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iMac 1 TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program

Just received an Email from Apple regarding the subject matter for 21.5 and 27 inch iMacs purchased between May 2011 and July 2011.

The pertinent information Hot Link URL gives an "URL is not syntactically valid" response when double clicked.

A Copy and Paste of the full URL plus additional deletions of invalid quotes etc still provides no connection to the information.

If anyone has received a valid URL for this Hot Link could you please post the URL in this thread.

Thanks.

Mac Pro 3.2GHz DualQuad 16Gig, iMac 27, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Apple Cinema - 30"/23"/20"

Posted on Jul 22, 2011 4:33 PM

Reply
111 replies

Aug 18, 2018 1:11 PM in response to Tom Johnson

Hi everyone


I also got this email and checked the serial number, and my iMac is one of the affected ones.


The thing is this: In January 2012 my hard drive failed and I had to have it replaced. It was 1 month past the expiry of the warranty and I had to pay for the new HD and the work of the tech guy installing it in the Apple Store. It was a Seagate drive and the replacement drive is exactly the same!!


My questions are : 1) Will I get a reimbursement of the money I paid to have the drive replaced and, 2) Will I now need to replace the replacement drive, too?? The model number of the new drive is ST31000528AS


Thank to anyone who can answer these questions!!


Chris

Aug 18, 2018 1:11 PM in response to ABQ_G35

Hey, thanks, I did that already and it was indeed one of the affected iMacs.


Thanks for confirming that's the new harddrive. That's a relief, I didn't really want to get it replaced again..


I think it would be fair for Apple to reimburse me the cost of replacing the original drive, wouldn't it? Since if the drive had a fault when it was built in, that means they sold me a faulty product


Chris


PS: it failed after 1 year and one month, not 3 years. So technically it should have been covered because the fault existed when I bought the machine, right?

Jul 22, 2011 5:33 PM in response to Tom Johnson

Here is the URL that I received in my email:


http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/?cid=CDM-US-DM-DBRF10018&cp=em--&sr= em


And a screenshot of the page it takes me to:


User uploaded file

Hope that helps. My two cents is...I haven't noticed any problems with my HD, and I do Time Machine backups daily, so I intend to ride it out. They will repair these drives for another year, and I have Applecare for three, so I see no need to hit the panic button right away if I'm not having issues. Like the email said, it's a small percentage. 🙂

Jul 22, 2011 7:29 PM in response to shadyjoker

You should always have backups; do them regularly. All HDs fail, sooner or later, mere mortals make mistakes now and then, and other awful things happen. These forums are full of posts from folks who didn't, and are trying to figure out how to recover their data after their HD failed. Some were lucky, and got some of it back for uner $100; others spent thousands.


You might want to review the Time Machine Tutorial, and perhaps browse Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions. If you don't like Time Machine, see #27 in the FAQ for some other suggestions.

Jul 22, 2011 7:45 PM in response to Pondini

Thank you for those two paragraphs. But i think what many of us are stressed about the backing up and replacing of everything by us and not Apple. For the third time now, I have to uninstall and reinstall all my adobe software. Down time from work, work that provides me the money to pay for these Apple products is going to be lost while my imac is being repaired. True, everyone should be bacing up all the time, but its the time wasting process involved. Why should we have to be the ones to reinstall the os, I recall my imac coming preinstalled with my os. I didnt get h ome and do it. So now, ONCE AGAIN, I have to lose valuable work time. Patience is running dry. So as much as we appreciate your bold highlighted words and links about time machine, we are merely venting at an annoyance in our lives. I wasnt expecting work to come along with my 1400$ machine.

Jul 22, 2011 8:05 PM in response to Tom Johnson

My problem is not with the backup (I do it anyway.). I'm 62 and partially disabled and I'm supposed to pack up my imac and drive it 60 miles to the nearest Apple store (a third of that distance in bumper-to-bumper traffic) and then be told what? Come back in five days and it ought to be ready? Another 60 mile (one way) trip? Either 120 or 240 miles--ten to twelve gallons of gas at my expense? To fix something that should have been done right the first time?


We ought to get at least $100 in merchandise credit from the App store or something for the nusiance of it all. Like some others I will probably ride it out and pray it doesn't fail--there's no way I can throw that computer in my back seat as if it were a laptop,


A pity. I had actually started to buy into the hype that Apple was not ony a superior company but a culture of excellence. I'm begining to feel the cynicism.

Jul 22, 2011 8:04 PM in response to Pondini

I didnt say you offended me. Nowhere did i say that. But you did come into this discussion suggesting people backup as if people already dont do that. What you forgot is that theres a process to replacing everything and carrying a box to a store 45 minutes away for some people and losing their system for 3 days. Also, maybe some people cant afford an extra external hdd so they can back everything up. Theres people who do it online on their cloud drive. But then redownloading everything messes up those with data caps througg their ISP. So maybe REMINDING that everyone should backup isnt very helpful right now, although i am sure we, at least me, appreciate your suggestion.

Jul 22, 2011 8:15 PM in response to gangof4

gangof4 wrote:


My problem is not with the backup (I do it anyway.).

Lots of folks don't, including one here who said "I have to buy a new external HDD to backup"


Call AppleCare. Explain your situation (calmly, but firmly). Unless it's been changed recently, the normal U.S. AppleCare policy for desktops is, they'll send a tech to your house or workplace if it's within 50 miles of an Apple Store and they know what the problem is. See if they'll stretch that to 60.

Jul 22, 2011 8:23 PM in response to gangof4

There's a lot of negativity in this thread that doesn't really belong here. I think it's agreed that everyone should always backup their data. When your hard drive dies (not if, but when) you will lose it all if you don't have it backed up. I have used Mac's since 1990 and make my living supporting them and hold multiple Apple technical certifications. This email does not concern me in the slightest. If getting to an apple store is a problem, then don't go...chances are your machine is and will be just fine. If it fails in the warranty period...even beyond the one year of this issue...Apple will still fix it. This sounds like a small number of units were affected so in the end, this is just a heads up from Apple. Even if you did have to re-install the OS that came with it, big deal...Lion is out now and it's a great time to erase and install from scratch anyway. 🙂


If you can get it to an Apple store with a minimum of hassle, do so and rest easy. If not, continue along and take it in only if you have issues. Just make sure you back up your important data regularly, whether it's to an external drive, a free online service like Dropbox, or USB flash drives. Heck, burn your stuff to a blank DVD if you have to. Just backup what you can where it will fit and you'll be fine. 😉

iMac 1 TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program

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