thing to do. I do not believe this will come to other products, because Apple has always attached a paper manual on how to replace hard drive in their MacBook Pro, but not iMac. It's not in the best interest of Apple to allow custom HD replacement for iMac, not only because of cost, but also the potential to damage the system.

As someone has pointed out that he/she might switch to Windows 7. The ironic thing is I bought a MacBook Pro 15 inch last month, and after installing Boot Camp, I am only using it as a Windows 7 machine. I don't even go into OSX anymore. Well, I really like them equally, but just that my company does not support exchange server 2007 or above, so Outlook 2011 won't work. I can only access office mail and calendar through VMWare (which is awfully slow). When my company upgrade their exchange server I guess I will full convert, but right now, I just love my Windows machine inside a MPB body, because its quality craftsmanship!

 

[FSUSem1noles]

I'm sorry, I'm not going to read through 150 messages just to see if someone already said this, and hopefully this won't be lost in the millions of complaints, but there IS a solution. At least, the solution we've found works on the 2009 iMacs which have the exact same problem.

Solution: buy a temperature sensor designed for the optical drive. Adhere that to the new hard drive. It will plug in to the logic board, and it passes all of the temperature sensor tests that Apple provides its third-party service centers.

We've already replaced several hard drives out-of-warranty on the late 2009 iMacs, and this is what we've done to work around the issue. It's not a new issue, and there is a solution.

Does the placement of the sensor on the HD make a difference? or can you just stick it anywhere...?

 

[MSlaw]

I find it amusing how many times I got blasted for suggesting that Apple is shortening the 'planned life' of ALL their products, not just iOS or because of the PPC switch to Intel (note how Lion now ditches 32-bit Intel machines). It seems a few people are finally starting to wake up to the realization that Apple is one seriously GREEDY company that is starting to make Microsoft look soft by comparison (and I don't like Microsoft at all ever since my Amiga days). It's not hard to see they are aiming for closed software for the "Mac" in the future as well as they merge iOS "features" back into OSX proper.

Yes, Hackintosh and jailbreak options and other workarounds offer some respite from Apple's every move to thwart 3rd party competition, prevent people from making money without having to pay Apple 1/3 their gross revenue, etc., but just because Apple supports HTML5 doesn't mean they are in any way, shape or form embracing "open" or "standards" as a whole. Apple wants to sell you 100% of your hardware. They sell it at a premium over potential competition. They are now trying to close loop-holes that lets you get your hardware from anyone but them. I expect them to eventually step-up the fight against even casual Hackintosh operations (they're just a lower priority since they're a relatively small group). They want a 100% hardware "monopoly" (in the casual sense) for all Apple-based systems. That means you buy your ram from them, your hard drives from them and your software from their App store. It means you buy a new computer instead of a new graphics card. It means your Mac won't last more than 3 OS upgrades at most in the future (expect it to keep shrinking as time goes on).

I prefer the OSX operating system to Windows or Linux, but it's just getting more and more unfriendly over time in terms of hardware configurations and Apple is offering less and less "pro" equipment and dumbing things down more and more. Some may like it, but "power users" are finding it to be a bit less "Power" UNIX these days and a bit more Fisher Price in nature.

I'm really starting to think in the long run Linux may be the only real hope for an open system without a ton of BS. The problem there is traditionally Linux people are elitist hacker types and don't like GUI friendly environments. That has started to change over the years, but the system isn't unified and has more packages and archives for them than most applications have supported systems. It is not at all commercial friendly and that pretty much kills its potential right now. I don't see that changing quickly either. The future is clouded (in more ways than one, it seems).

Greed is not really the issue. Apple runs under the paradigm "Couple the hardware with the software". With software built around consistent hardware, you get a more reliable system, it's easier to support, and a better experience overall. IBM started it in the 50s, and it worked well. Oracle bought sun for this reason. Game consoles over the years are another good example.

Also on the IOS features on OS X, I too was worried about that. After using lion, I can say that they only moved features over that made sense so it's not a ploy to make the OS like an iPad in order to sell more.

and they've done a damn good job because I can't use a mouse anymore

 

[rmwebs]

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.

Thankfully this doesnt affect me as I'm on an 09 Mac Pro. BUT, after the last few months worth of crap that has come out of Apple I'll certainly not be buying another desktop from them. The hackintosh is very stable now and much easier than it used to be to get up and running. I'm strongly considering one as the next Mac I have.

