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MacBook Design Flaw Can Lead to Permanent Data Loss

by Alon Avdi on November 29, 2007 at 09:02 AM



Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro owners should be aware of a design flaw that may lead to unrecoverable data loss, claims Retrodata, a data-recovery firm based out of the United Kingdom. The company says that MacBooks manufactured in China and equipped with a 2.5 inch Seagate SATA hard drive with a Firmware version 7.01 may have faulty read/write heads that become dislodged from the hard drive's arm, scratching the magnetic platter surface and causing irrecoverable data loss.

For those customers who wish to know whether they are at risk, Retrodata suggests going to the System Profiler and checking the Serial ATA for the Firmware Revision number. If the computer has Firmware version 7.01, data should be backed up immediately, the company urges. Models affected may include ST96812AS and ST98823AS.

Not so fast, say specialists from other data-recovery companies like DiskEng. While Apple has been silent and Seagate insists that they are looking into the matter, these parties suggest that thousands of instances of the same problem must first be seen and diagnosed before a design flaw can be pronounced for an entire line of hard drives. Some say specific factors such as temperature and read/write head oscillation may be to blame for damaging some computers rather than a general design shortcoming that affects them all.

Just to be safe, consumers should check whether their computer has the specific hard drive in question, and should back up their files if that is the case. Those concerned should also monitor Apple and Seagate pronouncements regarding the issue.

From Retrodata (via Engadget)

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Tags: Computer, Hard Drive, HardDrive, Laptop News, LaptopNews, Laptops, MacBook, MacBook Flaw, MacbookFlaw

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