iMac 1 TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program

I'll spell it out for you:

If you back up to an external you will NEVER AGAIN have to waste time installing programs after a disc failure. Haven't you learned your lesson by now after the first 3 times? Do you understand how Time Machine or cloning programs like SuperDuper work? They are designed to save the very time you (and all of us) value so highly.

Back up to an external. Back up to an external. Back up to an external. Don't worry about this email you got from Apple, just back up to an external and all will be well.

By the way, my pc formatted external is 320gb, which I paid 80$ when I purchased it. I'm not going to buy a new one just because it's cheap. It fits my entire portfolio just fine. All I said is it doesn't fit all my videos. That's all I simply said. I don't even know why people keep directing at me in this discussion still. I'll reiterate, I'm not upset with Apple, I'm thankful they're doing this. I'm just frustrated that I have to go through the whole replacing everything again. If my HDD crashes and I have to do the same thing, I don't do it with a smile on my face, who honestly enjoys going through a HDD failure? Nobody. It's all I meant.

I DO BACK UP TO AN EXTERNAL. Who said I was worried about the email from Apple??? I came from a PC, my external isn't formatted, it doesn't write. Do you understand that now? I know what I'm doing, you keep assuming I don't with this back up thing. I know I can copy everything to my PC and format it for Mac, but the PC isn't big enough to do it all at once. So since I've moved to iMac back in Feb. I just simply save to Dropbox, go to my PC and back it up on to my external. So I'll have 2 back ups anyway, thats my process and it's worked fine for me.

I understand how Time Machine works, fantastic, but I don't do it that way until I either format or buy a new external. Least of my concern right now since my backup process is more than good enough for me. Spelled out enough for you?

NOW, understand, backing up wasn't my concern, but for some odd reason, you keep chisling it into this discussion as if I came in here screaming my OMGGGG I HAVE BACK UP EVERYTHING NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I HATE BACKING UP I DONT HAVE AN EXTERNAL!!!!! But I didn't. I just brought up concerns surrounding this replacement and my personal feeling. I understand you're a graphic designer also, but we're all different. I still remember backing up to zip drives. So please don't teach my how to backup, I'm definitely safe on the backing up issue. Thank you. Also, all is definitely well here. Online backup, external backup, and iMac. Three different locations. Can you move away from backing up now?

Alrighty then, good luck. 😉

Seriously, I honestly appreciate your help. Backing up just wasn't my main concern, I'm okay on that part for now though.

Wow . . . quite the discussion. For the record - I do backup my photos, music, and all other important files. What I cannot do right now is replace my 500GB external hard drive with a new 1TB+ external hard drive to do a complete backup/clone of my iMac. Not in the budget.

I echo the frustration with the process. All those who responded with "just back up your stuff" (paraphrase) are missing the point. Those of us novice mac users love our computers because they are user friendly, reliable machines. I know there is always the risk of any hard drive failing; however, this particular instance is a known defect in specific drives sold for only TWO months less than THREE months ago. When did they know about this? Did they wait until the buyers of these iMacs return window closed? Additionally, I just spent hours of my time getting this one set-up less than two months ago. As well as upgrading to Lion this week. Those of you super users please do not comment on whether or not it should have taken me that long . . . it did . . . there are those of us out here that are not super users. Isn't that one of the points of owning an Apple? Ease of use for people that are not systems engineers?

It is my belief that given Apple's reputation - they should make this easier. They should do the clone in the store, switch out the hard drive, and then re-image the new hard drive with their clone (using a Thunderbolt connection no less - another extra peripheral item that I have yet to purchase due to budget constraints). That seems like a very fair expectation in my book. If they are not going to value the time this will take from their loyal customers, then at least give a credit to the Apple store that those of us who are effected can use toward a Thunderbolt cable or external hard drive (or whatever).

