Apple opens up repair program for some MacBook hard drives
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 17th 2010 3:17PM
posted February 17th 2010 3:17PM
This one goes back a few years, but Apple has now finally, officially confirmed a hard drive problem that has plagued some MacBooks, and it's announced a repair program that will allow you to get your hard drive replaced even if the MacBook is out of warranty. The specific models covered are both black and white MacBooks from 2006 and 2007 with 1.83GHz, 2GHz, or 2.16GHz processors, and either 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB, or 160GB hard drives. As you may recall, the hard drive issue in question is a pretty nasty one that can leave your data unrecoverable, but it seems like Apple will only replace your drive once you're stuck with the flashing question mark on boot-up -- it's just recommending that people backup their data in the meantime. Hit up the link below for the complete details.
Better late than never...I think?
@martynmcfarquhar
I thought it "just works" ?
@AlfaCat
it's a feature!
@Atkins
maybe they are failing everywhere but it is Apple who refused to fix it for free under warranty as they should have.
SSD FTW! Really, the idea of a spinning platter on a portable device is just flawed.
@pika2000
Yep, CDs and DVDs in portable devices are indeed problematic.
@pika2000 The idea of paying over a dollar a gigabyte is also flawed. I can't wait to get my hands on a SSD, but it would probably be wise to wait a year or so.
you must be kidding?
what exactly do you propose backing your SSD data on? if it's more silicon chips, that is a colossal skank future landfill that costs a ton.
BD-R is by far the best option.
@pax copia
While I agree that BD-R is a great choice for backup (in fact that's the main reason I have a BD drive in my laptop), I don't think his point was that SSD is a great backup medium. I think it was more along the lines of SSDs aren't prone to mechanical failure or damage due to being dropped, which makes them particularly suited to laptops even if they didn't also offer a huge performance boost.
But regardless, I don't see your point about landfills. Even though this wasn't the original commenter's point, I happen to think that SSDs would be a MUCH better option for backup than conventional hard drives if the cost per gigabyte weren't so high. Do you have some impression that conventional hard drives are biodegradable?
@pika2000
I had two Western Digital 320GB iMac (mid 2007 Aluminum) hard drives tank within two days of each other. Two seperate iMacs, in two different places. I thought I was being Punk'd! Data on one drive was not recoverable. The other drive was recoverable, but it took some doing.
@pika2000
Yet many of us have had "inferior cheap brand" laptops that have survived very harsh conditions over a number of years without the hard drives failing. The notion that you can't build a sturdy laptop, even one with "spinny disks", is simply untrue.
Apple simply dropped the ball this time.
@pika2000 Apple does offer SSDs, but you are far better off picking up your own.
The 128GB SSD they offer is a Samsung 70mb/s seq drive and there are faster and better value drives out now, and its a $350 upgrade even thought it retails for under $300 shipped and you can sell your free 250GB platter drive for extra savings.
OSX does not currently support TRIM though, and we're not sure of the update schedule yet.
LOL @ 60 Gig hard drives. I have a swapped 500G in my Macbook Pro and I'm getting kind nervous, but this is my main computer.
It just wor......click.......click......click
A thousand internets to you good sir.
Wow, thats late. I had my HDD and "Logic board" replaced in Nov 2007 - 3 days after purchase :(
@el Capitan
well i can tell you that you are one lucky ass, my mac book pro lost its logic board which cost me about $500 just to buy the board. so having it happen a few days after buying it is not that bad (at lest in my opinion)
I walked into the apple store a month ago with this problem and they said that it was my fault and wanted to charge me $150.00 to fix it. I ended up puting a 500gb drive in myself.
@rhcpsfan Throw your old drive in and go back to the store. Laugh in their faces for saying it's your fault and get the new drive. Then throw your 500gb back in.
@xfbtmofx I concur.
@rhcpsfan
I actually had my 2007 MacBook HDD fail on me a little over a year ago. I don't live near an Apple store, so I just ordered a new HDD and installed it myself. I held on to the defunct HDD and when I was near an Apple store, I popped in the bad drive and took it in (and pretended that it just happened and that I didn't have a replacement drive already). They replaced it for free, even tho I was wayy out of warranty. You should really give this another shot.
