Latest Hard Drive Reliability Stats from Backblaze

[JSixpack]

In 2014, HGST was the standout performer, with all its models showing extremely good reliability. Some Seagate models, on the other hand, showed alarming unreliability and extremely high failure rates.

For 2015, HGST maintained its strong performance. . . . Seagate showed much stronger performance, too. . . .The weakest performance was from Western Digital.

--http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/02/hgst-hard-disks-still-super-reliable-seagates-have-greatly-improved/

Toshiba lookin' good. Glad to hear it as I took a chance and bought a 4TB last year since the price was so nice. Great so far.

[BuaBS]

Well it says nothing for us with a lappy with 2,5 inch drives.

And while 3,5 inch drives get bigger and bigger , 2,5 inch (9,5 mm thick or less) are stranded at the same 1 TB for 3 years now .

[NeverSure]

^^^ If you need more than 1TB perhaps you are storing a lot of videos or something? I'm doing great with a 500GB Samsung SSD and an external HDD for vids and other large files.

My SSD actually only has 130GB of data on it, and I don't work at keeping it clean. I have a second external that holds backups and images.

I use a laptop full time now so I have a (wall plug) powered 8 port USB hub as a docking station. The two externals, my wireless keyboard and mouse and a couple of other things are plugged into that. I can just pull one USB, the laptop charger, and my external (32") monitor cable from the laptop and walk away.

Cheers.

[Ks45672]

Well it says nothing for us with a lappy with 2,5 inch drives.

And while 3,5 inch drives get bigger and bigger , 2,5 inch (9,5 mm thick or less) are stranded at the same 1 TB for 3 years now .

The world has realised laptops are better suited for ssd drives, get as many terabytes as you like she connnect it by usb, run your operating system on the ssd for awhile

[DogNo1]

Sounds like a nice setup, NeverSure. Was it you who was insisting last year that 128GB was enough or was that lostinisaan? IMO, 500 GB is the right number when you allow space for restore points and your shadow copy. Are you using the cloud for backups too?

[NeverSure]

Sounds like a nice setup, NeverSure. Was it you who was insisting last year that 128GB was enough or was that lostinisaan? IMO, 500 GB is the right number when you allow space for restore points and your shadow copy. Are you using the cloud for backups too?

I don't know if I said 128GB but right now I have less than that on that Samsung SSD. I don't work at that, that's just the way it is. I don't use the cloud but perhaps I should. I use Cobian Backup (free) which I really like because it uses the shadow copy service, runs on a schedule every night, and the backups can be browsed with explorer. It saves only as many backups as I told it to and deletes the oldest every night. Of course periodically I save one by moving it to a different folder.

Macrium Reflect (free) runs every night and makes an image of the whole SSD including all drives on it.

Any good suggestions for enough cloud storage to save these backups and images? That's about 500GB, which I also backup, again.

Here's a shot of the SSD.

Edited February 17, 2016 by NeverSure

[BuaBS]

Well it says nothing for us with a lappy with 2,5 inch drives.

And while 3,5 inch drives get bigger and bigger , 2,5 inch (9,5 mm thick or less) are stranded at the same 1 TB for 3 years now .

The world has realised laptops are better suited for ssd drives, get as many terabytes as you like she connnect it by usb, run your operating system on the ssd for awhile

SSD or HDD , it doesn't matter , the 2 TB in my laptop are not enough. I live in Thailand with unreliable main power. External 3,5 inch drives are VERY sensitive to glitches . One hard power down and garantied the drive will die soon. The 2 TB 2,5 inch external drives are possible and are protected by the laptop battery , in case of power down but my laptop can't take the 1 A peak power to drive them via USB and those dual USB cables for more power are hard to find and USB3 via express card doesn't have a power outlet. Besides : it's a hasle. If 2,5 inch kept up wit 3,5 , we would have 2TB 9,5 mm drives and 7200 rpm in stead of the 5400 1 TB`ers. 2 of them would give me 4 TB in one old but good laptop.

[SpaceKadet]

I am not sure what we are talking about here.

2.5" 2TB ans 3TB HDDs for laptops have been available for some time.

http://www.seagate.com/as/en/products/laptop-mobile-storage/laptop-internal-drives/

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/mobile/

SSDs are available at 2TB.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-7KE2T0BW

[BuaBS]

I am not sure what we are talking about here.

2.5" 2TB ans 3TB HDDs for laptops have been available for some time.

http://www.seagate.com/as/en/products/laptop-mobile-storage/laptop-internal-drives/

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/mobile/

SSDs are available at 2TB.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-7KE2T0BW

2 TB SSD's are way too expensive and not usable with my OS.

You are right about Seagate : they have bigger than 1 TB HDD's and even 9,5 mm. But I stay clear of Seagate.

