14 DAY TRIAL // Between October 2009 and July 2011, Apple sold a bunch of iMacs with faulty 1TB drives. The company only found out about the failing hardware when complaints began cropping up on its forums, so Apple opened up the iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program to offer free repairs for affected customers.
To this day iMacs with 1TB Seagate drives continue to fail, but there’s just one problem. The program in question isn’t running anymore. If you suspect your drive is acting up (i.e. Mac fails to boot sometimes, freezes, hangs, strange sounds come out of the chassis), do a check using Disk Utility’s “Verify Disk” function.
If the utility displays an error saying “This drive has a hardware problem that can’t be repaired,” you’re pretty much stuck with having to cover the replacement costs on your own. Apple also says, “Back up as much of the data as possible and replace the disk. See an authorized Apple dealer for more information.”
Which is the sensible thing to do considering that it’s not exactly easy to pry open one of these things and reach the hard drive behind the display. But if you’re tech savvy and all, grab a suction cup, a screwdriver, and watch this YouTube guide to see how it’s done. If you choose to go at it alone, you will do so at your own risk.