Finally, does anyone out there have a list of files and folders that I need to have on my 500GB hard drive to make the process for me easier once I get my new clean hard drive? I know the basic ones - the Libraries where my photos and music are stored. I am wondering about files that contain setting information. System Preferences, email account settings, calendar subscription settings, etc. Anything that will help automate the process once I have the new hard drive. I really want to avoid manually doing as many of these things as possible.

Thank you in advance for your advice and mutual respect.

Darcie, are you sure you have too much data to fit on the 500GB external drive? I ask this because you say you've only had your Mac for two months.

Time Machine will only back up data, not the unused space on your 1TB internal drive.

To check this out, open Activity Monitor and look there for the space used on your internal drive. This will give you an approximate idea of whether it will fit.

Or you could just try it! :-)

Apple does make it easy. Plug in your 500gb hard drive and run Time Machine once. I'm willing to bet that you havent filled up more than 500gb on your brand new machine. Run Time Machine, then go get your new hard drive installed. Then all you have to do is plug in your external, restore and your settings are exactly how you left them with little to no effort.

Some of you people are incredibly dense.

Thank you.

And some of you people are incredibly arrogant.

Darcie, if the Time Machine backup to your 500GB drive works, then use setup assistant to restore all your "stuff", apps, settings, files...

Read this carefully, it's the best source of Time Machine and other advice from our very own Pondini - http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/SetupAsst.html

According to Apple this defective Seagate 1 TB hard drive is in machines "sold between May 2011 and July 2011."

If anyone is considering buying an iMac, make sure you have the sales person looks up the serial number - there are likely lemons still in the retail supply chain. Or you might want to wait a month before you buy to make sure they have cleaned up this problem.

Pardon my cynicism, but I would not make a purchase of an iMac with a 1 TB drive without an absolute guarantee that the IMac did not include the recalcitrant model(s). I would expect Apple to submit documentation of the manufacturer(s), model(s), and serial number(s) of the faulty drivesof the faulty drives as well as manufacturer(s), model(s), and serial number(s) of the replacement drives.

If anyone knows where to locate data for specific hardwares (manufacturer, model, and serial number) installed in Apple Macs by (year, model) this would be helpful.

To all who provided helpful hints . . . thank you so much. I've bitten the bullet and have a new external HD on the way. I still think Apple should give me my iMac back in the same state as I dropped it off, but oh well . . .

Best of luck to all with potentially faulty hard drives.

I live far from an Apple Store or service provider so when I called Apple, they offered on site for me even though I don't have applecare.

My new iMac is affected and I took it into my local Apple store today. I requested that they transfer the data from the old drive since at this point it is still functioning. They refused, and I find this completely unacceptable. As others have said this not about backups (I have one), it's about my time. First having to take the machine back to the store (and not have the use of it for 5 days) is bad enough, but then having to reinstall the OS from scratch and all of my data is just too much. This hardware failure is Apple's responsibility. They are responsible for the drives they source (and should be testing). I understand it's possible for things to get past the testing, but they should take responsibility and make this as easy as possible for their customers.

My solution was to call another local authorized Apple dealer (not the Apple Store), and they were more than happy to do the data transfer for me.

Apple seriously dropped the ball on this one.

I am a firm believer in the "do backups and do them regularly" mantra and so I did with my 27" iMac using Time Machine and a $300 external HDD preformatted for Macs. Time Machine backups were auto-scheduled and always seemed "updated." The result? Six months into owning my iMac the hard drive suddenly fails and I take it to my local Apple store where they replaced it (at my expense, since this was March and prior to the admitted recall). When I got home w/ my repaired iMac and attempted to migrate all that info back onto the new drive, I found that for months, none of those Time Machine backups were actually being saved or were otherwise corrupted. I had no idea this was the case until I actually needed them. The information was on the external but just not able to be accessed via Time Machine, so finding the most important files and manually copying them to the appropriate folders on the new drive was a royal pain...

Word to the wise, "do back ups and do them regularly - and then verify the back ups"

p.s. - on the plus side, since I got the work done at an Apple store it looks like I may get the $$ refunded for paying for the drive repair myself 😀