HGST has 1TB 7200 , WD only 750 GB 7200 for a couple of years now.

In 5400 rpm : WD has recently added 1,5 /2 /3 TB HDD's , I had not seen them yet BUT they are 15 mm thick so won't fit many laptops. And try finding them in Thailand. Buying online & postal delivery ...no thanks!

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=800#Tab3

[SpaceKadet]

@BuaBS

Seagate have up to 4TB external USB 2.5" drives. They definitely will not draw 1 Amp from the USB port simply because the USB specs do not allow for it. And there is no external power option for those drives.

I have ditched all my External WD drives in favor of Seagate and now have two 2TB Seagate Backup Slim drives, works like a charm.

On the original topic, I got my first HGST 4TB drive just because of the Backblaze reports. Have been replacing all my WD drives ( have quite a few since running 16TB NAS) with Seagate. I feel that the new generation of Seagate drives have outstanding quality and performance for their price. Also, Seagate has some really interesting concept drives, like the SSHD hybrid that I'm using in my Zotac HTPC, and the Wireless Mobile Storage.

[JaseTheBass]

Well it says nothing for us with a lappy with 2,5 inch drives.

And while 3,5 inch drives get bigger and bigger , 2,5 inch (9,5 mm thick or less) are stranded at the same 1 TB for 3 years now .

The world has realised laptops are better suited for ssd drives, get as many terabytes as you like she connnect it by usb, run your operating system on the ssd for awhile

SSD or HDD , it doesn't matter , the 2 TB in my laptop are not enough. I live in Thailand with unreliable main power. External 3,5 inch drives are VERY sensitive to glitches . One hard power down and garantied the drive will die soon. The 2 TB 2,5 inch external drives are possible and are protected by the laptop battery , in case of power down but my laptop can't take the 1 A peak power to drive them via USB and those dual USB cables for more power are hard to find and USB3 via express card doesn't have a power outlet. Besides : it's a hasle. If 2,5 inch kept up wit 3,5 , we would have 2TB 9,5 mm drives and 7200 rpm in stead of the 5400 1 TB`ers. 2 of them would give me 4 TB in one old but good laptop.

Buy a UPS - problem solved.

[SpaceKadet]

I am not sure what we are talking about here.

2.5" 2TB ans 3TB HDDs for laptops have been available for some time.

http://www.seagate.com/as/en/products/laptop-mobile-storage/laptop-internal-drives/

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/mobile/

SSDs are available at 2TB.

http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/memory-storage/MZ-7KE2T0BW

2 TB SSD's are way too expensive and not usable with my OS.

You are right about Seagate : they have bigger than 1 TB HDD's and even 9,5 mm. But I stay clear of Seagate.

HGST has 1TB 7200 , WD only 750 GB 7200 for a couple of years now.

In 5400 rpm : WD has recently added 1,5 /2 /3 TB HDD's , I had not seen them yet BUT they are 15 mm thick so won't fit many laptops. And try finding them in Thailand. Buying online & postal delivery ...no thanks!

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=800#Tab3

Yes, I agree that the latest and greatest will be difficult to find in Thailand...

I understand that you don't like Seagate, but they do have a 2TB 7mm drive. Again, probably difficult to find as a bare drive in Thailand.

[Pakaty]

It is interesting that HGST is owned by Western Digital.

HGST is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation. http://www.hgst.com/company/company-info

I bought a Seagate 3 TB external 2 years ago and it failed at about 6 months. Same as the OCZ SSD I bought. Failed, and OCZ tried to replace it with a smaller drive and still replaced it with a different model. Never OCZ again!

[kkerry]

2.5" bare 2TB drives are still not easy to find in many places outside the USA. I have a Samsung Spinpoint 2TB from Amazon (USD 99). Price for the same drive in Australia was at least 30% more expensive last time I checked and frequently out of stock. I tried to find one in Singapore last September in Sim Lim Square without success.

External 2TB drives are easy to find but for some reason bare drives are not. Haven't seen a bare 2.5" 2TB drive for sale in Panthip or Zeer yet. You can of course break open external drives but that invalidates the warranty, also WD use a connector that doesn't always work when installing in a laptop or desktop.

[SpaceKadet]

It is interesting that HGST is owned by Western Digital.

HGST is a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation. http://www.hgst.com/company/company-info

I bought a Seagate 3 TB external 2 years ago and it failed at about 6 months. Same as the OCZ SSD I bought. Failed, and OCZ tried to replace it with a smaller drive and still replaced it with a different model. Never OCZ again!

