{"id":591019,"date":"2025-04-14T11:58:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T09:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=591019"},"modified":"2025-04-14T12:04:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T10:04:37","slug":"most-reliable-hard-drives-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/591019-most-reliable-hard-drives-revealed.html","title":{"rendered":"Most reliable hard drives revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Years-long testing by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/backblaze-drive-stats-for-2024\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/backblaze-drive-stats-for-2024\/\">BackBlaze<\/a> has shown that Western Digital&#8217;s high-capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) are generally the most dependable for enterprise-level data storage, with three of the company&#8217;s HDDs making it into the top three most reliable drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While HDDs are an older technology that solid-state drives (SSDs) are increasingly replacing, HDDs are cheaper and still very efficient for storing large amounts of data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SSDs offer higher reading and writing speeds. However, HDDs still offer plenty of speed for data that isn&#8217;t required at a moment&#8217;s notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BlackBlaze has analysed the performance of hundreds of thousands of data and boot HDDs for over a decade, and as of 2024&#8217;s fourth quarter, it had 4,060 boot and 301,120 data HDD and SSD drives under its management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it removed 487 drives from testing, as they didn&#8217;t meet the criteria to be included. As a result, it analysed reliability for 300,633 HDDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its reliability testing in 2024&#8217;s fourth quarter, only five HDD models recorded zero failures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>HGST 4TB HMS5C4040ALE640<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 8TB ST8000NM000A<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 14TB ST14000NM000J<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 16TB ST16000NM002J<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 24TB ST24000NM002H<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>However, BlackBlaze noted that all of the zero-failure drives carried the caveat of having a relatively small number of drives and drive days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also highlighted Seagate&#8217;s 24TB drives, which were only introduced in early December 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The 1,200 drives filled one Backblaze Vault with no failed drives through the end of Q4,&#8221; said BlackBlaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The 24TB Seagate drives join the 20TB Toshiba and 22TB WDC drive models in the 20-plus TB capacity club as we continue to dramatically increase storage capacity while optimising existing storage server space.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, 4TB drives are on their way out, with BlackBlaze describing them as &#8220;nearly extinct&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since its testing began, BlackBlaze has tested 298,320 HDDs, with a combined total of 425.3 million drive days, and recorded an annualised failure rate (AFR) of 1.31%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The current lifetime AFR for all of the drives is 1.31%. This is down from 1.46% in 2023. The drop is primarily due to the completion of the migration of the 4TB Seagate drives in 2024,&#8221; says BlackBlaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As a consequence, the 79 million drive days and over 5,600 drive failures racked up by the 4TB Seagate drives by the end of 2023 are not included in the data presented.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The five HDDs with the best lifetime AFRs include two HGST models and three Western Digital drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The WD 16TB WUH721816ALE6L4 has performed best overall, with a lifetime AFR of 0.34%. It is followed closely by the HGST 4TB HMS5C4040BLE640 with a 0.39% lifetime AFR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Western Digital&#8217;s 14TB WUH721414ALE6L4 HDD and 16TB WUH721816ALE6L0 HDD placed third and fourth, with lifetime AFRs of 0.45% and 0.55%, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>HGST&#8217;s 12TB HUH721212ALE600 placed fifth with a lifetime AFR of 0.58%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The five worst-performing HDDs were all Seagate models. They scored lifetime AFRs as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Seagate 12TB ST12000NM008 \u2014 1.96%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 12TB ST12000NM007 \u2014 2.21%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 10TB ST10000NM0086 \u2014 2.79%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 12TB ST12000NM00J \u2014 3.29%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seagate 14TB ST14000NM0138  \u2014 5.92%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The table below summarises the most reliable hard drives revealed by BlackBlaze&#8217;s testing, based on lifetime AFR, while the graph underneath compares AFR by manufacturer over each quarter since Q1 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" class=\"has-fixed-layout\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Manufacturer and model<\/th>\n<th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Size<\/th>\n<th class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">Lifetime failure rate<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>WD WUH721816ALE6L4<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.34%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HGST HMS5C4040BLE640<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">4TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.39%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>WD WUH721414ALE6L4<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.45%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>WD WUH721816ALE6L0<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.55%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HGST HUH721212ALE600<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.58%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST16000NM001G<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.76%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toshiba MG10ACA20TE<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">20TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.87%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST12000NM001G<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">0.99%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toshiba MG07ACA14TA<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">1.00%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>WD WUH722222ALE6L4<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">22TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">1.06%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toshiba MG08ACA16TEY<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">1.11%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HGST HUH728080ALE600<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">8TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">1.14%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toshiba MG08ACA16TA<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">1.20%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toshiba MG08ACA16TE<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); color: #05a507;\">1.20%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HGST HUH721212ALE604<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.36%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST14000NM001G<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.42%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST8000DM002<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">8TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.50%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Toshiba MG07ACA14TEY<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.52%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST8000NM055<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">8TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.93%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>HGST HUH721212ALN604<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.94%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST12000NM008<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">1.96%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST12000NM007<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">2.21%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST10000NM0086<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">10TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">2.79%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST12000NM00J<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">12TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">3.29%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Seagate ST14000NM0138<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">14TB<\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\" style=\"background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);\">5.92%<\/mark><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f5f5f5;\">\n<td colspan=\"2\"><strong>Average<\/strong><\/td>\n<td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>1.31%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;uploadedSrc&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/mybroadband.co.za\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/BlackBlaze-reliable-harddrives-chart.jpg&quot;,&quot;figureClassNames&quot;:&quot;wp-block-image size-full&quot;,&quot;figureStyles&quot;:null,&quot;imgClassNames&quot;:&quot;wp-image-591059&quot;,&quot;imgStyles&quot;:null,&quot;targetWidth&quot;:890,&quot;targetHeight&quot;:618,&quot;scaleAttr&quot;:false,&quot;ariaLabel&quot;:&quot;Enlarge image&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" class=\"wp-block-image size-full wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"890\" height=\"618\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on-async--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-async-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BlackBlaze-reliable-harddrives-chart.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-591059\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BlackBlaze-reliable-harddrives-chart.jpg 890w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BlackBlaze-reliable-harddrives-chart-576x400.jpg 576w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/BlackBlaze-reliable-harddrives-chart-768x533.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 890px) 100vw, 890px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge image\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on-async--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"context.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"context.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the most reliable hard drives for large-scale data storage as of the end of 2024, according to Backblaze&#8217;s analysis of 298,320 drives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":591076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[99540,75058,31226,6070,733,2118],"class_list":["post-591019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-blackblaze","tag-hard-disk-drives-hdds","tag-hgst","tag-seagate","tag-toshiba","tag-western-digital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591284,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591019\/revisions\/591284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}