Apple acknowledges some MacBook hard-drive problems

Apple is investigating whether or not faulty Seagate hard drives are to blame for data loss on some MacBooks.

Retrodata, a U.K. data recovery firm, reported earlier this year that certain 2.5-inch Seagate drives used in MacBooks had a manufacturing flaw that causes the drive heads to scratch the surface of the drive and cause major problems. InformationWeek contacted Apple about the problem, and a company representative said, "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard-drive issues, and we're looking into it." An e-mail to the same representative checking on whether or not that meant Apple was looking into the specific issue identified by Retrodata, or just MacBook hard-drive issues in general, was not immediately returned.

Some MacBooks apparently have faulty Seagate hard drives.

(Credit: Apple)

You can figure out if your MacBook has one of the scarlet drives by checking the firmware revision number in System Profiler. If you scored a 7.01, Retrodata advises backing up your data and to consider replacing the drive. It's not clear if Apple owners are the only ones using the Seagate 2.5-inch drives in their laptops, although Retrodata said it hadn't seen similar problems with other drives, and it's also not clear how many varieties of Seagate hard drives Apple is using in its MacBooks.

[tcarreon]

my drive died this morning

on my macbook. of course it wasn't a seagate, it was as hitachi and
it wasn't the original drive.

[mvpcarl]

they suck

they break down all the time. Apple has fallen off it's high horse and started putting out products with less quality than ever before. Apple computers, coming soon to walmart discount shelves

[michaelt43]

Good for Apple.

I agree. I love the fact that they have touted quality and security and now that they are starting to produce more products they have run into the same problems as everyone else. When thumb your nose to the world and don't look down, you are likely to trip.

[close5828]

Hubris

Apple's hubris has finally caught up w/ them... Apple TV anyone?

[yacahuma]

I disagree

I think they have great products. Hard drives, like every man-made
device, can break. This is normal in the industry. The important
thing is that they recognize the problem and make quick repairs to
all the affected.

[imacpwr]

Again.. It's not an Apple problem

Apple, like PC maker Dell, don't actually build these (faulty) components which are found in their products. Exploding laptop batteries? "Sony", scratching hard drives? "Seagate". If you're going
to point the finger of ridicule do it to the companies that actually
built the defective components and not the label which happens to
be glued on the case be it Apple or Dell. They both strive to deliver
quality products but some things are just simply out of their
control.

[ewsachse]

My mac blew up

My mac blew up so I reformatted the drive and installed a dual boot of Linux and Windows Vista.

No problems since then, and I now actually have some useful applications that will run on this computer.

[Jazzyflute]

Amazing

I am amazed at the simplistic mind of some people. The Hard drive is NOT an apple made product, it IS a seagate product. The question is not whether apple is reliable, but rather is the hard drive and the maker of said device, reliable. Every computer, mac , pc, linux, what have you, has their problems. None is perfect whether its a 200 dollar vista laptop, or a 2500 Mac Pro. There WILL be problems. After all, if there where no problems where would the incentive to advance our current technology be?

[jonathanchambers]

My Seagate drive failed several months ago

I can confirm that I had this problem with a 1st generation (Core
Duo) MacBook and the Seagate hard drive/firmware revision #
(7.01) listed in the report. Unfortunately, my MacBook was just a
month out of warranty, so I had to replace the drive out of my own
pocket. Reports of this problem started circulating months ago.

[slimshady007]

S.M.A.R.T. status?

I have an early MacBook (August 06, Core Duo), but my hard
drive is a Toshiba. To any of you who have experienced problems with the Seagate hard drives: Correct me if I'm wrong,
but your descriptions make it sound like the trouble hit without
warning, so you had no reason to worry more than normal about
a hard drive failure. Had any of you, by chance, checked the
drive's S.M.A.R.T status before (say, a few weeks) the failure? I'm
curious if this manufacturing defect could have been caught by
S.M.A.R.T. or not. Just curious.

[thamu]

so now what

I lost all my data with the same problem in August. I have been
told that it cost several thousand US dollars to recover the data.
The hard disk is not even recognized when connected. If I wanted
to recover the data, who is responsible?

[Thomas, David]

LMAO

Since WHEN has seagate NOT delivered defective hard-drives, in
their product line?!

You'd think, with this continued bad publicity, they would get it all
together in one bag, and deal with it.

