Comments on: Backblaze Hard Drive Stats Q1 2020

By: Ian Miller

Ian Miller — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 16:23:24 +0000

Does anyone know what the equivalent Western Digital model number is for the HGST HMS5C4040BLE640? Thanks in advance!

By: Kabe

Kabe — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 00:24:35 +0000

It should be acknowledged that the duration of implementing certain models is lower then others and some attention should go into AFR per year in service. Saying total AFR puts an inaccurate bias towards newly deployed hard drives when hard drives have a higher failure rate later in life. What helps is AFR per total average years in use. Numbers vary notably for some models when you do this. For instance your ST6000DX000 which averages per drive 9.45 years has a yearly AFR per life of .11% when its total AFR is 1.04 right now. Well, because they are older drives! But have a good long life. Likewise your ST12000NM0008 have been deployed on average for about 4 months with a 1.33% AFR! That means AFR per year for total life is actually 4.8% right now!

By: François Siciliano

François Siciliano — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 07:52:24 +0000

Hi, i am quite a novice here with setting up storage servers, so i have a genuine question : speaking of reliability, what is the best setup for NAS HDD that are accessed several times a day? Low power/constant spinning (with the issue of power consomption and heat building up) or idle state/no spinning (with the issue of start/stop counter going rocket high quickly)? I’m currently using Toshiba 4TB identical to yours.

Your quick advice would be greatly appreciated, Andy, thank you.

By: Matt G, Rochester

Matt G, Rochester — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 19:33:36 +0000

In reply to Stewart Rogers. Encrypted AND RAID sliced!

By: Kufat

Kufat — Thu, 11 Jun 2020 21:26:01 +0000

In reply to Ian Thorpe. Bit of a necropost, but there's no reason to do any sort of wipe more elaborate than zeroing the drive. The idea that you can recover data from a zeroed drive is a pervasive myth; it might've been true to an extent back in the MFM/RLL days, but certainly isn't today.

By: Stewart Rogers

Stewart Rogers — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 09:05:11 +0000

In reply to Ian Thorpe. Wouldn't need to be wiped too much then a standard overwrite, keep in mind most data would be encrypted prior to write.

By: Hattori

Hattori — Wed, 27 May 2020 11:35:36 +0000

In reply to pure-evil-Dems. You don't need a a degree in quantum physics to look at the brand, model and failure rate percentage.

By: G Winchester

G Winchester — Mon, 18 May 2020 02:59:48 +0000

Great post.

SSD stats even from non-data backup drives would be beneficial in this time.

By: Alex_Atkin_UK

Alex_Atkin_UK — Fri, 15 May 2020 10:42:21 +0000

In reply to Jonathan Riehn. There is a balancing act. AFAIK from the research I did when looking for HDDs for my home NAS, Seagate was cheaper and quieter, things that are less important for the data centre. Seagate also seem to be first to market with larger sizes.