Apple recalls 1TB Seagate HDDs

Apple is recalling a "very small number" of Seagate-made internal 1TB hard drives fitted in 21.5in and 27in iMacs sold earlier this year. The machines shipped between May and July. Some of the drives have failed, prompting the recall. Apple said it will replace the drives free of charge, though you'll have to take your …

[Powelly]

2.15"

2.15" iMac - to quote my dear old dad: try using that for very long and "you'd have eyes like a piss-house rat."

[Jon Press]

Google "Seagate Click of Death"

and you will find people alleging significant problems, particularly with 1TB and 1.5TB drives. A certain other online IT news outlet did a feature about it back in 2009. Not everyone is pleased with Seagate's response to issues that have arisen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ61i_qGvfw

[Giles Jones]

Brand

It doesn't seem to matter what brand you buy or fit, someone will have had one die and complain about it. Some complained on forums about Apple fitting Western Digital drives before now.

It's rarely the magnetic surface that fails (except in the infamous IBM glass platter drives), so if the data is still there then I believe the manufacturer should be made responsible for data recovery!

[Lance 3]

Enterprise grade

What about the consumer that wants to pay the least amount for the drive? They could spend the extra money and get enterprise grade rather than a consumer model. Their decision was based upon price.

[Anonymous Coward]

Err...

Manufacturer responsible for recovery? The customer responsible for backups. If you're operating something which can is does fail, regularly, you need to have something to mitigate that failure.

I do have sympathy for people who loose everything when HDDs die, but it's hardly a situation that they couldn't have prevented.

[Mondo the Magnificent]

Phew.. for the time being...

Is this the part where I count my blessings because I have a 2TB drive in my iMac 27?

Well, for the time being until another notification comes out recalling all iMac units with 2TB Hitachi disks installed.. which is what System Profiler tells me is squeezed within the layers of pretty aluminium

[richard 7]

Known about some time

Issues with 500, 1Tb and 1.5Tb Seagate drives have been known about for quite some time. Assuming its the same issue its a firmware problem with a counter being overwritten and this disabling the drives firmware. Its possible to manually clear this with a terminal connected to the drive then flash a new firmware to it.

I had starting buying Seagate drives again, maybe that wasnt such a hot plan.

[Jo 5]

Seagate - recipe for misery

I've said it before and I will say it again - do not buy seagate hard drives. I have seen so many failed ones. They are the least reliable manufacturer of hard disks. Its not a good brand. Steer well clear.

[Raz]

None offered

And you are backed by which data? I have two 2 TB Seagate drives and they are fine. I had WDs and IBMs and Maxtors, and Seagate as well failing on me. In my opinion, they are all at about 3-5% failure rate per year. I have no hard data though. Again, care to show yours?

[Anonymous IV]

Apple backup charlie delta...

"...you'll have to take your machine in, and you do need to back up all your data first."

That's *before* the disk fails, one presumes?