I dont want to use Windows - not a fan, never have been...its not like making a Hackintosh is illegal either - far from it!

This was the final straw for me. A hard drive is a user serviceable part. Just like the RAM and Battery. This seems to have been done for the sole reason to force people into buying new macs and/or Applecare.

Sorry Apple, but you just bit the hand.

 

[alent1234]

This is just totally unnecessary. I'd like to know one reason why this is a good thing for end users...

The previous sensor stuck to the drive worked and works just fine. I can kind of understand the batteries being none user serviceable on the laptop range, although i still dont agree with it. But this just takes the piss.

Crapple!

HP/Dell do this on their servers

their branded hard drives and RAID controllers have branded firmware that works together. HP has had a lot of updates recently that fixed a lot of issues with hard drives. especially reporting failure when there wasn't one

 

[MacTech22]

workaround

this was also the case in the previous generation of iMacs and there is a work-around. you have to use the thermal sensor from the optical drive of a white intel iMac. i've done this successfully on multiple units

 

[tdream]

Question is though, if you get a boot hardware failure, will the machine still externally boot ????

Yes target disk mode works for all macs.

 

[MatLane]

Greed is not really the issue. Apple runs under the paradigm "Couple the hardware with the software". With software built around consistent hardware, you get a more reliable system, it's easier to support, and a better experience overall. IBM started it in the 50s, and it worked well. Oracle bought sun for this reason. Game consoles over the years are another good example.

Also on the IOS features on OS X, I too was worried about that. After using lion, I can say that they only moved features over that made sense so it's not a ploy to make the OS like an iPad in order to sell more.

and they've done a damn good job because I can't use a mouse anymore

I completely agree actually,

I was missing that.

One thing i always loved about Apple is the fact its all built together and they work with other companies like Intel to provide the best and most reliable parts they can

 

[MacDav]

Bad Idea But...

I agree this is a bad idea but, with the new lightpeak "thunderbolt" spec. it really is irrelevant. Your external drives are virtually just as fast as the internal drive. So you can put on any amount of storage you need at the same high speed as your internal drive without the hassle of taking apart an iMac. So who cares?

 

[Cappy]

And we're seeing Apple under more and more pressure to perform for stock holders. Apple is acting more and more like a monopoly. They are beginning to look like the Apple of old of the mid'90's and earlier where they try to soak every ounce of profit they can however they can.

I had the option at work this time around to order an iMac for work and upgrade the HD myself with an ssd but Apple just blew that out of the water. Work won't cover the expense of Apple's ssd config. Looks like I'm going with another Dell.

Swift move there Apple! Prices being high are one thing but the level of control is a whole other.

 

[Detrius]

HOLD YOUR HORSES EVERYBODY!

This is likely not a proprietary connector at all, but a new standard we're not familiar with.

Apple doesn't make hard drives. Therefore, someone must be making hard drives to fit in these machines. Apple doesn't want to rely on a single source, so that means multiple businesses are making these drives.

These people can sell these drives in the aftermarket to mac users.

Further, they aren't going to tool up and design a custom hard drive for Apple.

Apple has learned this lesson already. Apple does not forget lessons- especially painful ones!

This is going to turn out to be a standardized connector and part of the SATA Standard. It might not be the common, popular, backwards with SATA-1 connector... but nobody up and down the supply chain likes one off, specific designs.

The forces for standardization are VERY powerful.

And having read Apple news for the past 3 decades, I know a lot of BS gets out there, and people jump to conclusions only to later be proven wrong, but when it happens, everyone forgets that they were all up in arms about it (But the general "apple wants to screw you over" mantra persists.)

I've never been screwed over by Apple and I've never had to pay too much for any Apple part, device, accessory or product.

Apple is not going to make a one off hardware standard in order to get an extra $30 from the few people who open their iMacs to upgrade the drives.

Let's get real.

See my other post for the solution. We did try similar hard drives from the same manufacturer, and the cables do plug in, but the iMac does not recognize the temperature informaiton, so I do agree with the claim that it's a custom drive for Apple, but I disagree with the panic because there is a solution.

