Apple Restricts Hard Drive Replacements on New iMacs

With all the crap they pull you'd think people would stop buying their products, but unfortunately there is enough stupid people with excess money to keep them in business.
 
Its funny that everyone posting on this thread is basically hating on Apple. Yes, maybe it is partially a control thing. But at the same time Apple has been using Hard drive temp sensors for years. This has not been on all equipment either. The trend started and has been limited to the all in one units, specifically the iMac. It all started with Imac G5s with the sensor mounted on the frame that secures the drive in the machine. Then with the later versions of the G5 iMac and the first Intel Imac was the cable plugged into the sensor which the was stuck onto the drive with adhesive. Then the aluminum iMacs introduced just the single sensor and cable which was stuck onto the drive, again with adhesive. The later versions of the Aluminum iMacs introduced the actual plug-in sensor where the drive themselves had actual pins in the drive. Now they have combined the SATA power cable and sensor into one, along with custom firmware on the drives controller board. I for one over the years have replaced hundreds of drives in these machines for heat related failures. Maybe over the years, the engineers have been working with drive manufacturers to find the best way to monitor temperature and provide adequate HD thermal control on these things and this was best that they came with? Yeah, people are going to be ****** and automatically point to Apple as the bad guy because Apple didn't take pity on Joe Blow who wants to swap his own drive or put in a larger one. But is Apple supposed to care about that? They are concerned with providing the most cost effective and functional method to address hard drive stability in their product.
 
One of the reasons I tell all my customers to also stay away from Sony products. Too much proprietary crap.
 
anonymous Mac Tech said:
Its funny that everyone posting on this thread is basically hating on Apple. Yes, maybe it is partially a control thing. But at the same time Apple has been using Hard drive temp sensors for years. This has not been on all equipment either. The trend started and has been limited to the all in one units, specifically the iMac. It all started with Imac G5s with the sensor mounted on the frame that secures the drive in the machine. Then with the later versions of the G5 iMac and the first Intel Imac was the cable plugged into the sensor which the was stuck onto the drive with adhesive. Then the aluminum iMacs introduced just the single sensor and cable which was stuck onto the drive, again with adhesive. The later versions of the Aluminum iMacs introduced the actual plug-in sensor where the drive themselves had actual pins in the drive. Now they have combined the SATA power cable and sensor into one, along with custom firmware on the drives controller board. I for one over the years have replaced hundreds of drives in these machines for heat related failures. Maybe over the years, the engineers have been working with drive manufacturers to find the best way to monitor temperature and provide adequate HD thermal control on these things and this was best that they came with? Yeah, people are going to be ****** and automatically point to Apple as the bad guy because Apple didn't take pity on Joe Blow who wants to swap his own drive or put in a larger one. But is Apple supposed to care about that? They are concerned with providing the most cost effective and functional method to address hard drive stability in their product.
Click to expand...

I was going to post something almost identical to this. Everyone likes to complain about Apple, but when you get right down to it, their systems are among the highest quality systems on the market. That's not to say they're perfect or don't have problems....but give me a Macbook Pro unibody vs ANY PC brand even at a comparable cost...nothing comes close to being built as well.

The fact is, the proprietary drive is going to probably cause repairs to be more expensive than they should be, or make someone unable to upgrade.... but someone shouldn't be buying an iMac to upgrade the thing. It's a pretty much closed system with nearly 100% proprietary parts. Eventually there'll be an adapter or work-around for those that really want to do this, anyway.
 
anonymous Mac Tech said:
Its funny that everyone posting on this thread is basically hating on Apple. Yes, maybe it is partially a control thing. But at the same time Apple has been using Hard drive temp sensors for years. This has not been on all equipment either. The trend started and has been limited to the all in one units, specifically the iMac. It all started with Imac G5s with the sensor mounted on the frame that secures the drive in the machine. Then with the later versions of the G5 iMac and the first Intel Imac was the cable plugged into the sensor which the was stuck onto the drive with adhesive. Then the aluminum iMacs introduced just the single sensor and cable which was stuck onto the drive, again with adhesive. The later versions of the Aluminum iMacs introduced the actual plug-in sensor where the drive themselves had actual pins in the drive. Now they have combined the SATA power cable and sensor into one, along with custom firmware on the drives controller board. I for one over the years have replaced hundreds of drives in these machines for heat related failures. Maybe over the years, the engineers have been working with drive manufacturers to find the best way to monitor temperature and provide adequate HD thermal control on these things and this was best that they came with? Yeah, people are going to be ****** and automatically point to Apple as the bad guy because Apple didn't take pity on Joe Blow who wants to swap his own drive or put in a larger one. But is Apple supposed to care about that? They are concerned with providing the most cost effective and functional method to address hard drive stability in their product.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, because they are "great engineers" who found a better way to do this...oh.. funny how TOSHIBA< DELL< IBM< ACER< HP...I could go on...figured out how to keep their machines cool and not restrict the user from replacing the drive.

