Comments on: The Helium Factor and Hard Drive Failure Rates

By: Alexei Alex

Alexei Alex — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:17:44 +0000

how about ST12000NM0007? I see 16800 drives in 2018 and just 1160 in 2023. Also AFR increased in 7+ times.

By: Serdar Örs

Serdar Örs — Fri, 26 May 2023 17:54:14 +0000

In reply to Kil. hello, what is the siuation about your helium hdds. Do they continue to work without problem ?

By: danwat1234

danwat1234 — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 22:35:03 +0000

In reply to 0.25GenBerkeleyan. 10-platter helium-filled 7200RPM hard drives, on the spec sheet shows idle power consumption of about 5.5 watts. Air-filled would be 8+. The friction of air is significant. They show the same MTBF in specs so supreme confidence the Helium will stay, time will tell.

By: William P N Smith

William P N Smith — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 05:57:30 +0000

Is there a follow-on report? I’ve got four 10TB ST10000NM0016-1T drives in a Promise Pegasus32 box for the last couple of years. They don’t report SMART 22, and one of them is reporting 16 Reallocated Sectors. New ones are in the $240 range, so I’m probably going to keep an eye on it, but I’d love to know Backblaze’s experience with these drives, and the eventual failure modes I might expect. Thanks!

By: Laďa

Laďa — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 13:37:40 +0000

Helium is inert gas, which also prevent any form of oxidation or corrosion. I believe it proves to be a good technology.

By: trace.element

trace.element — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 14:29:40 +0000

would have like to see more WD or HGST drives in the test, as i don’t use seagate. I also believe that HGST (the creator of helium drive tech) would have a better handle on things, especially now, in the 5th or 6th generation of helium drive tech. Maybe it’s time for an update to this article? thanks, J

By: Andy Klein

Andy Klein — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:44:36 +0000

In reply to Jess Wilkinson. Everything you said makes sense, so it is reasonable to we'd see a lower AFR over time for Helium drives. Another reader suggested we updated the article and we are going to look into that since it has been two years since the last look.

By: Andy Klein

Andy Klein — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 11:40:44 +0000

In reply to trace.element. Thanks for the suggestion. We'll have to see about the number of air-filled drives we are using to ensure we are making a decent comparison, but certainly an idea worth considering.

By: Jess Wilkinson

Jess Wilkinson — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 13:00:18 +0000

Helium has a much higher thermal conductivity ~150 mW/M K vs air at ~26 mW/M K.
That means better internal temps by drawing heat out of the drive to the exterior case. Hence helium drives seem to run hot at times. Heat and vibration are big factors in AFR – So, helium drives should show much better AFR after early fails settle out.