 

[rmwebs]

Apple does not care about you (the ultra enthusiast types who would open up an iMac and replace parts). You account for about .001% of the market. Honestly if every single one of you stopped buying all apple products they would never see any sort of fiscal change in quarterly earnings.

You are fooling yourself if you actually believe apple cares about anything other than being the biggest and most profitably consumer technology company. And why should they? They are a for-profit business in a capitalist nation. If they feel that altering the internals of an iMac could in some way hurt it, then that would mess with their brand reliability. That brand is in the top 5 most recognizable brands in the world at this point. This isnt even a decision for them, its an obvious action. The only way to combat somthing like this would be to cause a big enough public stink, that it would be an even bigger hit to their brand then an over heating iMac line would.

Honestly they could put 5 year old drives and processors in these things at this point, and their main customer base would never know, and would continue to buy everything they slap a big ol' on. Its what I would do if I was trying to create even more profit and please stock holders (and already had a brand that has this level of garanteed purchases built in). I would just be happy that they haven't gotten to that point yet.

Someone get this man a beer - hit the nail on the head there.

 

[ten-oak-druid]

I didn't realize this was OWC reporting it. I thought this may not be true. But OWC knows what they are doing.

I wouldn't be surprised if a third party work around came about.

Remember when the superdrive had special firmware so if you upgraded the drive you couldn't burn from Apple's apps? You could only use Toast or equivalent. I'm sure there will be third party drives with the sensor added. OWC will probably do it.

Edit: Reading more of what OWC says shows they are trying but no success yet. Bummer. Well hopefully a third party work around comes out.

 

[Xtremehkr]

The late 2009 iMac i7 is holding up very well against these new iMacs.

I wonder if this is to stop the iMac line from eating into Mac Pro sales.

Actually, without knowing anything about the new processors and equipment that is in the new iMac it's really difficult to speculate on what they're doing.

Who knows? Maybe the new processors are hotter than the old ones, maybe Thunderbolt (Lightpeak is a superior name) produces a lot of heat and Apple had to find a way to deal with it.

It is possible that there were engineering reasons for Apple wanting greater integration of heat mitigation elements into the hdd. Apple is known to push higher standards of engineering on their suppliers because of things they want their products to do.

The iMac is still a very slim machine and my 2009 i7 iMac is often hot to the touch even if it hasn't been doing much. So it could all be design related rather than some nefarious plot to squeeze consumers for more money.

 

[baryon]

Who cares, replacing the hard drive in the iMac was near impossible anyway. Removing the screen glass and then the entire screen... I would get fingerprints all over it and I would never be able to get it as clean as it was. Then there would be dust between the glass and the screen.

The iMac is a disposable computer: you buy it, use it for 3 years and then buy a new one. By then all the other components are obsolete too anyway: The CPU, the GPU, and the max amount of RAM all need to be upgraded. So you end up upgrading your entire machine eventually.

Your hard drive won't fail within 3 years, and if it does, you have an external drive for backup don't you? And with Thunderbolt, you just use it as if it were an internal. It's not very elegant, it's not self-contained, but you'll buy a new machine soon anyway. And if you get AppleCare, they'll fix your hard drive when it fails for free within 3 years. And after that you need a new computer anyway.

If you want to keep your computer for longer than that, get a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro or a PC that you can actually upgrade.

However, there are 2 types of people:
- Those who care a lot about their computer and want to always have the newest stuff: They will buy a new computer as often as they can, and chances are their hard drive will never fail or run out.
- Those who don't care won't care, and they'll be fine with it.

 

[iamkarlp]

Please be reasonable

Gosh, you people are silly.

1. It's an AIO. What goes on inside shouldn't concern you much (although how reliable it is as a whole should).

2. If you don't agree with #1 buy a MP, a linux, or win7 box. The iMac will not be for you.

3. Steve Job's (or an SVP, etc) did not sit around some table musing about ways to screw people out of money and come up with fitting a custom HDD. Thats just silly.

4. What actually happened is engineers made a call that a more accurate HDD temp sensor system made a measurable impact in service life. (thus making the entire unit, which is what we are concerned about, more reliable)

5. This is not about money to such a degree that they are actually spending more money to do this. (It isn't bog standard which means it costs more. Guaranteed.)

