14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is usually slow to acknowledge things like manufacturing flaws, typically putting things off until they can also offer a solution to affected customers. This is not always possible, and sometimes the company cannot put things off any longer, simply making an announcement stating that they are investigating the issue.
The issue of the manufacturing flaw in MacBook hard drives was brought to the public's attention earlier this month by U.K.-based data-recovery firm Retrodata. Unlike most other problems with Apple's offerings, this is a serious one that can actually result in total loss of the user's data with no chance of recovery. The problem has been isolated to Seagate 2.5-inch SATA drives that are manufactured in China and loaded with firmware Version 7.01. Model numbers ST96812AS and ST98823AS are used in the manufacture of MacBook and MacBook Pros, and users can easily determine if their machine has one of the affected drives by simply looking in System Profiler.
While Apple has neither issued a recall, or a general warning to customers, the company has officially acknowledged knowledge of the issue. "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it," spokesman Cameron Craig told InformationWeek.
While Retrodata believes that this is a manufacturing flaw, rather than a design problem, the very serious potential for data loss even under normal operating conditions, has led them to call Apple irresponsible for not issuing a product recall or at least a notice. "It's Seagate's problem, but it's Apple's responsibility to address the problem, since they're providing the part," said Duncan Clarke, managing director for Retrodata. "Apple needs to own up and take action."
Users are encouraged to check if their machine has one of the affected drives, and if so, to back-up and replace the drive as soon as possible. Because of the way the read/write heads fail mechanically, quickly causing deep scratches into the platter surface, data recovery from failed drives is practically impossible.