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Backblaze doesn't provide data on DOA drives that need to be sent back, do they? I went through three rounds of 4x 12TB Seagate Exos X16 drives last month thro

Backblaze doesn't provide data on DOA drives that need to be sent back, do they? I went through three rounds of 4x 12TB Seagate Exos X16 drives last month through different safe vendors. 100% of the drives arrived DOA (tested in a bunch of different machines). Switched to 16TB Toshiba MG08s and smooth sailing since. I know the dead ones tend to cluster because of their manufacturing, but I ended up having serious questions about their QC process. Talking to some of my peers, Seagate seems to be a bit of an embarrassment for a long time.

atYevP 6y ago
Yev from Backblaze here -> no, any drives that come DOA wouldn't have made it past burn-in and into our fleet, so they aren't represented.
- busterarm 6y ago
  I really wish you tracked this data, because my colleagues and I in various parts of this industry have been noticing some trends... With failure rates of in-service drives mostly being similar, I start to become much more interested in data about a brand/product's quality control process.
  - atYevP 6y ago
    Yev -> that's really interesting. Do you want to publish your data and maybe we can compare notes ;-)
    - busterarm 6y ago
      I just have anecdotes from about 4-5 people buying maybe in the 150TB range of disks per year. Mostly only Seagate or HGST. Not nearly as clean (and representative) a datsset as y'all would have.
  - Already__Taken 6y ago
    Is the takeaway there that you need to be doing burn-in runs too?
    - busterarm 6y ago
      You can't burn in drives that can't even be used in the first place. They literally did not function straight out of the packaging.
      - londons_explore 6y ago
        Sounds like it could have been some kind of incompatibility or firmware/software bug, either on the machines you were using or the drive itself....
        fomine3 6y ago
        Possibly 3.3V issue? (I don't know Exos affects this) https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Fix-the-33V-Pin-Issue-in-White-Label-Disks-/ https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Fix-the-33V-Pin-Issue-i...
        busterarm 6y ago
        That only affects WD drives, these are Seagates.
        busterarm 6y ago
        Negative.

atYevP 6y ago

Yev from Backblaze here -> no, any drives that come DOA wouldn't have made it past burn-in and into our fleet, so they aren't represented.

busterarm 6y ago
I really wish you tracked this data, because my colleagues and I in various parts of this industry have been noticing some trends... With failure rates of in-service drives mostly being similar, I start to become much more interested in data about a brand/product's quality control process.
- atYevP 6y ago
  Yev -> that's really interesting. Do you want to publish your data and maybe we can compare notes ;-)
  - busterarm 6y ago
    I just have anecdotes from about 4-5 people buying maybe in the 150TB range of disks per year. Mostly only Seagate or HGST. Not nearly as clean (and representative) a datsset as y'all would have.
- Already__Taken 6y ago
  Is the takeaway there that you need to be doing burn-in runs too?
  - busterarm 6y ago
    You can't burn in drives that can't even be used in the first place. They literally did not function straight out of the packaging.
    - londons_explore 6y ago
      Sounds like it could have been some kind of incompatibility or firmware/software bug, either on the machines you were using or the drive itself....
      - fomine3 6y ago
        Possibly 3.3V issue? (I don't know Exos affects this) https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Fix-the-33V-Pin-Issue-in-White-Label-Disks-/ https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Fix-the-33V-Pin-Issue-i...
        busterarm 6y ago
        That only affects WD drives, these are Seagates.
      - busterarm 6y ago
        Negative.