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Their data[1] recently saved me from snapping up a "deal" on a Seagate 3TB. Of the drives installed in 2012, by 2015 32% had failed, 62% were removed out of ca

Their data[1] recently saved me from snapping up a "deal" on a Seagate 3TB. Of the drives installed in 2012, by 2015 32% had failed, 62% were removed out of caution for failing some diagnostics, and 6% were still in place. Not worth the risk to save $20. I have no way of knowing if Seagate fixed the issues and kept producing them or if they're still trying to dump old stock of bad drives. Thanks, Backblaze! [1] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/3tb-hard-drive-failure/

agumonkey 9y ago
Seems like their 4TB series was shitty to the point I wonder how it's possible. Larger drives seem ok though.
- Elv13 9y ago
  You are reading the data wrong. The 4tb have 5k hours for 400 drives while the others have order of magnitude more spin time. The other type of 4tb have a sample size too small to conclude anything (a single bad batch is possible). Given that the drive failure risk is a curve over time, you need more data. Drives are not reliable when new or very old, but usually ok in between. That being said, I will never ever buy a Seagate HDD again. They joined Maxtor in my blacklist a long time ago. I lost every single one I ever bought (and RMAed) within a year.
gareim 9y ago
Recently? Are those faulty Seagate drives still being sold in 2017? EDIT: Ah, I see that you meant you're turned off by 3tb Seagates in general. You could just look at the model number.
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  The bad model is ST3000DM001, and I believe the 001 at the end is a revision number. The one I was looking at was a higher revision number of the same model, but I didn't see any Backblaze data for it and didn't want to bet my data on Seagate having diagnosed/fixed the problem. Got a decent deal on an HGST a few weeks later,
  - netmare 9y ago
    I recently got the ST3000DM008 model, so time will tell. :) I was aware of Backblaze's previous reports, but I doubt they are valid for consumers. A couple of cheap drives in a tower case with occasional read/writes and hundreds of them tightly packed together working 24/7 are two completely different scenarios. Home users should just backup their important stuff and buy whatever they want. A super reliable drive won't save them from an accidental drop, a fire or theft.
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      It also depends on where you're keeping your drives. Their drives are in temperature-controlled data centers, mine are in a cheap consumer NAS in a home office that can breach 34°C in summer. I imagine most of their drives don't even see much traffic if they're used for backups. Write once, read rarely. I wonder how B2 changes that equation.

agumonkey 9y ago

Seems like their 4TB series was shitty to the point I wonder how it's possible. Larger drives seem ok though.

Elv13 9y ago
You are reading the data wrong. The 4tb have 5k hours for 400 drives while the others have order of magnitude more spin time. The other type of 4tb have a sample size too small to conclude anything (a single bad batch is possible). Given that the drive failure risk is a curve over time, you need more data. Drives are not reliable when new or very old, but usually ok in between. That being said, I will never ever buy a Seagate HDD again. They joined Maxtor in my blacklist a long time ago. I lost every single one I ever bought (and RMAed) within a year.

gareim 9y ago

Recently? Are those faulty Seagate drives still being sold in 2017? EDIT: Ah, I see that you meant you're turned off by 3tb Seagates in general. You could just look at the model number.

wlesieutre 9y ago
The bad model is ST3000DM001, and I believe the 001 at the end is a revision number. The one I was looking at was a higher revision number of the same model, but I didn't see any Backblaze data for it and didn't want to bet my data on Seagate having diagnosed/fixed the problem. Got a decent deal on an HGST a few weeks later,
- netmare 9y ago
  I recently got the ST3000DM008 model, so time will tell. :) I was aware of Backblaze's previous reports, but I doubt they are valid for consumers. A couple of cheap drives in a tower case with occasional read/writes and hundreds of them tightly packed together working 24/7 are two completely different scenarios. Home users should just backup their important stuff and buy whatever they want. A super reliable drive won't save them from an accidental drop, a fire or theft.
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    It also depends on where you're keeping your drives. Their drives are in temperature-controlled data centers, mine are in a cheap consumer NAS in a home office that can breach 34°C in summer. I imagine most of their drives don't even see much traffic if they're used for backups. Write once, read rarely. I wonder how B2 changes that equation.