Apple to replace broken 3TB hard drives in some older iMacs
If you have a 27-inch iMac with a 3TB hard drive that conked out on you recently, check your receipt. Apple might be able to fix it for you, so long as it's a late 2012 model and was purchased between December 2012 and September 2013. Cupertino has issued a bulletin warning buyers that "a very small number of 3TB hard drives" in the system "may fail under certain conditions," and is offering to replace affected ones for free. The company didn't elaborate, but commenters on the MacRumors forum believe some of the model's HDDs came from a batch of faulty drives Seagate released sometime ago. In fact, Apple has conducted similar programs in the past to replace 1TB Seagate drives.
According to Apple's announcement, the company has already started notifying customers who registered a valid email address about the hard disk replacement program. If you don't get anything but believe you're eligible, make sure to check your iMac's serial number here. You can then get your HDD replaced -- hopefully after backing up the current one, if it's still accessible -- by setting an appointment with a Genius or through an authorized retail store and service provider. In case you've already gotten your computer repaired, though, you can try contacting Apple for a possible refund.
