What percentage of your hard drives fail?

[ShawnD1]

I see a lot of posts about people losing hard drives and OMG M4XT0R SUXXX, so let's get some numbers on this one. Feel free to include any friends and family as long as you know their entire history (don't just say your friend with an unknown number of hard drives has had no failures).

I've had a few drives over my days
120mb
1gb
6gb
10gb
60gb
80gb x 2
120gb x 3
160gb x 1
200gb x 2
250gb
320gb
total: 15 hard drives
Failures: 1 (the 60gb)

Failure percentage: 7%

 

[lxskllr]

I've had 6 drives in 6 years with 0 failures. All drives are still running in 1 machine or another. This includes 3 Maxtors, 2 Seagates, and 1 WD. At my office we've had a few failures, all WD. The machines there are poorly kept though, and they get loaded with dust. If I was in charge I'd make everybody dust their machines once a month, but I'm not in charge.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I've only had three drives fail in thirty years. One came dead and the other two turned out to be the PSU.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.dansdata.com/gz075.htm

 

[seemingly random]

One Dell laptop hd died a month after warranty expiration. iirc it was hitachi.

Not going to try to count owned drives - let's just say failure is a very small %. For some reason most have been wd.

This is ignoring old mfm drives. They would get a lot of bad sectors before they died.

Another facet that might be interesting is how much use they had before they died and the circumstances - hardly ever moved, any kind of a jolt, static exposure, etc. And if there was enough warning that data was backed up successfully.

 

[Soundmanred]

I've had countless drives over the years, starting at 1.2 GB and going to 750GB and not one has failed. I always gave them away or just retired them.
Sadly, the 1.2GB cost more than the 750GB. Wow.

 

[ForumMaster]

i've only had one drive fail on me out of 4. it's not that high since i've never owned many drives. and the drive was indeed an 80gb maxtor.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
I've only had three drives fail in thirty years. One came dead and the other two turned out to be the PSU.

I didn't even know the PSU could destroy hard drives (usually other things go a lot sooner).

Thanks for the link and the stories. I really appreciate this

edit: that entire site Dan's Data is interesting. I'll probably ready every one of his articles.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea dans site is kewl

 

[Roguestar]

I've only had one drive fail on me, an 80GB Maxtor, and to be honest I'm still using it - after it died on me and crapped all over my music and videos, a full format or three brought it back to some semblance of life. I don't keep anything really important on it any more, though.

 

[Pocatello]

Back in 1998, I had a 3GB WD that died after a few months of use. On the other hand, my motherboards keep biting the dust one after another.

 

[Roguestar]

I have a 1GB WD from 1996 that's still going in a family PC, come to think of it.

 

[IEC]

I rarely have a problem with desktop HDDs (maybe < 5%)

OTOH laptops seem to have a much higher fail rate.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

100%.....eventually. But you didnt specify within what time frame

 

[Rottie]

So far I had 2 Seagate 400GB hard drives failed in 5 months now they gave me newest 750GB hard drive still running better now I hope.

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Spartan Niner
I rarely have a problem with desktop HDDs (maybe < 5%)

OTOH laptops seem to have a much higher fail rate.

In work, we had much more trouble with laptop hard drives than desktop hard drives, over the course of the year, but to be fair laptops are carted about in bags and dumped in cars and dropped onto desks and stuff far more than desktops, obviously.

 

[Modelworks]

I think another reason laptop hard drives fail more is because people don't realize you have a platter spinning with a head just microns above the platter.
They move around the laptop, drop it on desk, all while the hard drive is spinning.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://www.dansdata.com/gz075.htm

I didn't catch how scan errors are reported or retrieved in the google report. I don't see an explicit scan error category in SMART.

I'm pretty sensitive about hd temps since the Dell laptop (in which the hd died) had heat problems - had to replace the cpu and ram also. That was before I discovered i8kfangui.

I consider temps of 35c +/-5 acceptable - mainly from anecdotal evidence. But, I have a seven year old, SFF Dell with a (iirc) seagate that stays ~50c. It's not always powered up. I'd guess it has had an average uptime of 3 hours/day over its lifetime.

 

[Psymon]

I've never had a HDD fail on me in 8 years and I've used 6 - all of which went in the garbage or were given away.

All have been Western Digital as well.

I don't really get too biased on WD vs Seagate as I think both companies manufacture perfectly good hard drives, and the two drives that I'll be using in this new PC will actually be Seagates (with an external WD).

I'm not sure why hard drives fail, or why people have them fail within a few months. Sometimes I wonder if things like this are more user-error than the hard drives fault.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: Psymon
I don't really get too biased on WD vs Seagate as I think both companies manufacture perfectly good hard drives

With the current models, my experience has been that seagates run slightly hotter and noisier than wd's but both are about equal in performance and longevity. And samsungs run slightly cooler and quieter than wd's.

 

[Psymon]

Originally posted by: seemingly random

Originally posted by: Psymon
I don't really get too biased on WD vs Seagate as I think both companies manufacture perfectly good hard drives

With the current models, my experience has been that seagates run slightly hotter and noisier than wd's but both are about equal in performance and longevity. And samsungs run slightly cooler and quieter than wd's.

Anything is possible. I've read that Seagates currently have better performance than WD's but I think it's probably just speculation or wishful thinking.

When it comes down to it, we are in fact dealing with two companies that manufacture different drives. There will be variances and different pros and cons.

In a general sense, though, I think they're pretty equal as you say.

 

[criggenbach]

wow, I am surprised. My hard drives fail every time I turn around it seems, and most of yours last quite a while. I have had 2 Seagates fail within the last 4 years. They were both cheap IDE drives. And I have 2 other drives that have lasted about 2 years now (replacements). My Dad's laptop HDD is just fine after almost 5 years, and my brother had to buy a new HDD last year, because his died after 4 years. So in total that is 3 dead HDD, and 4 that are still running. However the ones that are running are less than 3 years old, besides my dad's laptop HDD.

 

[savvy]

None.

 

[Bonesdad]

12 drives in 8 years, 2 failures, the only 2 Maxtor's I will ever own.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: seemingly random

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
http://www.dansdata.com/gz075.htm

I didn't catch how scan errors are reported or retrieved in the google report. I don't see an explicit scan error category in SMART.

I'm pretty sensitive about hd temps since the Dell laptop (in which the hd died) had heat problems - had to replace the cpu and ram also. That was before I discovered i8kfangui.

I consider temps of 35c +/-5 acceptable - mainly from anecdotal evidence. But, I have a seven year old, SFF Dell with a (iirc) seagate that stays ~50c. It's not always powered up. I'd guess it has had an average uptime of 3 hours/day over its lifetime.

?i think google runs its own system health software and doesn't just rely on smart.

as for your laptop, thats a sample size of 1. and 3 hours a day is pretty low usage really.

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
12 drives in 8 years, 2 failures, the only 2 Maxtor's I will ever own.

see, people aren't rational lol