If they are truly concerned about stability and "cost effective" way. Then that shows they care more about themselves then what the EU will have to go through with a hard drive failure. Which could happen at any point in time in the age of the machine.

There are plenty of high quality machines, cars, houses, etc that are effective, functional and are stable, without killing the wallets of consumers.


14049752 said:
I was going to post something almost identical to this. Everyone likes to complain about Apple, but when you get right down to it, their systems are among the highest quality systems on the market. That's not to say they're perfect or don't have problems....but give me a Macbook Pro unibody vs ANY PC brand even at a comparable cost...nothing comes close to being built as well.

The fact is, the proprietary drive is going to probably cause repairs to be more expensive than they should be, or make someone unable to upgrade.... but someone shouldn't be buying an iMac to upgrade the thing. It's a pretty much closed system with nearly 100% proprietary parts. Eventually there'll be an adapter or work-around for those that really want to do this, anyway.
Click to expand...

IBM and Sony machines are clearly built better than apples....no contest. (of course thats my opinion, not fact)

Just because they look smoother and are cleaner doesn't make them a higher quality machine than the rest. (your opinion, not fact) When apples start sharing the same market as PC's your going to see just as many of them fail.

And saying people shouldn't be buying imacs to upgrade? Who the hell are you to tell someone what and how they buy it. You dont control the world, and Apple shouldnt be trying.

Lastly, I HATE Apple...

want to know why???

Google: APPLE LABOR, issues, abuse, suicides, etc.

But go ahead, be an apple lover because of their "AWESOME" product.
 
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Knightsman said:
Oh yeah, because they are "great engineers" who found a better way to do this...oh.. funny how TOSHIBA< DELL< IBM< ACER< HP...I could go on...figured out how to keep their machines cool and not restrict the user from replacing the drive.
Click to expand...

Believe me I'm not thrilled about this and it really hurts us that we can't throw any third party drive in these things when they are out of warranty. This just goes to show I'm not being a typical fanboy.

However, you know you are comparing an iMac which is an all in one desktop compared to a bunch of towers. This is pretty much comparing Apples to oranges. Basically in a tower it doesn't take a rocket scientist to keep drives cool. All kinds of space for airflow. Have you ever even taken apart an iMac? It's has about the same quality of ventilation than a laptop. Worse yet, the drive and all other components are sandwiched behind a huge display that is throwing off all kinds of heat. Now if you want to compare Apples to Apples so to speak, lets look at any of the Power Mac G3, G4, or G5 towers, along with the Mac Pro compared to just about any other desktop on the market. I barely ever see these things in the shop (I'll be honest and say with the exception was the liquid cooled G5 tower, big mistake on Apples part). Basically the occasional HD or power supply needs to be replaced every so often due to the fact these things fail. Other than that, they just keep on running. Also, Genius, why is Apple only doing this on the iMacs and not on every unit if they are so controlling. The Mac Pro comes with one drive bay full and 3 empty drive bays for throwing in any type of SATA 3.5" drive you want to throw in there. So lets make this simple to understand. Just like the point that 14049752 was trying to explain, if you want to swap your drive then don't buy a closed system.
 
Apples have their place in the market and I'm glad they do. If nothing else they set good price exceptions.

When you buy an apple you're not buying an os or hardware, but both. If you don't like either don't buy it. If someone brings one in to work on, and you know how, you can make good money fixing it.

Only way they can gain significant market share, IMHO, would be to open OSX for any hardware. This isn't what they want though. The control they have over their systems keeps the per sale profit higher. That is why they make choices like this. If this wasn't making them more money they wouldn't be doing it.
 
Does anyone know approximately what Apple charges (parts & labor) to replace an iMac hard drive?
 
Wow. Leave it to "computers techs" to hate on a product they know little to nothing about. If some of you guys would spend half as much time learning how to work on Macs as you do bitching about them and remaining close minded you would probably make more money. But wait, I'll bet you are the same guys that have been proclaiming Linux will be on every desktop soon....lol


Yep, that's Apple. They think the own their customers. Sad thing is, most of them are happy slaves
Click to expand...


I think most Apple customers are very loyal because Apple makes a very good product. High quality hardware combined with the OS is a hard combo to beat. You can call it being a slave but I think most Apple users would look at you running AV , Ccleaner, defrags, scans ect just to keep the windows box running and call you a slave. Or how about fiddling endlessly with drivers in terminal in Linux just to get your sound or wireless to work?


With all the crap they pull you'd think people would stop buying their products, but unfortunately there is enough stupid people with excess money to keep them in business.
Click to expand...


I would expect more out of you. Really? Wow.
 
gunslinger said:
I think most Apple customers are very loyal because Apple makes a very good product. High quality hardware combined with the OS is a hard combo to beat. You can call it being a slave but I think most Apple users would look at you running AV , Ccleaner, defrags, scans ect just to keep the windows box running and call you a slave. Or how about fiddling endlessly with drivers in terminal in Linux just to get your sound or wireless to work?
Click to expand...

