{"id":8574,"date":"2022-02-01T16:15:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T16:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/01\/backblaze-hd-reliability-stats-show-oldies-can-be-goodies-the-register\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T16:15:06","slug":"backblaze-hd-reliability-stats-show-oldies-can-be-goodies-the-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/01\/backblaze-hd-reliability-stats-show-oldies-can-be-goodies-the-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Backblaze HD reliability stats show oldies can be goodies \u2022 The Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cloud storage and backup provider Backblaze<\/a> has released a comprehensive report detailing reliability statistics for the hard drives it operated during the whole of 2021, with an interesting finding on its older kit.<\/p>\n

The report leaves out boot drives (which are SSDs) and focuses on Backblaze’s data drives, of which the firm had 203,168 under management as of December 31, 2021. These included various models sourced from all four major vendors: HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, and WDC. Of that figure, 409 drives were also excluded because they were used for evaluation or Backblaze did not have at least 60 examples of that model, leaving a total of 202,759 hard drives.<\/p>\n

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I would expect the larger capacity drives to … fail more often as they age<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Backblaze found that the drive model exhibiting the lowest failure rate was a 6TB Seagate drive (model ST6000DX000), with an annualised failure rate (AFR) of just 0.11 per cent. These also turned out to be the oldest in the Backblaze inventory, with an average age of over 80 months.<\/p>\n

\"backblaze<\/a><\/p>\n

Click to enlarge<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The report also called out two drive models that are currently performing well but which were new to Backblaze in 2021, and so have not clocked up so many in-service hours. The 16TB WD drive cohort (model WUH721816ALE6L0) has an average age of 5.06 months and an AFR of 0.14 per cent, while the 16TB Toshiba drive cohort (model MG08ACA16TE) has an average age of 3.57 months and an AFR of 0.91 per cent.<\/p>\n

Across all drive models, the AFR during 2021 was 1.01 per cent, slightly higher than the 0.93 per cent that Backblaze reported for 2020. However, both years were down from the rate of 1.83 per cent in 2019, which the firm said indicates that the downward trend is not an anomaly.<\/p>\n

Looking back at all the different drive models aggregated together by manufacturer over the last three years appears to show that Seagate’s failure rates have fluctuated the most on a quarter by quarter basis, while HGST drives consistently delivered a failure rate of under 1 per cent.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n<\/tr>\n\n\n\n\n
HGST<\/b><\/td>\n0.41%<\/td>\n0.47%<\/td>\n0.61%<\/td>\n0.36%<\/td>\n0.37%<\/td>\n0.43%<\/td>\n0.30%<\/td>\n0.35%<\/td>\n0.47%<\/td>\n0.38%<\/td>\n0.31%<\/td>\n0.37%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Seagate<\/b><\/td>\n1.87%<\/td>\n2.22%<\/td>\n2.60%<\/td>\n2.72%<\/td>\n1.29%<\/td>\n0.90%<\/td>\n1.06%<\/td>\n1.21%<\/td>\n1.07%<\/td>\n1.41%<\/td>\n1.63%<\/td>\n1.48%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Toshiba<\/b><\/td>\n0.29%<\/td>\n0.00%<\/td>\n0.60%<\/td>\n1.06%<\/td>\n1.24%<\/td>\n1.09%<\/td>\n0.98%<\/td>\n0.67%<\/td>\n0.56%<\/td>\n0.75%<\/td>\n0.81%<\/td>\n0.92%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
WDC<\/b><\/td>\n1.20%<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n0.16%<\/td>\n0.57%<\/td>\n0.46%<\/td>\n0.39%<\/td>\n0.32%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
\"backblaze<\/a><\/p>\n

The figures as a chart (image: Backblaze<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, the 2021 figures shows that annual failure rates for the larger drive models (12TB, 14TB, and 16TB) all come in below the annual average of 1.01 per cent across all drives, compared with 1.27 per cent for those of 10TB and below.<\/p>\n

But the larger drives also tend to be the newer drives in service with Backblaze, and so are less likely to fail versus older drives. The oldest model of large drive has an average age of 33 months, while the newest model of 10TB and below has an average age of 44.9 months.<\/p>\n

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