Disappearing storage HDD

[UltraTaco]

Taco turns on and off his PC like million times. In fact, my running hours are about the same number as power on times. I'm pretty sure spool up and down many many times isn't best for drives.View attachment 201307View attachment 201307

 

[Alaric]

I used to count on WD drives. After the floods in Malaysia, and the price hikes, Seagate and WD dropped their warranties from five years to three years. I assumed they took the insurance money, skimmed the crap out of it and set up shop making junk drives for the same money. I've seen nothing to convince me otherwise so far. I have Seagate, Maxtor and WD drives (IDE) that are 6-12 years old that still work. A functioning 5 year old SATA III drive is an anomaly. I bought one SATA III WD 2 TB (now in my daughter'r rig) before the floods and it's still purring along (5 year warranty). I'll have to fight with WD over this one because they claim it's out of warranty and it's barely two years old. (July of 2016)

 

[EarthDog]

ED. You're point is valid but I would argue that the results they get are still of value to home users. While not used in the same way I would at home, their results still show which drives outlasted others and I feel that those results can be translated to the average user.

I suppose a motor that lasts at the drag strip will last on the streets... but its still quite different usage.

There was a french site that used to post all kinds of stats on failures which could be more valuable.... let me dig it up...
EDIT: Found it......... -> https://www.hardware.fr/articles/954-6/disques-durs.html

That said, what I take away from that data is the fact that for most drives, there is an almost insignificant chance of premature failure and thinking (too heavily) over a decision like this, the time may be put to better use. An average of 1.08%. More than 98/100 'lasted'. Bad luck with a brand with less than average failure or good luck with higher than average failure is always a possibility.



Peruse through that information I linked, gents. While there are always some bad apples from everyone, I think users will be surprised at just how little the vast majority of thigns fail within that first year.

EDIT2: I would also emplore those looking at the backblaze link to see which actual drives those are. Some are made for enterprise or are 5400 RPM, etc... some are not 'normal' for home use.

 

[UltraTaco]

One might argue that pictures and music burned to a Blu-ray might outlast a hard drive because it is much simpler media. There's no circuit board, motor, or servo to fail.

Dual layer be can fit 50gb, which seems ample amount of storage..

 

[Alaric]

This would be my first WD HDD RMA. My Seagate failures (in and out of warranty) far exceed that. I'm lucky if Seagate drives last 3 months out of warranty, and generally don't even make it to the end of warranty.

 

[HankB]

I like that link, and at a high level gives some solid information. However one has to consider this is a DC environment and is typically different than how the drive is used in a home. Chances are those drives are being thrashed on in some form or another on a daily basis whereas at home, I wouldn't imagine frequent thrashing.

It's a very specialized DC application - cloud backups. My guess is that the drives get a lot of writes on initial install and then sit there with an occasional read when someone needs to restore or if/when Backblaze mirrors their data to a different data center.

My personal anecdotal experience with drives aligns surprisingly well with the stats that Backblaze reports. (All 2TB Barracudas eventually reporting remapped sectors, one 3TB WD Red going bad and one 2TB WD developing excess remapped sectors)

 

[JLK03F150]

Friends don't let friends buy Seagate.

Don, that comment made me laugh...


Out loud.