UK drive recovery company Retrodata is warning customers of a rash of failures involving a particular Seagate drive model, a SATA unit made in China and used in Apple laptops. This specific mechanism, according to Retrodata's intake notes, seems to be prone to a spectacular self-destruct where the drive heads auger into the platter, rendering the data mostly dead.How to spot the potentially affected drive: check System Profiler under Serial ATA, and if you have a Seagate drive with a 7.01 firmware revision... well, double-check those backups.
As yet, we have not seen confirmation of this problem from either Seagate or domestic drive recovery vendors, but better safe than sorry, no?
Thanks Jeff, Laurie, and everyone who sent this in.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-07-2007 @ 4:23PM
Brad said...
This warning comes one week too late for me. Still, I'm glad this is getting some press before it's too late for the rest of you...
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11-07-2007 @ 4:23PM
cmc said...
Oh I've got one of those. What do I dooooo?
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11-07-2007 @ 4:23PM
hessi said...
So, let me summarize:
My MacBook Pro Core Duo, first generation, got two new mainboards within the first 6 months (kernel panic, electric shock), three new power supplies (cable melting), two new AirPort Cards (lost connection) and one new battery (complete loss).
Right now the left half part of the display light is temporarily broken and now, just to complete things, I have a Seagate 7.01 harddrive in it.
I'll NEVER buy an Apple first generation product again! :-(
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11-07-2007 @ 4:24PM
BTaylor said...
I have a 7.01 drive...
Eep...
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11-07-2007 @ 4:30PM
Paul said...
Jerrod - you should qualify for a replacement Mac by now (not that it might not have the same problem). If you get another failure, insist upon it. If Apple has to replace a large number of whole unit computers, perhaps they'll issue an acknowledgement, or warranty extension of some kind.
Still it's Seagate's fault, not Apple's. I hope there's a firmware update to resolve this soon.
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11-07-2007 @ 4:47PM
Derek said...
I bought one Seagate drive. This exact thing happened to me before. I will never buy another again. They are the worst drives I have ever used.
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11-07-2007 @ 4:52PM
Pete said...
My Core Duo MacBook drive failed after 9 months and according to the Apple tech it is a very common problem.
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11-07-2007 @ 4:59PM
Sebastian said...
These news are circling around German Mac sites for a week now, and it seems A LOT of people are having problems with those drives. Mine was replaced back in January (bought the Macbook in June 2006), and guess what - I got a new Seagate 7.01 drive. :(
Would love to get an official statement from Apple or Seagate, as this obviously is a BIG problem.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:02PM
Bill Bradford said...
I had a Seagate drive die in my first-rev MacBook Core Duo and had to have it replaced under AppleCare, about eight months ago.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:11PM
Tony Bowman said...
My refurbed 1st-gen MacBook Pro 1.83Ghz has a Tosh 80 gig drive, so I'm in the clear. I wonder if they replaced the drive as part of the refurb process? I bought it on Apple.com in June of 2006.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:13PM
Simon said...
I work at a school and we've had over 40 MacBook hard drives replaced. We get them replaced by Apple so they must be aware of the problem from the high volume of failures they receive. The fact they haven't issued a recall and been pro-active is very disappointing.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:14PM
Ben Marsden said...
One week too late for me (ST96812AS). If you have one. Back it up and swap it for something else.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:33PM
thecompkid said...
Oh god, yep, hate to sound like the echo in here, but I too was beaten out of tens of gigabytes of unbackupped data just a few weeks ago. Remember kids, only YOU can help prevent data loss.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:37PM
Matthew said...
I have a MBP and it has a Fujitsu HD in it so I guess I am lucky. Just curious, how do you know what firmware your hard drive has? I am not seeing that listed unless I am just missing it.
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11-07-2007 @ 5:44PM
snowy2004 said...
Well, mine is a 7.01 but how exactly can I see if it's from Seagate?
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11-07-2007 @ 5:44PM
Elías said...
One month late for me :(
Mine was a 100 GB Seagate Momentus (ST9100824AS).
I was working with Open Office for Mac when my MacBook Core Duo 1,83 suddenly freezed. After a couple of minutes, I holded down the Turn On/Off button to shut it down. Then I tried to start the computer... and the system wouldn't even recognize there was a drive. I plugged the original drive that came with the MB and tried to make OS X recognize the other in an external USB case and... nothing.
I'm actually waiting for the same brand new 100 GB Seagate to come home to see if I can change the broken pieces myself (here in Spain I'd have to pay around 1.000 - 2.000 euros if I want to try with a recovery company to work it out).
By the way, the firmware is 3.06.
I hope this comes in time to warn you: DO NOT use Open Office for Mac (I think there is some kind of problem regarding to its java programming, but I am not pretty sure). Use NeoOffice instead, it works great. And DO always back up your data regularly.
You can't say I did'nt warn you pals!
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11-07-2007 @ 5:46PM
Elías said...
"I held down"
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11-07-2007 @ 6:16PM
Alex said...
I've got a Fujitsu drive in my MacBook Pro, but my Seagate Free Agent external hard drive just failed on me. I just hope my warranty includes data recovery, or I'll be re-HandBraking all my movies.
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11-07-2007 @ 6:18PM
jamblo said...
Oh crap, mine's a ST9100824AS.
It's the second HDD my 1.1 MBP 2Ghz has had after the exact same thing as Elias -
"after a couple of minutes, I holded down the Turn On/Off button to shut it down. Then I tried to start the computer... and the system wouldn't even recognize there was a drive."
I can ill afford for this to happen again, as my Applecare has expired :(
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11-07-2007 @ 6:46PM
Jerrod said...
Let's hope Apple acknowledges this: My MBP is on its fourth hard drive in 8 months.
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