Defective Macbook Hard Drives
Apple anounced this week that the hard drives installed in some Macbooks sold between May 2006 and December 2007 are defective. The problem appears to be happening in both black and white Macbook models.
So how do you know if your Macbook has this problem? Well, in most cases, you won't know until your hard drive fails. If it does, a flashing question mark will appear on your screen when you try to turn the computer on. Fortunately, Apple is offering to replace your hard drive, free of charge, if they determine it was part of the defective batch. You can read more specific information about which Macbook models are affected as well as what Apple has to say about this issue
on their website.
All the More Reason to Back up Your Data
It's great that Apple is going to replace their defective hard drives, but it's important to understand that getting a new hard drive only solves half of the problem. We've seen these Macbooks (and countless other computers with hard drive failure) come through our door, and the main question people ask in these situations is, "What's going to happen to my data?"
If the person has backed up their data, the answer is an easy one: we can take the data from your latest backup and put it on your replacement hard drive. If the person has not performed data back ups, the answer may not be as simple. Depending on the condition of the failed drive, the data stored on it may be lost forever.
That's why we urge people to ALWAYS back up their data. A good, easy, and affordable way to do this is to subscribe to Mozy, an online subscription backup service.
Click here to learn more about their service.