Brand New Macbook Pro Hitachi Disk Drive dies within 30 days of ownership

[bsone]

So I did it... I dumped the PC and dove right into a Macbook Pro, in all of its glory. It was the easiest migration I have ever done, and I was thrilled for 1 month exactly.

Then it happened... It hung on wake up from sleep... and then would not reboot no matter what... I spent hours on the phone with support... NOTHING.. Single user mode, disk repair, you name it DONE. Drive will not boot. Went to the Apple store and low and behold they booted Leopard from a removable drive and we were able to see my disk and all of its data. However after two hours they could not make the drive boot either, and had no drive to replace it with.

I went home in dismay... and then it hit me.. if the data can be seen go get a new disk, install leopard and get the data. So I went to Fry's and got a bigger better drive than what came with my 30 day old system. Apple put in a Hitachi Drive, being from the world of PC... I know that Hitachi is the worst drive on the market...

I installed the new drive, booted from the install disk, installed Leopard, and low and behold the system was up. Now the issue of rebuilding a months worth of work hit me... I was again in utter dismay...

Then I said what the hell... I opened up the Migration Assistant, and plugged the bad drive into a SATA to USB case, and ran the tool. About one hour later... I was literally in shock. The Migration Assistant in essence did the unthinkable. It 100% totally rebuilt everything from the crappy Hitachi drive, and my system now looked identical to what it did before this happened. Everything works flawlessly, as if this nightmare was nothing but just that.

Mind you, I did this on my own... with the help of another PC user... we have both never owned a MAC before... we were both in shock that this worked.

We are also Linux users, so the lack of the Windows Registry and DLL files is not a new concept. But to see a tool work this well was utterly amazing to the both of us.

I thought it only right to post this, as I have found out from Apple that there have been many bad Hitachi drives at this point... So others may find this useful.

I am now again a Happy Mac user!!! I must also say the support that I did get from Apple was amazing in every regard, they bent over backwards to help me out. I am used to Dell support which is quite different. Apple is really an amazing company! I am sorry someone made the choice to use a Hitachi Drive, but I do understand the logic.

 

[BlueRevolution]

You could probably have simply restored from the DVD that came with your MacBook Pro, but then you wouldn't have gotten a new drive for your troubles. But yes, Migration Assistant and its implementations (the installer will do the same thing) are godly.

 

[GGJstudios]

I would suggest you change the title of your post to something more appropriate, like "Migration Assistant rocks!" instead of something so negative. After all, the MBP didn't die, the Hitachi hard drive did.

 

[bsone]

good call

Your right, my title is very negative... I agree (I just edited it a bit)... also... restoring from the DVD was not an option, the Hitachi drive was just DEAD, bad boot sectors.... I ran the Hitachi ISO, and it proved to be all bad. And then an eraser utility to kill the data for real, and it showed nearly 43 million errors on the drive. Its a long erase process.

 

[bsone]

You could probably have simply restored from the DVD that came with your MacBook Pro, but then you wouldn't have gotten a new drive for your troubles. But yes, Migration Assistant and its implementations (the installer will do the same thing) are godly.

No way that would have worked... I did try that in my hours of hell... but once I realized the drive was dead that was that. Bad boot sector...

 

[mkrishnan]

Your right, my title is very negative... I agree (I just edited it a bit)... also... restoring from the DVD was not an option, the Hitachi drive was just DEAD, bad boot sectors.... I ran the Hitachi ISO, and it proved to be all bad. And then an eraser utility to kill the data for real, and it showed nearly 43 million errors on the drive. Its a long erase process.

Glad you're cheering up.

It always sucks when it happens to you, but do a quick review of an exponential probability distribution and you'll understand what thinks like MTBF's really mean.

Hopefully your new drive will have lots better luck.

 

[madog]

I used to hear, "I thought Mac's were supposed to better/crash less?", or "My 6 year old PC never did this", as a result of a drive dying. It always happens and is inevitable on a long enough time line. It always sucks, but it's just the nature of the beast and afterall, an Hitachi device that failed. Glad to see it didn't crush your spirit!

 

[GoCubsGo]

Those drives are notorious for failure.

 

[madog]

Also, it sounds like you installed your own drive after Apple replaced it under Warranty. Just in case, be sure to keep that old drive they used in order to install it again if you ever need to send your machine in again. It is somewhat acceptable to install your own drive, however, Apple can always just claim it is the cause of whatever problem and refuse service. Even if that problem couldn't be logically associated with. Best to be safe than sorry.

 

[bsone]

Also, it sounds like you installed your own drive after Apple replaced it under Warranty. Just in case, be sure to keep that old drive they used in order to install it again if you ever need to send your machine in again. It is somewhat acceptable to install your own drive, however, Apple can always just claim it is the cause of whatever problem and refuse service. Even if that problem couldn't be logically associated with. Best to be safe than sorry.

Thanks for the advice! Apple more than took care of me, with another drive, and some extra goodies for the issue. They really went out of their way to make sure I am a happy consumer. They also documented everything along the way about if this happens again etc... so I am with you on that for sure!

It does suck when it happens to you, but the amazing part was... I never really got that upset by it... I somehow knew it would be cool, and it was... I was more bored and irritated with the whole thing.

But man seeing that Migration Assistant work that well is still an utter shock of glory! Its really the way this should work, and it does!!!

Thanks everyone!

 

[moondog007]

My Hitachi drive in macbook pro dies within 20 days

My title is negative as is my mood. Same thing just happened to me. Hitachi drive dead in macbook pro within first few weeks of purchase. Looks like everything is gone. I have mainly backed it up but even a few days without it is a total nightmare. I have also probably lost 10 hours of work.

I paid close to $4000 Aust dollars for this thing. I am totally disgusted to learn that it has a hard drive in it with a bad reputation. I thought mac were expensive because they delivered quality.

Maybe I'll go back to pcs where you can at least choose your own components

 

[bsone]

Do Not Do It

My title is negative as is my mood. Same thing just happened to me. Hitachi drive dead in macbook pro within first few weeks of purchase. Looks like everything is gone. I have mainly backed it up but even a few days without it is a total nightmare. I have also probably lost 10 hours of work.

I paid close to $4000 Aust dollars for this thing. I am totally disgusted to learn that it has a hard drive in it with a bad reputation. I thought mac were expensive because they delivered quality.

Maybe I'll go back to pcs where you can at least choose your own components

Your data is there on the disk... the boot sector is bad... go buy another 2.5" disk and do what I did you should be fine... and then call Apple... they will take care of you!!!