News Backblaze says HDDs are more reliable and lasting longer

[mikeymikec]

12 years of HDD analysis brings insight to the bathtub curve’s reliability

Backup firm brings a unique, informed perspective to HDD failure rates.

arstechnica.com

My issue with these stats is that they don't go back far enough, they basically start right when Thailand and HDD facilities got flooded, which IIRC caused some significant reliability issues in the drives made in the years that followed. Admittedly Backblaze only started up in 2007, but 2007-2011 ideally would have given some stats to put 2011 and the years soon after into context.

 

[sdifox]

I am still running 2TB Hitachi drives from 2010. Only scratch duty though.

Just realized those drives were on my Opteron 165, the dual Xeon l5640 now Ryzen 5950x

 

[jamesdsimone]

I think my oldest SATA drive is 2009. I have some IDE drives that still work fine. I use them for off line backup so they get zero use after they are full. Using refurbed enterprise SAS drive now which are dirt cheap.

 

[Shmee]

Oh hmm, SAS drives could be an option if I ever outgrow or need to replace/upgrade my 4x WD HGST 12TB SATA drives that are in the HDD cage. The cage actually has a single SAS connection, SFF something or other, going to my SAS card in IT mode. So it should fully support SAS HDDs.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Oh hmm, SAS drives could be an option if I ever outgrow or need to replace/upgrade my 4x WD HGST 12TB SATA drives that are in the HDD cage. The cage actually has a single SAS connection, SFF something or other, going to my SAS card in IT mode. So it should fully support SAS HDDs.

I'm seeing refurbed 2Tb SAS drives for 5 dollars on ebay. 4Tb drives are 20-25. I might not use them as everyday drives but they are great for redundant backup.

 

[jamesdsimone]

Sorry I missed the shipping so about 12 dollars for 2Tb SAS drives.