Comments on: Apple acknowledges some MacBook hard-drive problems

Some 2.5-inch Seagate drives appear to be causing serious problems for certain MacBook owners, and the company is looking into the problem.

[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.

[G|Net]

mine died in Sept.

My MacBook's HD was a Hitachi too, was the original drive, and
failed two months ago (after 9 months of use). I was completely
stunned for days; I had never seen an Apple-installed drive fail on a
Mac in 14 years. I'm on my 2nd drive for this MacBook (also a
Hitachi), and now I backup constantly with SuperDuper. The bloom
is off the rose....

[iluvnp]

Mine died this afternoon 03/08

Luckily, I was still under warranty. I am still running my emachine from 2000 with no issue along with Dell laptop I have had for 5 years. Who would've thought a macbook I bought just 9 months ago would die on me. It's disappointing. As much as I blame Seagate for making crappy hard drives ( I also have external seagate drive that have crapped out on me), I blame Apple partially, as they should have atleast offer overnight shipping rather than telling me to wait for over a week for a turnaround time.

[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

[SixVodkas]

Since the stupid gene is running rampant in this thread, I'll point out what even a 5th grader should have picked out from reading this article.

Drives manufactured by 3rd parties are failing.

In case you're completely and utterly incapable of exhibiting even the most basic of reading comprehension skills, let me add that Apple does not manufacture hard drives, but that hard drives built by a company that is not Apple are failing.

Still feel like embarrassing yourself? Post again how drives assembled by companies that aren't Apple are indicative of Apple's failures, and I'll happily poke more holes in your flawed;
1) Reading skills and
2) Logic (and oh! how I loathe applying that word to your sloppy thought processes)

[mactech808]

Again in response to ignorance--i swear its all around me.... 13% of all HDs fail within the first year(HDs in general..not only apples). its common knowledge to back up your computer. it should be a habit with any computer. what what can apple say, not everyone is intuitive enough to do research, gain "knowledge" about how computers work, and make the very basic decisions--or to put it simply, not everyone has a brain. i used to work at a PC repair shop, and now im a mac tech, the amount of repairs for the low quality parts that come with PCs VS macs makes me think, are you really posing that argument?

[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.

[Seaspray0]

3rd party products always a risk

All manufacturers take this risk since they all use 3rd party products (no computer maker actually makes all the components). Some 3rd party products tend to be more reliable than others, but that's no guarantee that the overall product will be reliable. Apple really has no claim that their products are more reliable than anyone elses since they do not actually "make" what goes into it. The only control they, or anyone else has, is how reliable it is when it comes out the door and not how it will perform over time.

[mactech808]

hah. seriously thats what i have to say to that comment. i worked at 3 computer stores. 2 of them were PC repair and retail shops. (i did repairs) and the one i work at now is an apple tech shop. gateways, dells, HP and acers were the worst. in comparison to the number of repairs done on a PC than a mac. PLEASE. PCS are cheap and 13% of HD's fail within the first year. if your not informed, dont post.

[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.

[catch23]

Except when it happens to Dell

You, the Apple fans, jump out and make statements like 'this is what happens when you buy low class parts' or dumb stuff like that.
The fans say Apple is about quality, and that is why you pay more.
So now you say you pay more for the same crap parts?
Cute. Must be convenient to twist any argument so that you look reasonable.

[rapier1]

How is it not an apple problem?

Seriously. Its their machine. So what if they didn't manufacture the drive? They put their name on it so it is their problem, they charged us money for it, they are responsible. That's how this sort of thing works.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Apple's specs

Apple tells the OEM what specs they want. Those drives the OEM made were for Apple and Apple alone. Apple controls the hardware process in that manner.

That's the reason you don't see these drive failures happening with other brands of laptops. The drives simply are unique to the Apple product as that is the only customer they were made for.


Does that mean it's Apple's fault? Well, they are involved and do share part of the blame.

[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.

[cashaww]

Who did you piss off?

At the Baltimore Md, Store, my hd was replaced and shipped to my
house free of charge, and it was a month out of warranty.

[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.

[catch23]

S.M.A.R.T.

is a JOKE.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=243

I've seen S.M.A.R.T. work on 2 occasions. Both times, the warning and total drive failure were separated less then 1 minute.

[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?

[mrhex]

so now what

You are responsible. Not to sound crass, but consider this example:

You are driving down the road and your engine blows up. Then you think to yourself for second, "Oh damn I forgot to put oil in my car!" Better call the Better Business Bureau and make a complaint against my manufacturer for not telling me to put oil in my car.

If you don't back up your important data, then you are just asking for it.

[Seaspray0]

Same warranty as other computer makers

Just like every other computer manufacturer... Apple is responsible for the hardware and software they provided in the box (meaning a computer with the OS installed fresh) during the warranty period. You are responsible for anything beyond that. That includes any data you save since you started it. Even though this is a seagate hard drive, apple will be handling the replacement as they are the "end" provider of the computer. No doubt, apple will be sending all those bad drives back to seagate.

I haven't seen a warranty yet that didn't advise you to back up your data. Unfortunately, people seldom do it.

[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.

[Seaspray0]

Who did they provide this drive to?

Does anyone have the make/model that is defective? It would be interesting to know if other manufacturers are also using this drive and if issues have started to pop up with them.

Lets not play the blame game here, people. This one is fairly obvious where the defect originated. Lets look to discovering the scope of the issue and resolving it (i.e. Steve, find another hdd provider).

[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.

[Vegaman_Dan]

MS doesn't lower itself to that level

Microsoft doesn't bother with attack ads or trying to deman the users of other OS's. They simply advertise the products they offer and let the end users decide for themselves.

[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)

[appledogx--2008]

It's so easy, I could almost have my dog do it

Just go to the Apple Menu and choose About This Mac.
Then click the button that says More Info...
In the left column that says Contents, open the Hardware
triangle if it is closed.
Choose Serial-ATA in the hardware list.
In the right bottom window pane, look for
ST98823AS:
...and then...
Revision: 7.01

If you see it in yours, you may have a problem with your Hard
Drive.

Personally, I do have the problem. I'm not happy, but Apple is a
company, not a perfect god with perfect products. The quality
problems I've had with Apple have been minimal. I've been an
Apple customer since 1984. I've dealt with dozens of Macs in
both personal and professional settings. I've had problems with
about four machines in that period. Most were fixed under
warranty, and those that were not, were repaired without much
problem.

I find it amusing that people are so willing to attack Apple for
ANY problem at all. The Windows computers I've dealt with have
been constant source of problems; both hardware and software.
Frankly Windows apologists, pull the redwood tree out of your
eye before pulling the splinter out of Apple's.

[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.

[gulliver1]

I had the same experience. I got a MacBook because i thought it will be more reliable than the other options in the market that time. It turned out to be a nightmare. It's my worst buy in about 15 years of IT experience. During the first year I had to visit the store too many times for repairs. The replaced almost everything; The keyboard, the motherboard, the battery, the power supply... Then after about 10 months or so the HDD crashed. They replaced it but my data was lost. I never had a HDD crash so early in a computer life.
I decided to extend the warranty for 2 more years, just to salvage my investment in this computer. It was worthwhile, because otherwise I would have had to trash it. Now towards the end of the extended warranty, the HDD crashed again. This is the worst computer ever, and I didn't mention the attitude and the lines to the Genius Bar.