I mostly agree with you, but have a couple points.

I don't know about your market, but in wa state in the US, most Mac users are different. One customer of mine just upgraded to the sandy bridge Macbook pro, not because she needed it (her "old" one was the last gen) but because there was a newer model available. She's not alone in her upgrade pattern, but not all Mac users work this way. Windows users tend to squeeze every last once out of a system. Most of the time a major failure cause the update. Brilliant marketing by apple, but I think that mentality, buying every product, and update available, which you only see with apple fanboys, was what they meant by slave.

On windows users being slaves, you bet, Linux too. None of them are perfect, but they all have a place. Do you really defrag and run temp file cleaners that much? On my personal system, when I'm in windows, I don't even run an AV. I recommend people do though. You need to watch out with that comment now. I've had 2 macs in this week with rogue apps. You also must not use Linux much, because I have no problems setting up and running Linux. It's very easy, but I'm not saying it's ready for end users. There is a lot I can only do in Linux where as with Mac vs windows, it's generally a preference. I like and use all of them.
 
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Avgsmoe said:
I mostly agree with you, but have a couple points.

I don't know about your market, but in wa state in the US, most Mac users are different. One customer of mine just upgraded to the sandy bridge Macbook pro, not because she needed it (her "old" one was the last gen) but because there was a newer model available. She's not alone in her upgrade pattern, but not all Mac users work this way. Windows users tend to squeeze every last once out of a system. Most of the time a major failure, cause the update. Brilliant marketing by apple, but I think that mentality, buying every product, and update available, which you only see with apple fanboys, was what they meant by slave.

On windows users being slaves, you bet, Linux too. None of them are perfect, but they all have a place. Do you really defrag and run temp file cleaners that much? On my personal system, when I'm in windows, I don't even run an AV. I of recommend people do though. You need to watch out with that comment now. I've had 2 macs in this week with rogue apps. You also must not use Linux much, because I have no problems setting up and running Linux. It's very easy, but I'm not saying it's ready for end users. There is a lot I can only do in Linux where as with Mac vs windows, it's generally a preference. I like and use all of them.
Click to expand...



Its actually the exact opposite here. Most of the Mac users I know personally keep their Macs for years. I know a few who still have their G3 and G4 machines and are happy campers. Its the PC gamers I see "needing" to upgrade every few months, or in some cases weeks. I mean heck, you just have to have the latest $400 video card to get those last 2-3 FPS outta Crysis.


I run Ccleaner, PureRA, and ATF cleaner on my personal system every day. Defrag about 2-3 times per month. But I'm a bit OCD. I do not use AV and have not in years. As for recommending AV to customers, I used to but these days I just say get a Mac.


I dabble in Linux. So no, I don't use it often. The last time I installed Linux It was Mint on a netbook and it took me about 45 mins and a terminal hack to get the wireless to function. This was maybe 2 months ago. When set up properly it works fine but we are far from the day the typical end user can set up a Linux box with no problems.
 
IBM and Sony machines are clearly built better than apples....no contest. (of course thats my opinion, not fact)

Just because they look smoother and are cleaner doesn't make them a higher quality machine than the rest. (your opinion, not fact) When apples start sharing the same market as PC's your going to see just as many of them fail.

And saying people shouldn't be buying imacs to upgrade? Who the hell are you to tell someone what and how they buy it. You dont control the world, and Apple shouldnt be trying.
Click to expand...

Why are you so angry? You hate Apple because of their labor practices, fine...you think other manufacturers are better? I doubt it. I'd bet that they just don't get as much press. Most manufacturers use Foxconn parts, just like apple.

As far as Sony and IBM (Sorry...it's Lenovo) machines being better quality than a Macbook Pro unibody.... That's ridiculous. Anyone who's taken all three apart would know better. Sure, it's my opinion, but it's one based on lots of experience. I'm not someone who's impressed by smooth edges and a shiny logo on the back. I am impressed by the engineering that went into it and how it's assembled.

As far as upgrading the iMac....my only point is that it's stupid. If you want to buy an imac to upgrade it...that's also stupid. It's a closed system and it's designed as a "this is what you get" sort of system. I'm not saying that I want to stop anyone from upgrading it...but I don't see why you'd buy THAT machine for that purpose. Want to upgrade it, as it is? Ram and hard drive...that's all you can do. With such limited options, to me, that says that you buy the machine and you use it until you want a new one....upgrading it to get more life out of the system just isn't an option. Finally, the system isn't DESIGNED for people that want to upgrade. Do you understand that point? I'll say it again... It's not a system for people that are going to want to upgrade every few months or years. There are people that that kind of computer is PERFECT for.

Edit: "You dont control the world, and Apple shouldnt be trying."

Really? Apple installs a proprietary hard drive and that's controlling the world? Overly dramatic, much?


That's all I'm going to say in this thread. I think mac bashing is pretty dumb...as is the mac loving. Everything I've said is based on rational thought, not some knee-jerk reaction and need to argue.
 
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