Does the 27" iMac have a high hard drive failure rate?
The 1TB drive in my 27" i5 died at about 24 months of age. Disk Utility and Hardware test didn't find any problems, but I've had 3 files corrupted by bad blocks and both Drive Genius and TechTools Pro found over 55 bad blocks [1].
This will be a coslty out-of-warrantee repair -- largey because the 27" iMac is not user serviceable.[2]
Two years is a short drive lifespan. Not super short, but short. Anyone know if this is a trend? I bought this machine at the start of its life cycle, so if there's a manufacturing problem in the drives Apple chose they'd be starting to show now.
[1] Modern drives only show their bad blocks when there are so many that they can't hide them any longer. For more details on why this is a dying drive see my blog post: http://tech.kateva.org/2011/12/mac-drive-diagnostics-techtools-pro-and.html
[2] Design has its price.
i5 iMac 27, iPhone OS 3.1.2, MacBook Core-2 Duo, G5 iMac, G3 iBook, Mac mini