6. Someone somewhere along the way brought up the point that this would stop, or at least seriously hamper, customers from being able to pop the case and change the drive. - To that end they would have looked at overall statistics and realized that 90%+ of all users used External HDD's when it was time to upgrade, and also talked to applecare who said opening the machine voided the warranty. (whether they look the other way on a regular basis or not is a different matter).

7. Another reason I wouldn't get too hung up about it; Chances are very good that the rest of the line (With the exception of the MP, where this sort of thing actually matters to an appreciable percent of their customer base) is going this way as well. I anticipate a not-to-distant future where every part of the system is soldered down and compacted as much as is physically (as in, the laws of physics) possible. An upgrade will be changing the entire logic board.

7b (Edit). And you would be remiss if you don't think the general computer marketplace isn't looking at what Apple is doing here. Good bad or indifferent the sales figures and stock numbers are telling a story, and that is that people are willing to spend good money on highly integrated, non serviceable products. (assuming the support is there for when things go wrong). This is the biggest case for Thunderbolt in my mind. It gives us a good, fast, low level external I/O capable of real work. Allowing it to fail may doom us to a period of highly integrated, low or zero expansion systems with no high quality low level external I/O options.

8. Even if you don't agree with anything I said, within 16 months someone will have an elegant hack for it.


Calm down people, it's not that big of a deal.

Karl P

 

[Full of Win]

HOLD YOUR HORSES EVERYBODY!

This is likely not a proprietary connector at all, but a new standard we're not familiar with.

Apple doesn't make hard drives. Therefore, someone must be making hard drives to fit in these machines. Apple doesn't want to rely on a single source, so that means multiple businesses are making these drives.

These people can sell these drives in the aftermarket to mac users.

Further, they aren't going to tool up and design a custom hard drive for Apple.

Apple has learned this lesson already. Apple does not forget lessons- especially painful ones!

This is going to turn out to be a standardized connector and part of the SATA Standard. It might not be the common, popular, backwards with SATA-1 connector... but nobody up and down the supply chain likes one off, specific designs.

The forces for standardization are VERY powerful.

And having read Apple news for the past 3 decades, I know a lot of BS gets out there, and people jump to conclusions only to later be proven wrong, but when it happens, everyone forgets that they were all up in arms about it (But the general "apple wants to screw you over" mantra persists.)

I've never been screwed over by Apple and I've never had to pay too much for any Apple part, device, accessory or product.

Apple is not going to make a one off hardware standard in order to get an extra $30 from the few people who open their iMacs to upgrade the drives.

Let's get real.

The last few hard drives I removed from MB and MBP have an Apple logo on them. Not to say they were made special for Apple, but the factory makes enough of them to give them a special Apple logo. Given this, its not too much of a reach to see them adding a special drive component for Apple drives.

As to selling the drives aftermarket....as you know, Apple frowns on selling of Apple-parts aftermarket. For example Apple asked a TW company several months ago to not sell SSD replacements for the MacBook Air. Given this, then I don't see how it would get to market, and if it did, the premium for the drive would command would likely be on parity with Apple sanctioned replacements.

 

[logandzwon]

not happy about this.

 

[mrblack927]

Outgrown your iMac disk? Throw it in the recycling bin and buy a new Mac.

Illustrated:
http://www.funnypictures.net.au/images/pc-vs-mac-upgrade-cartoon-hi-im-a-pc-and-im-a-mac-.jpg

 

[scottsjack]

It strikes me that the number of HDD temperature sensors found on both the new iMacs and the latest mini suggests that those machines are running too close to the meltdown level to be considered anything other than light-use computers. Fast in the case of the iMacs but light-duty neverless.

Go touch the backs of the iMacs at an Apple store after they've been sitting there for several hours doing absolutely nothing except looping some Web video. Those suckers are really hot.

It's not that you can't do serious work on the new iMacs, it's just that you wouldn't want to do it very often. I too suspect that these are three-year disposable machines.

That leaves the Mac Pro as the only Mac desktop worth owning for those who need, or just want, a serious computer. Other than that it's (sadly) back to PCs.

 

[HyperX13]

This is the reason I switched on Windows 7. It's very hard to be a power user on Mac. Great OS, but the hurdles Apple makes you go through sometimes, are flat out annoying. 99% of the people using an iMac, however, would never know this is an issue.

Yup.. considering moving back to windows 7 myself... This is just plain stupid.