To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/iMac EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.

After the firmware is successfully applied to your Mac, your Boot ROM Version will be: IM91.008D.B08

For detailed information on this update, please visit this  website.

While Apple provided no details on how or why corruption might occur in disk images that Time Machine writes to a Time Capsule internal or external drive, this update is designed to avoid problems that led to such corruption. If that sounds overly circumspect, well, we are talking about Apple here, but I was assured that a small number of edge cases like mine should now be resolved. (Note that Apple still officially supports only external drives connected to a Time Capsule for Time Machine backups, not drives connected to an AirPort Extreme Base Station.)

One piece of advice if you’ve had problems in the past: Back up any existing Time Machine disk images to an external disk using the Archive feature in Disk Utility, erase them from the drive, and start fresh with new Time Machine backups.

In some cases, mounting the Time Capsule volume via AFP, launching Disk Utility, dragging the corrupted disk image into the program, and then using the Disk First Aid > Repair Disk feature may correct errors, although it could take many hours for a large backup disk. I recommend the fresh start approach for most people, though.

Time Machine works as an incremental backup system, writing all files on a selected system to a disk image in a first pass, and then creating only copies of files that have changed each hour while Time Machine is active.

But Time Machine also creates what’s effectively a snapshot of a hard drive for each backup, which necessitates making vast numbers of hard links, which reference any unchanged files. This can be difficult to do reliably over a network and may have been part of the trouble with corruption occurring over time.

There’s been a lot of hype in the hard drive world about Seagate’s 1TB hard drive. It has come to light in the early weeks of 2009 that one particular model and revision is failing at alarming rates. The ST31000340AS Barracuda 7200.11 with firmware level SD15 made in Thailand is locking up and being rendered inoperable due to firmware problems.

Many customers are claiming a failure-plague of sorts also referencing the recent reduction in warranty time periods raising doubts about quality.

So what do you do if you potentially have one of these ticking time bombs on your hands? First of all be informed. If you’ve recently bought a new hard drive record the model number and information off of the drive. Be certain it’s not the above- mentioned model. Keep an eye on Seagate’s website for any updates or information they may provide on the situation. As of this moment they have made a statement on their website that they have “isolated the problem and customers are eligible for a free upgrade.”

If you or your customers suffer a data loss on one of these drives and need assistance, contact us today, we’ll be glad to help.