Everybody's mileage will vary... I had a Seagate 3TB in an external enclosure for 3 years running practically 24x7 and S.M.A.R.T says it's just as good as new. Also, I've used only OCZ drives in 7or 8 builds and Thinkpad replacements, and they are still running fine. Only recently I switched to Samsung as they have currently the fastest M.2 SSDs and OCZ pricing is just crazy stupid.

I stopped using WDC drives primarily because of their business practices which I do not agree with, although I had my share of broken WDC drives over the years. Currently I have 8x1TB and 6x2TB WDC drives. When they start failing they will definitely NOT be replaced by their WDC cousins.

HGST are probably still the best but are pricey and run hotter than some other equivalent drives.

[rhythmworx]

Heres some more date from previous years 2013 - Q3/2015 https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-q3-2015/

More from Q2 2015 https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-for-q2-2015/

Interesting article, think I'll order an hitachi today and back up my OS 1Tb black WD, I hear these drives are dropping like flies some after days/weeks/months.

[JaseTheBass]

An ex of mine used to be a QC 'engineer' at WD in Bang Pa-in. She said that different markets got different grade drives. She was also such a great electrical engineer (with a degree) that she couldn't even wire a plug.

She left Thailand a few years ago to try and help raise the collective IQ of Australia.

[speedtripler]

Well it says nothing for us with a lappy with 2,5 inch drives.

And while 3,5 inch drives get bigger and bigger , 2,5 inch (9,5 mm thick or less) are stranded at the same 1 TB for 3 years now .

The world has realised laptops are better suited for ssd drives, get as many terabytes as you like she connnect it by usb, run your operating system on the ssd for awhile

SSD or HDD , it doesn't matter , the 2 TB in my laptop are not enough. I live in Thailand with unreliable main power. External 3,5 inch drives are VERY sensitive to glitches . One hard power down and garantied the drive will die soon. The 2 TB 2,5 inch external drives are possible and are protected by the laptop battery , in case of power down but my laptop can't take the 1 A peak power to drive them via USB and those dual USB cables for more power are hard to find and USB3 via express card doesn't have a power outlet. Besides : it's a hasle. If 2,5 inch kept up wit 3,5 , we would have 2TB 9,5 mm drives and 7200 rpm in stead of the 5400 1 TB`ers. 2 of them would give me 4 TB in one old but good laptop.

i have seagate expansion 1tb destop drives and they are not near as frail as you imagine ,some of mine have been fell from tablle floor whilest spinnuing andf not even failed then

it will take more than 1 hard powerdown to kill them ime

[kkerry]

New Seagate 7mm 2TB hard drive

[BuaBS]

Don't shoot me for not knowing the Seagate 2,5 inch drives. They were anounced in sept 15 :

http://techreport.com/news/28954/seagate-squeezes-2tb-into-its-7-mm-notebook-hard-drives

But only recently available , and not in Thai stores.

http://techreport.com/news/29722/seagate-releases-a-duo-of-thin-high-density-mobile-hard-drives

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10042/seagate-2-5-inch-2-tb-hdd-smr

One of the reasons for not wanting these drives is because of shingled magnetic recording (SMR), something I really don't want.

And staying on topic :

http://techreport.com/news/29670/seagate-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-3tb-drive-failures

HDD's will still stay relevant for years to come , the technology after shingled magnetic recording ( HAMR & HDMR) , looks very promising and much better than SMR.

http://techreport.com/news/27420/mechanical-roadmap-points-to-hard-drives-over-100tb-by-2025

With ever bigger files (4K video) , we need bigger drives and more reliable ! Filling a 10 TB drive through USB3 is still going to cost a enormous amount of time !

[Ks45672]

Don't shoot me for not knowing the Seagate 2,5 inch drives. They were anounced in sept 15 :

http://techreport.com/news/28954/seagate-squeezes-2tb-into-its-7-mm-notebook-hard-drives

But only recently available , and not in Thai stores.

http://techreport.com/news/29722/seagate-releases-a-duo-of-thin-high-density-mobile-hard-drives

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10042/seagate-2-5-inch-2-tb-hdd-smr

One of the reasons for not wanting these drives is because of shingled magnetic recording (SMR), something I really don't want.

And staying on topic :

http://techreport.com/news/29670/seagate-hit-with-class-action-lawsuit-over-3tb-drive-failures

HDD's will still stay relevant for years to come , the technology after shingled magnetic recording ( HAMR & HDMR) , looks very promising and much better than SMR.

http://techreport.com/news/27420/mechanical-roadmap-points-to-hard-drives-over-100tb-by-2025

With ever bigger files (4K video) , we need bigger drives and more reliable ! Filling a 10 TB drive through USB3 is still going to cost a enormous amount of time !

That maybe true but nobody fills a whole 10 TB drive in one meal

It would be fine for the majority of people backing up their shit from a smartphone or a camera at usb 3 speeeds....