Backblaze notes that this is particularly impressive given that this model is the oldest in its fleet, with an average age of 80.4 months. Of the considered drives, a 6TB Seagate (model ST6000DX000) had the lowest failure rate of any drive model, with an annualized failure rate (AFR) of only 0.11%. AFR = (drive failures / (drive days / 365)) * 100. Backblaze measures failure rate by annualized failure rate. Of these, 1,820 total drives failed during 2021. Of the 203,928 data drives, Backblaze removed 409 from consideration because they were used either for testing purposes or the company didn't have at least 60 samples of that drive in use. Hard drives like this can fail, and every year, given the sheer number of drives Backblaze manages, hundreds, or even thousands, of drives fail. Spinning platters are paired with magnetic heads to read and write data. This venerable storage technology stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage. Looking first at the standard report on HDD storage, Backblaze ended 2021 with a total of 203,928 data drives under its management. However, yesterday, for the first time, Backblaze released a special follow-up to its 2021 Annual Report focused on solid-state drives (SSD). Like in previous years, the report focused on failure rates for hard disk drives (HDD).

Last month, cloud storage and data backup company Backblaze released its 2021 Annual Report for hard drive failure rates.

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