Using a Seagate drive? Make a backup.
A Seagate hard drive used in Apple MacBook devices contains a critical defect, discovered by UK data recovery firm Retrodata.
The hard drive in question, a Seagate 2.5 inch SATA drive with firmware revision 7.0.1 and made in China, is said to contain a defect where the read/write heads become detached causing deep scratches on the surface of the disk, says Duncan Clarke, managing director of Retrodata. Unless switched off immediately, the damage can be so severe that data recovery can be impossible.
To determine whether or not your MacBook contains the aforementioned drive, select 'About this Mac', 'More Info' and then click 'Serial-ATA'. If indeed you do have the Seagate drive with firmware 7.0.1, Retrodata recommend backing up your data and replacing the hardware.
Apple have come forth and acknowledged the problem with spokesman Cameron Craig stating "We've received a few reports that some MacBook consumer notebooks may have hard drive issues, and we're looking into it".
Though reports of such faults have been minimal thus far, Retrodata claim a recall is warranted and that Apple should be willing to replace the faulty hardware at no cost to the consumer.
Source: InformationWeek.com
