You’re in all probability shopping for the flawed laborious drive, and this 341,000-HDD examine proves it
When purchasing for HDDs, it is all too simple to concentrate on the worth and nothing else. Sure, the largest drives are inclined to have eye-watering worth tags, and never everybody wants 20+ terabytes of storage anyway … however a current examine, based mostly on a huge pattern measurement, reveals that these drives may be nicely well worth the added value.
In truth, Backblaze discovered that a few of its largest HDDs failed the least out of its complete fleet.
Backblaze’s largest HDDs are at the moment failing much less
And the pattern measurement is big
Backblaze usually studies on how its huge fleet of HDDs is doing, however one among its most recent reports reveals some attention-grabbing insights. Namely, that bigger capability might translate to raised longevity for laborious drives.
The firm analyzed greater than 341,000 manufacturing laborious drives within the first quarter of 2026. An enormous chunk of these drives are of the big sort, with capacities of 20TB and extra. The pattern measurement is essential right here, as a result of if, out of 86,000 drives, Backblaze is seeing encouraging developments, that has to imply one thing. While these 20+TB drives do not make up nearly all of the fleet, Backblaze appears to be betting on them proper now, as out of the ten,220 drives it deployed in Q1 2026, over 9,400 had been above 20TB. That’s roughly 92%.
The most vital discovering comes all the way down to the reliability of those humongous drives: Backblaze says that their AFR, or annualized failure price, is simply 0.85%. That’s nicely beneath the typical throughout your entire fleet, which sits at 1.24%.
The method AFR works is that it accounts for what number of days the drives had been truly in service and annualizes the ensuing failure price, so it is extra revealing than simply evaluating uncooked numbers of what number of drives died vs. what number of made it out unscathed. Backblaze additionally reported that its general AFR improved from the primary quarter of 2025, when it was at 1.42%.
There’s one huge catch: these drives are nonetheless very younger
Drives you purchase on a budget are in all probability not
Trusting an old HDD can end poorly for a lot of causes, and that is one vital caveat we’ve got to debate to not make these 20TB+ HDDs look too thrilling.
The 20TB-and-larger fashions within the Q1 2026 report vary from simply a few months outdated to round 16 months on common. Compared to a number of the smaller drives, a few of which have been operating for over 5 years, these new 20TB+ HDDs are mainly infants. That offers them a bonus that may taper off after we have a look at these similar figures in 10 years.
A model new HDD and an older drive do not precisely have the identical odds of failing, particularly once they’re operating 24/7 (as is the case right here). On the opposite hand, a newer Secure Data Recovery study revealed that roughly half of all failed drives despatched to the corporate died of their first yr of operation, however even this information has an vital caveat: it solely talks about drives that really failed. Those that do not fail by no means attain the corporate, and thus aren’t accounted for the best way they’re in Backblaze’s information.
I digress. Despite the potential age distinction between Backblaze’s chonky drives and people much less capacious, the info is sound, as a result of this is not the one occasion of it. Backblaze has beforehand in contrast its 20TB+ drives towards older 14TB to 16TB fashions at comparable factors of their lives, and the newer, higher-capacity drives nonetheless regarded aggressive, if not barely higher.
One 22TB drive is doing numerous heavy lifting right here
Bigger would not routinely imply higher
Fun truth: The firm appears to have a favourite drive. The WDC WUH722222ALE6L4 (22TB) now accounts for over 45,000 of Backblaze’s items, and it solely has a 0.38% AFR, which could have one thing to do with that choice. It additionally accounts for greater than half of Backblaze’s complete 20TB+ fleet.
The information is not a fluke, it appears. The drives averaged 16.1 months outdated, and the mannequin’s lifetime AFR was nonetheless solely 0.58% throughout greater than 22 million drive days; a formidable outcome when put next with the general information. Still, there is a mannequin that has a good higher failure price, though the pattern measurement is way smaller, too. Toshiba’s 24TB drives posted a superb 0.22% AFR that quarter, measured throughout 7,203 HDDs.
An affordable laborious drive can nonetheless find yourself being the costly selection
Price per drive is not the quantity I’d optimize for
Going by means of these numbers does make me rethink my storage technique somewhat bit. Most of my very own technique boils all the way down to utilizing what I already personal. For occasion, I’ve harvested HDDs from old consoles and laptops. I additionally are inclined to suppose that even tiny drives, comparable to a 120GB SATA, can have some use, supplied you’re taking excellent care of them and again up your recordsdata (these drives are typically outdated, bordering on historic, in spite of everything).
When it comes to purchasing new drives, although, it is simply not an excellent time to purchase any, so once I did purchase, I settled for 8TB. But wanting on the costs now, in addition to Backblaze’s information, it does appear that these greater drives may be the play.
Of course, an vital caveat: Do you even want 20TB+ of storage? Many folks do not, and if you cannot see your self ever filling such a drive to, say, 70%, there isn’t any must spend extra. These AFRs are low, irrespective of the way you spin it, so it isn’t like a pricier drive is sure to stay an extended life.
The largest drives are removed from a big gamble, they’re simply expensive
I’ve heard folks say that huge HDDs are extra liable to failure. I am unable to let you know based mostly alone expertise, as I’ve been fortunate sufficient to see only a few drive failures within the final 20 years, and so they’ve all been method smaller than 20TB. But Backblaze’s information is nearly the perfect pattern measurement you’ll be able to formally discover, and it does reveal that 20TB+ HDDs are doing exceptionally nicely for now—so, on the very least, do not be afraid to purchase them if you happen to really want them.
