Backblaze Drive Stats for Q2 2024

As of the end of Q2 2024, Backblaze monitored 288,665 hard drives and solid-state drives in its cloud storage servers, excluding 3,789 boot drives, resulting in 284,876 drives for analysis. The annualized failure rate (AFR) for Q2 2024 was reported at 1.71%, an increase from 1.41% in Q1 2024 but a decrease from 2.28% in Q2 2023. Notably, two drive models, a 14TB and a 16TB Seagate, recorded zero failures during the quarter. The report highlighted the migration of older drive models, including the last of the 6TB drives, which had an impressive lifetime AFR of 0.86%. The oldest operational drive is a 4TB HGST drive nearing ten years of service. A concerning trend was noted with the 12TB HGST drive, which experienced a significant increase in its AFR to 7.17%. The analysis also categorized drives based on their age and failure rates, indicating that while some models performed well, others showed increasing failure rates over time. The report concluded with a discussion on the potential use of AI and machine learning to predict drive failures, emphasizing the need for a robust model trained on historical data.

- Backblaze monitored 284,876 drives for Q2 2024 analysis.

- The annualized failure rate increased to 1.71% from Q1 2024.

- Two Seagate drive models had zero failures in Q2 2024.

- The oldest operational drive is a 4TB HGST nearing ten years of service.

- Concerns were raised about the rising failure rate of the 12TB HGST drive.