Microsoft should make anti-Apple commercials with a cracked yellow backdrop and have clicking as the music gets deleted by the OS. That'll show em!
I've got a time capsule connected, so no worries!
Oh, wait, that went kaput with the power supply problem.
JERKS! I already had to replace mine - total data loss. And the power cord twice...
@Rtarara That sucks but ever hear of an external backup?
@DizWhiz A lot of junk stuff was actually lost due to a failure in the external hard drive back up. The important stuff was mostly okay due to secondary/online backups. It was just lame. Oh and a ram socket failed too. And the case edges have some holes. There was also the fact the spacebar disintegrated when I carefully removed it for cleaning. It has some issues if you can't tell.
it is about time Apple shipped with contemporary tech so that we could burn to BD-R. You can't beat $2/25GB
Just what I needed
I ordered a black Macbook as soon as it was announced. I already replaced the HD. Full motherboard as well. Early Macbooks were real lemons maybe they've gotten better. Battery hardly works as well. I can't imagine who likes the idea of sealed batteries.
@zingerhill
Yeah, ref my above. I have the 3,1 or 'late 2007'. I've had HDD, motherboard, 2 batteries and a charger replaced in just over a year (and my charging issue is still not resolved).
A real shame. They are such pretty products, but I won't make that mistake again.
@el Capitan
They make even prettier paper weights.
It just works DAMMIT!!! STEVE SAID IT JUST WORKS!!! NOW STFU AND LEAVE THE GENIUSES ALONE!!! /s(for those who need it)
Why are all you people whining, at least you didn't lose your data to a windows virus right? /s
@meeit
lol, without that /s I'd have gotten real angry lol
I never had an active virus on my Windows system since I started using it back in 1999.
(I admit that I never searched for any passive, background viruses but on the other hand, nothing happened yet)
@meeit lol thats exaclty what I was thinking even though I didn't have to worry bout this.
What if I had this problem a year ago and was forced to get a new hard drive back then? bleh.
@asbird Sounds like you need a.... *Time Machine* :D
Gotta love Time Machine.
My brother in law just had his crash 3 weeks ago, they sent it to DriveSavers and they said nothing can be done. They didnt back up pictures and lost 3 months worth of pics from their newborn.
@goatlover
Damn! I'd be absolutely gutted if I lost our pics of our girl when she was born. :(
@goatlover
That's a good reason to carry a $10 fun saver.
@goatlover The reason nothing could of been does is because a problem with the read/write head on the Seagate hard drive. Blame SG for the failure, as it was their hardware that failed.
So let me get this straight. Apple didn't want to admit a problem until now and Apple will fix the HD only after it breaks and loses all your data? Sounds like Toyota
@blkdrgn:
that's kind of uncalled for. wasn't toyota's fault that they went with a pedal made in Indiana and there's a total of 18 accidents from it, also, the problem doesn't just show up one day. the pedal issue is from a part in the portion of the pedal that provides its "springiness" and slowly becomes noticeable. in other words, the people that had accidents from it just weren't paying attention.
toyota halted sales and production of the affected models and is putting up ads everywhere to warn people with an easy-to-navigate site that lets you know if your car was one of the affected.
not quite the same considering that apple isn't even admitting that there's a problem until 4 years later.
@Prokanda
At the sidekick-tmobile-incident they even offered 100 bucks for your lost data, here they only give you another drive replacing your faulty one (which is supposed to work right from the start)
lol @ apple-fanboys
@Atkins Yes, that's what a recall is all about. fixing the known problem before something bad happens.
Just don't use the hard drive. Not that big a deal.
-Sent from my iPhone.
@Nitesh
you forgot your /s tag
@kiyu727 Apologies! Will not happen again!
What the ...
this is exactly what happened to me a couple of months ago.
Of course I did not take it to an Apple store, as the warranty has already expired. Instead I replaced it myself with a 500GB harddrive.
Still mourning my lost data (yeah, backup was corrupt ... just my luck), though.
Is there any way I can get Apple to spring for data recovery on my old hard drive?