RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
 ·Comcast
1 edit | reply to WALL_E
Re: [OS X] iMac hard drive failure :(
said by WALL_E  :said by HappyBunny :I had the hard drive fail in my G5 iMac. It ran very very hot--it was around 190 degrees. Not too surprising it would fail. Part of the issue with an iMac--at least the one I have--is that there is a lot of heat trapped behind that monitor. I have also had a power supply and the temperature sensor go. I've never had so many problems with a Mac--and others have had similar issues. I have to think this design--which I do love--is part of the issue. It was a Maxtor drive. My G4 Dual processor Mac also had a hard drive die--it was one of the infamous IBM DeskStar drives. They were notorious. Apple did replace it for free. I think I had one go on a Mac Quadra back in the day, but I do think that drives were either made better then, or else we placed less demand on them--or maybe it is both. Your hard drive was running at 87 degrees Celsius?! OUCH! That would definitely kill it prematurely. Heat=Unhappy Electronics, Cool=Very happy and joyous electronics 
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. |
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Steve
I'm a PC, so shut up
Consultant
join:2001-03-10
Yorba Linda, CA
| reply to WALL_E
said by WALL_E :I think hard drive manufacturers probably could produce a much more reliable hard drive than they do currently, but consumers would probably be unwilling to pay. It's not even close to "probably" - price is the sole driver in almost every commodity market, and (sadly) reliability has become a by-the-way bullet point that only comes into play once price is out of the way.
Steve — who remembers paying $1800 for a 383 megabyte built-like-a-tank Control Data hard drive in 1989 |
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Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
Sweden
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Optimum Online
| reply to TearAbite
said by TearAbite :Lets not forget the fact that today the average HD size is near 1 Tearabite.. 10 years ago, the average HD size was 1 or 2 Gigabytes if that.. As manufacturers jam more and more bits into smaller amounts of space, minor defects on the platter that may have gone un noticed 10 years ago could wipe out megs of data on today's HDD.. Combine that with lower prices and lower profit margins, you end up with "disposable" drives. Ten years ago the average was around 10-20 gigs.
-Tzale
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They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-:-
"I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism."~Ronald Reagan |
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HappyBunny
Hi. Cram It.
Premium
join:2001-06-23
Long Beach, CA | reply to WALL_E
I dont know what it was running at celsius, I dont speak that language  It was so hot you couldnt touch it. |
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daveinpoway
Premium
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA | reply to bskuared
Others are welcome to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the iMac uses a laptop (2.5") hard drive. Historically, these have not lasted as long as desktop (3.5") drives. |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to HappyBunny
said by HappyBunny :I dont know what it was running at celsius, I dont speak that language It was so hot you couldnt touch it. I don't either Bun, except for computer temps. When it comes to outside temps, humidity and length/width, etc. I'm a died in the wool Imperial System Guy
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You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything. |
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Otto
Premium
join:2001-03-12
Hollywood, FL
·Comcast
 ·AT&T Southeast
| reply to daveinpoway
said by daveinpoway :Others are welcome to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the iMac uses a laptop (2.5") hard drive. Historically, these have not lasted as long as desktop (3.5") drives. iMacs use 3.5" hard drives, the current ones being 7200RPM models from a variety of manufacturers, typically WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Fujitsu, etc. |
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estover
join:2004-03-16
Valencia, PA
clubs:
| reply to bskuared
I have replaced the drive in my Imac 20" 3 times in the last 1.5 years. I gave up on it. It just takes to much time to replace the drive. It is now doing duty as my sons i-stop motion machine.
When this drive fails I am going to mount the power and SATA port on the back of the drive and use an external drive. Much easier to replace. |
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thender
crackberry storms
join:2009-01-01
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Otto
said by Otto :said by daveinpoway :Others are welcome to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the iMac uses a laptop (2.5") hard drive. Historically, these have not lasted as long as desktop (3.5") drives. iMacs use 3.5" hard drives, the current ones being 7200RPM models from a variety of manufacturers, typically WD, Seagate, Hitachi, Fujitsu, etc. That's weird.
Desktop drives and laptop memory. |
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a101
@cox.net
| reply to Otto
said by Otto : Even the really expensive solid state ones can become irreparably damaged, though not as often in a mechanical sense obviously. A common myth believed by those without direct experience with solid-state disk drives. Presently solid-state drives enjoy a 10x higher failure rate than conventional rotating magnetic storage drives. This data is from warranty returns for same model computers shipped with solid-state disks Vs. conventional disk drives.
