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Users at risk of data loss thanks to 'irresponsible' Apple
Company urged to recall dodgy hard drives.
By Tom Jowitt | Techworld
Published: 15:48 GMT, 02 November 07
A UK data recovery organisation has warned Apple Macbook users that they risk potential data loss due to a design flaw on certain hard drives.
UK firm Retrodata has come across “many dozens” of failures affecting Seagate 2.5 inch SATA drives, commonly found in laptops such as the MacBook or MacBook Pro. Apple desktops that use laptop-oriented components, like the Mac Mini, are also potentially at risk.
“The read/write heads are detaching from the arm and ploughing deep gouges into the magnetic platter," explained Retrodata’s managing director Duncan Clarke. "The damage is mostly on the inner tracks, but some scratches are on the outer track (track 0), and once that happens, the drive is normally beyond repair.”
The problem is found on the Seagate 2.5-inch SATA drives that are made in China and are loaded with firmware version 7.01. Model numbers affected include ST96812AS and ST98823AS.
Clark advises users to go to their System Profile, and under Serial ATA look for the revision number. “If it is firmware version 7.01 then you have to panic,” he warned.
“Apple are being utterly irresponsible and should launch a product recall,” Clarke said.
One unlucky Macbook user told Techworld that she had lost two months of crucial work data when her hard disk “just collapsed when saving a Word file.” She insisted her 13-month old Macbook had been treated very gently, mostly as a desk-based computer, and rarely left the house.
According to Alkas Ali, a director at data recovery specialist DiskEng, it is difficult to pinpoint specific hard disks with design flaws, due to the high volumes of faulty disks they encounter.
“Damage to magnetic platters are a normal type of failure for laptops,” Ali said. “This can be caused by temperature related issues or if the read/write head oscillates.” However he conceded that if the read/write heads are detaching from the arm, that is a design flaw. But he warned that you would need to see several hundred or several thousand drives with this problem to know for sure there is a design flaw.
Retrodata’s Clarke concedes he does not see these numbers of failures as his is a small firm, but the picture could be different when all the experiences of UK data recovery firms with these hard drives are tallied up.
“There is absolutely, definitely a flaw with these drives,” said Clarke. “I have seen enough to know there is a problem with them...any Apple Mac that uses a 2.5 inch drive is at risk.”
“This matter has only just come to our attention and Seagate are looking into it,” a Seagate spokesman told Techworld. Apple meanwhile, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Add your commentComments
brainmist | Published: 19:15 GMT, 04 January 2010
Well this is a club I certainly could have stayed out of! My MacBook was getting pretty rare use because of overall limited appeal of the included software, but I did use it to store and sort photos and do some sound tinkering. One whirling beachball of death later, and literally thousands of photos and decagigs of music are gone. Not backed up (I know, I know, but I lent someone my back up drive and never got it back). Silly me, I thought being a Mac person meant fewer problems. Now I'm a PC!
Andy | Published: 09:14 GMT, 26 November 2009
Same thing happened to my Macbook black 2.4ghz duo core, 4 gb of ram' this past Sunday. Only 14 months that I had it.
Anonymous | Published: 01:43 GMT, 22 November 2009
I have unfortunately joined the spinning beach ball of death/HD death club. But after a short chat with Apple support, an appointment has been made and the Genius will determine if the faulty HD is Apple's responsibility for replacement. The tech admitted that this is a known problem for some HDs. It does seem that someone is taking responsibility albeit too late for me. I did register my MB. When WAS the last time I backed up my stuff?
c0m3t | Published: 03:11 GMT, 17 November 2009
Mine too! just crashed. completely gone. How many does it take for Apple and Seagate to take notice and own up to their screw-up. so far I've had to replace the optical drive and the battery. I love my macbook when it works right but really. Oh yeah, and the screen flickers too. Is mine just a lemon are are they all riven with problems?!
Alan | Published: 17:35 GMT, 24 August 2009
Was this ever resolved? My MacBook Pro's HD died 2 months before the warranty ended - phew! They replaced it with no quibble, even upgraded it to twice the size! I was ecstatic until 3 months later, same thing! Dead HD! Is this going to keep on happening???
applelo | Published: 04:10 GMT, 06 July 2009
can i replace my apple laptop battery from http://www.sales-battery.com/laptop-batteries/apple.htm for free?
Joe | Published: 21:29 GMT, 27 August 2008
My FW 7.01, ST96812AS hard drive crashed 8-21-08 exactly 26 mos. after purchase. I hold Seagate responsible, but Apple, too, for not warning its customers appropriately. A recall for those drives still working, replacement (including data transfer), is the right thing to do.
dadsgravy | Published: 08:41 GMT, 24 July 2008
Same FW7.01, ST96812AS hard drive crashed. At least I was prepared and waiting for 6 months now. I'm usually not one to scream law suit, but this is ridiculous. Apple and Seagate clearly know about this and are doing nothing. Great job!
Tom G | Published: 17:37 GMT, 21 July 2008
Well now I join the list of crashed hard-drives. Quit trying to defend Apple! There is an obvious problem here. They are "investigating" while your warranty is expiring. These postings go back 8 months. Why didn't Apple send out a warning? Their own commercials love to blame PC's for errors, not the hardware manufacturers. According to some of these posters if my dishwasher breaks I will have to look who made the motor, not bother Maytag. I was informed I will be charged to see if the data is recoverable (putting my defective drive in an external case?) I'll be recouping my money in small claims court
teacherdan | Published: 19:48 GMT, 08 July 2008
i have a fw 7.24 that went belly up after a year and two months. was using an hp windows unit. grr.........