I'd expect Apple storage engineers are working long hours to get a handle on this and a fix out the door.Īs an owner of a newly minted M1 MacBook Air, am I worried? No.Īm I looking for a fix Real Soon Now? Yes. Data corruption is a no-no, despite the fact that the universe hates your data. For 2013-2016 Macs For Apple users with modern Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs, you can build your own SSD backup drive using standard pinout ultra-fast NVMe PCIe SSD modules and either a very affordable 10Gbps USB 3.1 Gen2 USB-C enclosure or a costlier 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 drive case designed to hold standard M.2 form-factor solid-state modules. They know that while everything else in a computer system can be reset by a power cycle, your data is the one part of the system that is not transient.
That voltage steadily wears away the insulation that lines the quantum well. Herding electrons into a quantum well takes power, way more than the 5 volts common in solid state circuits.
Electrons, those bad boys, are always trying to sneak out, which is why SSDs aren't forever, unlike, say, M Discs. Flash stores electrons in tiny physical quantum wells.
PT: An earlier version of this story misstated the size of the regular serial ATA hard drive on the iMacs. It costs an extra $250.Ĭorrection 11:49 a.m. PT: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect price for the 1TB Fusion drive. A 1TB Fusion drive costs an extra $250, while the 3TB option for the 27-inch iMac brings the price up another $400.Ĭorrection 9:36 a.m. A Fusion drive combines 128GB of flash storage with a mechanical disk drive of either 1TB or 3TB in size.
Apple includes a 1TB hard drive in the overall price of both model iMacs and offers a 3TB drive option on the larger-screen model for an extra $150.Ĭustomers who can't decide between conventional hard drives and SSDs can taste both worlds through Apple's Fusion drives. If those figures seem too pricey, buyers can stick with a regular serial ATA hard drive. The 27-inch model presents the same options and throws in a 768GB SSD for an additional $900. The 21.5-inch iMac offers a 256GB SSD for an extra $300 and a 512GB SSD for an extra $600. Speedier than their mechanical counterparts, solid-state drives are available as options on both the 21.5-inch and the 27-inch iMacs. Apple buyers eyeing an iMac now have a choice between a conventional hard drive and a solid-state drive.