O.O. |
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hgratt
join:2003-12-09
Plano, TX
| said by a101 :said by Otto : Even the really expensive solid state ones can become irreparably damaged, though not as often in a mechanical sense obviously. A common myth believed by those without direct experience with solid-state disk drives. Presently solid-state drives enjoy a 10x higher failure rate than conventional rotating magnetic storage drives. This data is from warranty returns for same model computers shipped with solid-state disks Vs. conventional disk drives. O.O. The reliability issues for SSD's may not be true. See the link below:
»www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/03/20···ounded/1 |
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EveryName
Wake Up
Premium
join:2001-12-05
Montreal
·Shaw
| reply to thender
said by thender :FWIW, I have not observed it as a common problem, however, 99.99999% of the drives I take out of Macbooks that fail are Toshiba. I will never use a Toshiba drive in a machine. Interesting. As per your statistics, you've replaced 10,000,000 Macbook HDDs and all but one was a Toshiba. That's a lot to keep count of. |
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jdong
Eat A Beaver, Save A Tree.
Premium
join:2002-07-09
Rochester, MI
clubs: | reply to bskuared
Apple also used to use more Toshiba notebook drives than any other brand; they've recently taken a liking to Hitachi.
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Ubuntu MOTU Developer and Forums Council |
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daveinpoway
Premium
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA | reply to Otto
OK, I stand corrected. |
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a101
@cox.net
| reply to hgratt
said by hgratt :said by a101 :said by Otto : Even the really expensive solid state ones can become irreparably damaged, though not as often in a mechanical sense obviously. A common myth believed by those without direct experience with solid-state disk drives. Presently solid-state drives enjoy a 10x higher failure rate than conventional rotating magnetic storage drives. This data is from warranty returns for same model computers shipped with solid-state disks Vs. conventional disk drives. O.O. The reliability issues for SSD's may not be true. See the link below: » www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/03/20···ounded/1 The 1 in 3 failure rate cited in the link, is many orders of magnitude larger than anything conventional rotating magnetic disk drives experience and clearly not the case. I can't see that any mfgr would continue shipping computers with that high of a failure rate. Still, think about this; flash memory wears out despite the best wear leveling algorithms available. As a matter of fact, the better the wear leveling algorithm, the more likely you are to experience massive failure of many different blocks at about the same time, though it should take somewhat longer than a less sophisticated wear leveling algorithm. Magnetic domains on a disk do not wear out. There is no theoretical limit to the number of times you can reverse the magnetic field polarity of a bit on a disk. SSDs wear out in some 100K writes. In high-end server SSD applications, they're considered "consumables" that are discarded as soon as they start showing signs of wear.
O.O. |
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gigahurtz
Premium
join:2001-10-20
Palm Coast, FL
clubs: | reply to bskuared
I also went through this a few weeks back. My iMac was about a year and a half old and it failed on me. I was able to get it replaced with no problem but was definitely frustrating.
The wonderful world of computers... |
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bskuared
It's Hip To Be Square
Premium
join:2001-12-02
San Clemente, CA
·Cox HSI
| Well, hopefully I will get it back from the genius folks today. Keep your fingers crossed. Typing on this little 13 inch screen is wearing out my old eyes 
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2b or not 2b
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none of this really matters |
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gigahurtz
Premium
join:2001-10-20
Palm Coast, FL
clubs:
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
 ·VoicePulse
| said by bskuared :Well, hopefully I will get it back from the genius folks today. Keep your fingers crossed. Typing on this little 13 inch screen is wearing out my old eyes Make sure to check the status online. I saw it was done and they hadn't called and wouldn't have called for another day. |
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bskuared
It's Hip To Be Square
Premium
join:2001-12-02
San Clemente, CA
·Cox HSI
| said by gigahurtz :said by bskuared :Well, hopefully I will get it back from the genius folks today. Keep your fingers crossed. Typing on this little 13 inch screen is wearing out my old eyes Make sure to check the status online. I saw it was done and they hadn't called and wouldn't have called for another day. Thanks... good to know. I have been checking online.
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2b or not 2b
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none of this really matters |
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bskuared
It's Hip To Be Square
Premium
join:2001-12-02
San Clemente, CA
·Cox HSI
| reply to bskuared
Update: I am less than impressed with the repair process. I took it in on Thursday evening. They said, maybe Saturday afternoon it would be repaired and that I was lucky they had the part so I wouldn't have to wait. So, I have been checking online but it just says "repair in progress". So finally I call them. Once again "you are lucky, we have the part" but it still hasn't been repaired. I ask why the long wait? They say "well, we have been really busy at the Genius bar and they haven't had time to do any repairs." Turns out there are others in front of mine that also haven't been worked on this weekend. Seems like they need more staff.
Nope, not impressed.
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2b or not 2b
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none of this really matters |
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