Late 2006 model iMac - Common Hard disc issues?

[Paulywauly]

Anybody else notice an increasing number of people on here reporting hard disc failures on late 2006 model iMacs? I've spotted about half a dozen people mention it in various threads when reading over the last day, mine also did this 2 months ago. 1 month out of Applecare (insert Darth Vader style "Nooooooooooooo" here!

 

[flopticalcube]

Given the age of the machines, its not unexpected.

 

[Hellhammer]

Given the age of the machines, its not unexpected.

I agree. Hard drives don't last so long so 4 years of life time is pretty good for main HD.

 

[Paulywauly]

when you put it like that i can see what you guys mean actually, probably doesn't help the sheer amount of "digital punishment" its had over the years. If only it lasted as long as my trusty old iMac G4, 6/7 years on and its 160GB HD still works like brand new!

 

[MacHamster68]

harddrives generally do not last forever ,
but my own experience over the last 15 years shows me that sata drives have a shorter life expectancy then the older ata100 drives

 

[flopticalcube]

The amount of heat and lack of airflow in the modern iMac design will also contribute to a shorter life for the HD. Too bad Apple didn't make the drive as accessible as the G5 iMac.

 

[indg]

also the late 2006 imacs have a tendency to freeze randomly which requires a hard reboot. that certainly doesn't help prolong the life of the hdd. and furthermore most users never defrag their hdd, hence the hdd has to work harder as files gets scattered across a disk.

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

That's very funny - I have several SCSI HDs (10 000RPMs) which are +15 years old & never had any probs. (still being used, too). That's for your 'new, better' technology...

 

[Hellhammer]

That's very funny - I have several SCSI HDs (10 000RPMs) which are +15 years old & never had any probs. (still being used, too). That's for your 'new, better' technology...

They are high-end server HDs and server stuff always has longer lifetime as they are running 24/7. Unfortunately consumer components aren't that reliable

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hellhammer, you didn't have to reveal that kind of Info to the MacRumors forum...
I had such fun teasing them. (Must admit those HDs cost MUCH more than crap they're presenting as usable consumer products nowdays - not only regarding hard drives)
I had at least 5 HDs fail in last 2 years (the "new, better" SATA crap).

 

[MacHamster68]

yes thats true , but to be fair back then the scsi harddrives had been designed to last ,as back then every MB did cost a fortune and the computers even more

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi MacHamster,
yes, so truth - I remember paying $6 600 for Mac IIci ( that's with 'huge' 240Mb HD upgrade (from 80Mb 'standard' size) & 16Mgb RAM ('huge' upgrade from 4Mgb size)).
That was with my business discount (full price $7 400.00 Canadian $)
21" SuperMac monitor cost me $2 200 + $850 videocard.
I bought a plotter, too, so I spent almost $20 thousand...
This was in '91.