In temporary: A analysis report on onerous drive failure charges for 2022 confirms the age of a drive is a key indicator for foretelling potential failure. The report examined 230,921 HDDs, and solely an 8TB Seagate (mannequin: ST8000NM000A) had zero failures.
A fast peek at the newest report from cloud storage supplier Backblaze concludes that bigger drives—12TB, 14TB, and 16TB—fail much less incessantly than smaller capability variations. During the previous yr, the annualized failure charge (AFR) for HDDs elevated considerably from 1.01 p.c in 2021 to 1.37 p.c in 2022, in keeping with Andy Klein, chief cloud storage evangelist for Backblaze.
The cloud backup agency had 236,608 HDDs in use on the finish of 2022, together with 4,299 boot drives and 235,608 knowledge drives. Backclaze excluded the boot models and 388 of the info HDDs from the evaluation as a result of that they had both been used for testing or had a fleet measurement of fewer than 60 models. That left a complete of 230,921 HDDs studied.
“In our Q2 2022 and Q3 2022 quarterly Drive Stats stories, we famous a rise within the general AFR from the earlier quarter and attributed it to the getting older fleet of drives, however is that the case?” Klien requested.
It seems the reply is sure.
Klein noticed that each measurement (aside from 16TB drives) confirmed a rise in AFR between 2021 and 2022 when greater capability HDDs—12TB, 14TB, and 16TB—have been in contrast in opposition to smaller ones—4TB, 6TB, 8TB, and 10TB. The AFR for small drives stood at 2.12%, considerably greater than the 1.37% enhance for all HDDs in 2022. Additionally, although smaller models solely made up 28.7% of drive days in 2022, they have been liable for 44.5% of drive failures.
However, Klein notes that though smaller drives failed extra incessantly final yr, they’re additionally older. The oldest onerous disc examined, a 6TB Seagate (ST6000DX000), had a mean age of 92.5 months. Its AFR in 2021 was 0.11 p.c, whereas in 2022, it was 0.68 p.c.
Backblaze’s desk grouping AFRs by vendor confirmed Seagate and Toshiba as the 2 with the very best failure charge. However, many of the Seagate models have been considerably older than the opposite HDDs examined. The agency expects to interchange the older drives with 16TB and bigger onerous drives in 2023, which signifies that its 4TB drives and the 6TB Seagate drives are in all probability on their means out.
