4 ms·

Looks like HGST continues to rule the pack, similar to prior years. Though, I thought the entire brand of HGST was set to be discontinued and Western Digital ju

Looks like HGST continues to rule the pack, similar to prior years. Though, I thought the entire brand of HGST was set to be discontinued and Western Digital just taking over all naming / marketing / etc... I even see when I search for "ultrastar" or similar, it's all currently branded Western Digital. Does backblaze get some special enterprise gear?

andrewmunsell 4y ago
I tend to buy my HDDs from Provantage now-a-days. I've never bought an HGST drive (I have a combo of WD and Toshiba drives), but the HGST branding seems more prominent at Provantage (https://www.provantage.com/hgst-0f30146~7HGST0H9.htm https://www.provantage.com/hgst-0f30146~7HGST0H9.htm) versus elsewhere (ex. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE600-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07PF1TVND https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE600-3-5-In..., though I'd never buy an HDD from Amazon today due to their shipping issues)
- dspillett 4y ago
  > though I'd never buy an HDD from Amazon today due to their shipping issues I'm wary of Amazon due to co-mingling issues. I can't be sure I'm not getting something incorrectly packaged/labelled by another seller so I get a reconditioned (or simply counterfeit) unit instead of a new one.
numpad0 4y ago
I'm a total consumer in this topic, but I believe WD tried to and externally communicated that to be the plan, and drives are marked as such, but due to antitrust rulings(?) HGST remains somewhat independent and the heritages remain somewhat separate to each others. Also, there seems to be just handful of "actual" drive models in HDD market - they seem to be swapped Ladas and VW Beetles. Perhaps that makes calling them in old names make sense.
segfaultbuserr 4y ago
Some (all?) rebranded "WD Ultrastar" drives still report themselves as "HGST" as their SMART device models. I'm not sure how does Blackblaze count them. Perhaps they're (correctly) counted via the SMART model regardless of branding? Update: This issue has been covered in the Blackblaze 2020 report. They apparently existed in parallel. The original HGST drives, while still existed as of 2020, were being gradually phased out... > These drives obviously share their lineage with the HGST drives, but they report their manufacturer as WDC versus HGST. The model numbers are similar with the first three characters changing from HUH to WUH and the last three characters changing from 604, for example, to 6L4. We don’t know the significance of that change, perhaps it is the factory location, a firmware version, or some other designation. If you know, let everyone know in the comments. As with all of the major drive manufacturers, the model number carries patterned information relating to each drive model and is not randomly generated, so the 6L4 string would appear to mean something useful.
deeesstoronto 4y ago
Western Digital got most of HGST - however HGST's 3.5in drive business was sold to Toshiba. The HGST branding went to WD. I believe hese new HGST drives are WDs. The HGST drives in the older backblaze stats (which showed good reliability) continue to be manufactured by/evolved into Toshibas. There are several HGST model numbers that remained in Toshiba's lineup. https://www.anandtech.com/show/5635/western-digital-to-sell-hitachis-35-hard-drive-business-to-toshiba-complete-hitachi-buyout https://www.anandtech.com/show/5635/western-digital-to-sell-...
ksec 4y ago
Quoting myself [1] Yes. WD did a rebranding exercise to try and get rid of HGST and UltraStar, not only did the retail channel and wholesale channel backfire, a certain large enterprise customer insist on the same HGST and UltraStar HDD, same model number, basically same everything. While HD could certainly ignore retail and wholesale, they cant ignore enterprise. So you still see UltraStar, and in many cases Wholesale are still calling them HGST. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28309576 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28309576

andrewmunsell 4y ago

I tend to buy my HDDs from Provantage now-a-days. I've never bought an HGST drive (I have a combo of WD and Toshiba drives), but the HGST branding seems more prominent at Provantage (https://www.provantage.com/hgst-0f30146~7HGST0H9.htm https://www.provantage.com/hgst-0f30146~7HGST0H9.htm) versus elsewhere (ex. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE600-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07PF1TVND https://www.amazon.com/HGST-Ultrastar-HUH721212ALE600-3-5-In..., though I'd never buy an HDD from Amazon today due to their shipping issues)

dspillett 4y ago
> though I'd never buy an HDD from Amazon today due to their shipping issues I'm wary of Amazon due to co-mingling issues. I can't be sure I'm not getting something incorrectly packaged/labelled by another seller so I get a reconditioned (or simply counterfeit) unit instead of a new one.

numpad0 4y ago

I'm a total consumer in this topic, but I believe WD tried to and externally communicated that to be the plan, and drives are marked as such, but due to antitrust rulings(?) HGST remains somewhat independent and the heritages remain somewhat separate to each others. Also, there seems to be just handful of "actual" drive models in HDD market - they seem to be swapped Ladas and VW Beetles. Perhaps that makes calling them in old names make sense.

segfaultbuserr 4y ago

Some (all?) rebranded "WD Ultrastar" drives still report themselves as "HGST" as their SMART device models. I'm not sure how does Blackblaze count them. Perhaps they're (correctly) counted via the SMART model regardless of branding? Update: This issue has been covered in the Blackblaze 2020 report. They apparently existed in parallel. The original HGST drives, while still existed as of 2020, were being gradually phased out... > These drives obviously share their lineage with the HGST drives, but they report their manufacturer as WDC versus HGST. The model numbers are similar with the first three characters changing from HUH to WUH and the last three characters changing from 604, for example, to 6L4. We don’t know the significance of that change, perhaps it is the factory location, a firmware version, or some other designation. If you know, let everyone know in the comments. As with all of the major drive manufacturers, the model number carries patterned information relating to each drive model and is not randomly generated, so the 6L4 string would appear to mean something useful.

deeesstoronto 4y ago

Western Digital got most of HGST - however HGST's 3.5in drive business was sold to Toshiba. The HGST branding went to WD. I believe hese new HGST drives are WDs. The HGST drives in the older backblaze stats (which showed good reliability) continue to be manufactured by/evolved into Toshibas. There are several HGST model numbers that remained in Toshiba's lineup. https://www.anandtech.com/show/5635/western-digital-to-sell-hitachis-35-hard-drive-business-to-toshiba-complete-hitachi-buyout https://www.anandtech.com/show/5635/western-digital-to-sell-...

ksec 4y ago

Quoting myself [1] Yes. WD did a rebranding exercise to try and get rid of HGST and UltraStar, not only did the retail channel and wholesale channel backfire, a certain large enterprise customer insist on the same HGST and UltraStar HDD, same model number, basically same everything. While HD could certainly ignore retail and wholesale, they cant ignore enterprise. So you still see UltraStar, and in many cases Wholesale are still calling them HGST. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28309576 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28309576