[Moosehouse]

Microsoft Advert

Perhaps Microsoft should runs adverts in response to the Apple Mac-PC adverts focusing on how it seems weekly there is some fault with the computer itself. If it isn't the batteries it's the screen or some other faulty hardware.

[irperez]

New Mac vs. PC Commercial!!!!

"Hi I'm Mac and this is PC"

PC: "Mac, whats wrong, you look lost?"

MAC: "I just lost all my files on my hard drive..."

PC: "Well if you focused on building Software rather than both hardware and software this wouldn't be your fault"

Mac: "What did you just say? I just lost your last line there?"

PC: "Hey, did you downgrade... er upgrade to Tiger from Leopard yesterday?"

Mac: "Yea, but now its all gone..."

Piano music ends.

[skinman]

How to check for bad MacBook drive

Could you be a little more specific, or provide an example, of
what to look for instead of
"You can figure out if your MacBook has one of the scarlet drives
by checking the firmware revision number in System Profiler. If
you scored a 7.01, Retrodata advises backing up your data and
to consider replacing the drive."
I spotlighted "System Profiler" clicked it, and got a bunch of
stuff, none of which is labeled "firmware" (I thought Macs were
easy - this sounds like something a PC technician has to do)

[inachu]

Apple should use IBM hard drives

There was a test done a few years back on hard drives regarding failure rates.

MTBF(Mean Time Before Failure) which is behind the sm.a.r.t. technology to predict the lifespan of a hard drive. Hard drives used in HP/COMPAQ/DELL have the highest rate of failure out of a million tested 100,000 failed VS a failure rate of only 1,000 on IBM branded hard drives.
Cheap parts are the reason for failure.

[zannesan32]

This happened to me

Right before this story broke, my computer was only a few months past the piddly one year warranty period when my hard drive crashed. We couldn't access my old data and had to buy a new hard drive without any help from Apple. Ironically, my new Toshiba hard drive came with a 3 year warranty. I sent an angry letter to Apple and they did call me back and write me a letter. They didn't admit any wrong doing and dismissed my claim as an anomoly that sometimes happens: They can't control 3rd party hardware mishaps. I spent a lot of money on that laptop and I think if you spend a certain amount of money, a company should warranty the product for certain defaults longer than a year period. Since this has become a known issue, Apple should admit the fault and refund the money I spent on a new hard drive and recall these computers so this won't happen to anyone else. They certainly lost one good customer.

[MacBook Failure]

Apple is responsible

Apple is responsible for third party components because they
are warranted by Apple. Also Apple was given information that a
high number of hard drives were failing. In good faith Apple
should recall these drives after verifying the information is
accurate. My MacBook hard drive failed after 3 months and
Apple couldn't care less. Also they want my old hard drive, which
since it has failed, I am not able to delete my persona data. This
issue is not only about hardware failure on the part of Apple
knowingly and willingly selling faulty products but it is also a
privacy issue in the fact that Apple demands you turn over your
personal information which they will not safe gaurd.

http://macbookfailure.blogspot.com

[dsalowitz]

Has anyone whose hard drive has 'crashed' been successful in retrieving their data? My daughter's Mac crashed right in the middle of writing her most important term paper...and the Apple store technicians immediately suggested simply wiping out her hard drive and starting over (which sounds to me like the lazy way out of fixing the problem). Is there any way to capture information from the machine?

[blurprincess]

I am not sure about the Quality of Apple Products anymore, I am having alot of doubts about their products now. My husband's macbook give him problem since the first week it arrived from the package as he got it online. It took like an hour to boot up and we sent it to the Service Center, claimed that a senor on the motherboard was faulty and it was replaced, then another 5-6 months into it, it could not boot up properly, sent to Service Centre again, find that one of the slot for the ram was corrupted and he has either replace the whole motherboard (pay your own) or get a 1GB ram and fix into the remaining ram slot. And about 3 months ago, the powersupply plug give problem and the whole thing was replace (Pay on your own) and now it looks like the HDD is dead.

I did not have such problem with my Toshiba which is a older laptop and just upgrade my ram and harddisk and my old harddisk can still be used as an external HDD.

I am wondering why Apple Macbook is having so much problem, where is the quality control? And the webiste is not even user friendly to solve the problem. I am now looking up a Service Center as we are away from home.