In my opinion, you really can't rely on statistics for personal drives because your sample size is so small. The important things for me when considering a driv

In my opinion, you really can't rely on statistics for personal drives because your sample size is so small. The important things for me when considering a drive are (in rough order of importance): - warranty and customer service - price - noise - performance You can get lucky and have a drive that lasts 10 years, or you can get unlucky and have a drive die in days. Either way, you'll need a solid backup strategy and be able to be without the drive for a week or two. That being said, I appreciate the data that they put out, and it makes me want to use their service more. I think it's interesting that they continue to use Seagate drives more than most others despite them having higher failure rates, which reminds me that you really need to look at it from a cost/benefit perspective. It's also interesting to see just how reliable drives are (on average) even when used improperly. In short, no, I don't think they should be used when deciding which drive to buy. All drives are pretty good, so find the one that's going to make ownership and replacement the most pleasant.