The replacement will be free and affects certain models from May 2011 and July 2011. Apple will contact those of you who registered your iMac via email, but for those who have yet to register theirs then you can use this serial number checker. There are two ways in which you locate your serial number, the first is by checking your receipt or you just go to the Apple logo at the top left select about this Mac and then more info.

Just enter that serial number in and then press submit; after entering mine I was glad to see the message “Our records show that this iMac has a Seagate hard drive, but it’s not affected. No further action on your part is needed at this time.” This has now saved hours of hassle; one because I do not need to backup and second is because I do not have to drive over an hour away to the closest Apple Store.

There are other options available to you, but taking it back yourself has to be the easiest, just remember to set up a Genius Bar appointment first, as you do not want a wasted journey. You are advised get to get your hard drive replaced as soon as possible, but please remember to back up your data before you take it back to Apple.

The replacement program will run from now until July 23, 2011. Even if you have Max OS X Lion installed you will still need to re-install your original OS from the install disc that was provided when you purchased your iMac. Once you have re-installed Leopard you can then proceed to update to Lion once again.

Apple has also said that if need be they might extend the replacement program, it all depends if it will be needed or not. There have been issues with Seagate hard drives in the past, so you have to wonder why Apple keeps supplying them. We also find it confusing why Apple use other brands as well, although if they did not then this recall would have been much more serious?

The new interface will be used for more than just connecting hard drives, but we will take what is handed to us for now. The likes of Lacie, Seagate and Promise Pegasus all have products to go with these Apple devices, which will offer unparalleled speed and transfer rates.

The first hard drive on our list is the LaCie Little Big Disk; this is the first in a long line of upcoming storage devices from the brand to offer Thunderbolt support. You will be able to transfer music, photos and files at 10Gb/s, and you have the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 peripherals. This particular model has been designed by Neil Poulton and sports an aluminum design. Lacie.com has more on this.

Seagate is the worry here, as we assumed that they would offer Thunderbolt support, but they have let us down. However, they do have an adaptor that will connect a GoFlex Ultra-portable Drive to allow you to connect it to your new Mac We just hope that Seagate release a hard drive with full Thunderbolt support soon, or their rivals will leave them behind with this latest technology.

On the Apple Store you will see four Promise Pegasus RAID systems. The first is the Promise Pegasus R4 4TB and comes at a cost of just $999. Next is the Promise Pegasus R4 8TB, this will set you back $1499. The Promise Pegasus R6 6TB will also cost you the same price. Finally we have the Promise Pegasus R6 12TB, but you will need to brace yourself, as you will have to part with $1999 in order to get your hands on this RAID system.

To connect these to your Mac with Thunderbolt support you will need to purchase the Apple Thunderbolt cable, which will cost $49. Like we said accessories are still a little scarce, but there is now the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display. The price of this is $999, but for $700 you can have a 27-inch iMac.

Brian Westover of PCMag is reporting that the new Seagate GoFlex Satellite is a portable hard drive which has 500GB of storage space. It has a built-in lithium polymer battery which will give owners up to five hours of battery life when in constant use. In standby it will provide 25 hours. The best bit is the wireless connectivity over 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.

Once you have purchased the hard drive you will get a free application for iOS devices. This app temporarily downloads media onto the iDevice, so the GoFlex can return into standby mode to prolong battery life. Later this summer the company plans to release a version of the app for Android devices.

You will also receive the company’s Media Sync software that syncs all music, video, and photo files from a Mac or Windows PC, as well as all content purchased through iTunes. There are also cables included for charging in the car and at home, as well as a USB 3.0 cable for direct connection to a PC if needed.

The unit is available now for preorder via Amazon, Best Buy, and Seagate for around $199.99, with a release date in the US sometime in July and worldwide later in the summer.

The HDD will support both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity which is pleasing because it can connect to older machines and newer machines that support 3.0. What is more pleasing is that Engadget said in their hands-on review that their HDD transferred data at up to a maximum speed of 40MB per second, which is quite fast.

At the moment we only know of a model that comes with a capacity of 320GB storage space, this has a recommended retail price for that model is $99, inside the packaging you get the HDD and a superspeed cable to connect it to your PC / Mac.

These are the only details we know about the models at the moment, if you wish to see the pictures of the impressively slim HDD, you can do so by clicking here. Will you buy this portable HDD?

The two companies have been competing for years, however the market is changing due to different types of storage now available, it is thought that hard-disk drive shipments will drop by about 4 percent this quarter, which many believe is mainly due to the influx of tablets which use solid-state disk and flash storage instead.

Last year Western Digital attempted to buy Seagate, however there were concerns surrounding antitrust issues therefore no deal ever materialized, it is thought that Western Digital will now target Seagate’s enterprise customers.

Before any talk of acquisitions arose Western Digital was the largest hard-drive manufacturer, Seagate was the second largest and Hitachi third, this deal surely means that Western Digital will undoubtedly be the largest manufacturer of had drives for years to come.

According to Bloomberg WD shipped 52.2 million drives in Q4 2010, Seagate came close with 48.9 million shipped units and Hitachi came in third place with 30.3 million units shipped, it is hard to see how Seagate will battle a company who will have such a large part of the HDD market, but Seagate has been around for 31 years and will undoubtedly plan to keep pushing forward with larger, faster and quieter drives.

If you would like to read more about this deal check out Bloomberg for full details.

This drive is called the Seagate Savvio 10K.4, apparently this is the ‘world’s highest capacity and most reliable small form factor HDD’.

This particular drive has a 2.5 inch form factor and is available in capacities of up to 600GB, it also features self-encrypting drive technologies and a random seek time of 3.89ms.

As you would expect these enterprise drives will apparently be extremely reliable, Seagate rate these drives at 2 million hours, if this is an accurate projection it means the drives will last over 200 years!

To find out more about Seagate’s Savvio 10K.4 2.5 inch hard drives check out SlashGear.

Seagate call this the “ultimate portable storage solution” and while its hard to claim to be the best its certainly up there with the best we have used. Seagate also claim this to be the “world’s first hard drive docking station”, although we did not test the docking station you can buy this as an extra if you feel the need.

In our highly fashion conscious world its great to style our gadgets and the FreeAgent Go lets you color it just the way you like. You can choose from ten colors to suit your style.

Our review model was in silver as you can see in the photos and it did look a feel very sleek with a polished finished. While holding you can feel the quality and that Seagate went the extra mile with it’s finished design.

We loved the vibrant lighting and how it communicated what the drive was doing. When it was in use you would see the lights seem to breath and when you were not using the drive the lights would fade out.

The storage sizes range from 250GB to 500GB, with our model being 320GB. It’s amazing how thin the FreeAgent Go is for a 320GB drive…very impressive.

Like most portable drives the FreeAgent Go is plug and play, but unlike some it has built in software that can handle all your backing up and encrypt your most important files for extra security. All without the need for any extra software.

The backup and sync system cannot touch Apple’s Time Machine, but then the Go is designed for Windows XP/Vista. It gets the job done by automatically backing up all your stuff and syncing content between home and work computers.

For performance a 5400RPM rotational speed and USB 2.0 that gives up to 480 Mb/s impressed us. The drive weighs 5.64 oz and measures 12.5mm x 80mm x 130mm.

The FreeAgent Go prices vary depending on what storage size you choose, normally you will pay $99 for the 250GB, $129.99 for the 320GB and $149.99 for the 500GB. Although today we see the 320GB on sale at $99 direct at Seagate.

Visit seagate.com for more information or view other photos below.

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