Facing Kernel Panic with OS X Lion?

It is always expected from beginning that after the launch of major update in software there could rise some issues related to incompatibility with old hardware, bugs and errors in software etc. So Apple was well prepared for such issues from beginning. With the release of OS X Lion the news of hardware crashing start floating here and there in the air.  Apple did serious research on it and finally determined that a very small number of Seagate 1TB hard drives used in 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac systems, may fail under certain conditions. These systems were sold between May 2011 and July 2011 .

To solve this issue Apple said that they are ready to replace all these hard drive for free of cost. What the one need to do is contact Apple or its authorized service center. Not only this Apple is directly contacting to the persons who have left valid email id or address.  If you think you are also facing the problem, bought the hard drive during this period and Apple is not contacting you then you can check hardware by providing serial number here: http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

How to find Serial Number?
In most of the Mac information about serial number is present in “About this Mac”. For which click on Apple icon place at the top left of the window and then find & click “About this Mac”.   Alternately you can find serial number from:

• Base of the hard drive (fig 1.1)
• Original Packaging
• Original Invoice

After getting the serial number just check whether you need to replace this hard drive or not. If it is needed replace it as soon as possible.  For this you need to send the hard drive to nearest Apple store or to nearest distributors. You can find nearest authorized Apple store from:
http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ and if you wish to find nearest authorized dealer just find out from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1434

Fig 1.1

Backup your hard drive before shipping it to Apple?

“Apple recommends replacing affected hard drives as soon as possible.  But before you go in for service, please back up your data” using time machine or any third party backup software such as Stellar Clone.  Apple will replace the hard drive and send it back to you for free but that hard will be new so you need to have  two things before you start working:

•  Original OS X DVD which has been shipped to you with effected hard drive. 
• Backup of you data (better to have clone because it will contain all applications of the hard drive) 

Apple will replace affected Seagate hard drives, free of charge, until July 23rd, 2012. So make  sure that your hard drive is working well before this period ends.