It took me about an hour, but I was able to do the installation myself, upgrade to a 4TB drive and stay under a $200 budget. The installation was not as hard as I though, you just have to follow each step carefully and make sure you make the right connections. OWC has an installation video on youtube that proved to be extremely helpful. So here comes Amazon…Īlong with the 4TB Seagate drive I purchased from Amazon, I ordered an upgrade kit from OWC. At least this time I have some sort of data to backup my decision. This is the only reason I’m giving Seagate one more chance. This Seagate model is also the cheapest option within the 4TB drives (the HGST 4TB drives priced a little higher, had an even lower failure rate, but not enough of a difference to be a big factor according to them). Their Seagate 4TB Desktop HDD.15 hard drives had a low annual failure rate of 2.6%.

Not good! On the other hand, all their 4TB hard drives (WD, HGST or Seagate) had the lowest annual failure rates. , a cloud backup company, reported earlier this year that the 3TB Seagate Barracuda drives in their data center had an annual failure rate of 43.1%. I’ve now had two 1TB Seagate Barracuda drives die on me, I’m definitely ready to try a different brand. Apple was aware these drives were defective as my first hard drive was replaced through one of their hard drive replacement programs.

So here comes Google…Īfter doing some research, I found out that Segate’s 1TB, 2TB and 3TB Barracuda internal hard drives have a high annual failure rate. Also, I have never replaced an internal hard drive before. But which hard drive should I get? I sure would like to stay the hell away from another Seagate drive (the brand that came stock with my iMac and the same drive Apple used later as a replacement).

I also can’t afford to be without a computer, my only option then, is to replace the hard drive myself. The truth is, I can’t afford to pay for expensive labor even less purchase a new computer. I guess they’re hoping that by labeling it vintage, I will spend another $1800 on a new computer. This time I was told my computer was now considered “vintage”, and they do not service it anymore. Well, not anymore…Īfter my hard drive died, the second one since purchasing my iMac in 2010, I made an appointment at my local Genius Bar to see if I could get it replaced. The spinning beach ball of death! You know something’s going on and sure enough, your computer dies and you find out you need a new hard drive! There used to be a time when buying an Apple computer meant having a working computer for many years. Your iMac is slow, frequently freezing over a short period of time.

2014 imac hard drive replacement