This past Monday, Apple posted on their support page notification that MacBooks purchased between May 2006 and December 2007 that experience a hard drive failure may be eligible for a free hard drive replacement. It’s pretty easy to know if you are one of the affected. Upon starting your computer, you will see a flashing question mark on your screen. Importantly, if you have already paid to fix this problem, Apple may be able to reimburse you.
If you purchased your MacBook between May 2006 and December 2007, but have not experienced this problem, there are two things to keep in mind. First, you may feel like your computer is a ticking time bomb, waiting for the most inconvenient moment to keel over and die. However, Apple does indicate that it is only a very small percentage of hard drives that fail and only under certain conditions, although they do not specify what those conditions are. So probably there is no need to worry. That being said, the second thing to keep in mind, which Apple subtly points out in their notification, is that you should probably make sure you are backing up your hard drive regardless. Of course, this is generally just a good practice to maintain.
It’s always great to see a company acknowledge flaws in their products and offer adequate compensation.
Via The Apple Blog
