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How long do disk drives last?

blog.backblaze.com

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Re: How long do disk drives last?

#31

Post by JoeAltmaier »

ancarda wrote: post #29
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Better yet, keep them in a Google data center. Its far more efficient to make cloud storage available at a reasonable price. How about a diskless laptop that boots from cloud storage? That would be a sweet spot economically (depending on network costs I guess).

>How about a diskless laptop that boots from cloud storage? While this is a cool idea, how much bandwidth would you need to boot at roughly the same speed you do today? Some SSDs have 500 MB/s (~4 Gbit) read. You'd need to have gigabit networking with almost zero latency for that to perform well. I suppose a smaller OS like Chrome OS would be perfect for that. Even if this worked on fiber, how would you boot over a c…

Time is a fungible commodity. E.g. boot time may affect bottom line (rhyme!) in the EU; it can be different in Africa.

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#32

Post by alfor »

skriticos2 wrote: post #22
outworlder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true for blackblaze. But these drives will still be useful. What about, say, shipping them to ONGs located in Africa?

That's a horrible idea! The logistics to collect and ship the old tech to Africa alone would probably cost more then just buying it bulk from China and ship in one batch. But there are other considerations: * This would also result in a big pile of waste in Africa, as their recycling infrastructure is limited. * They need food, shelter, stable politics and functional education before they can make any use of computer…

You could not believe the price they have to pay for computer. It is easily 3x, 4x the price we pay for the same hardware. And I they do need computer.

But, it is possible that the logistic/shipping is more expensive than the production of new hardware.

Also, cheaper more energy efficient hardware could be more cost effective.

source: A friend of mine worked for ong in Burkina Faso

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#34

Post by velodrome »

The hard disk drive quality has dropped over the last few years.

* Most consumer drives over 2TB have extremely poor reliability. Just check any Amazon or Newegg review (DOA and early mortality show up with more frequency). Yes, I know using reviews are not accurate but since there is no public information of drive failure rates there is not really much to go on.

* The reduction of manufacturer warranty since Thailand floods. Surprise, they never changed it back to the original 3 year warranty.

If you have a large array of disks, there is nothing to really to worry about. If you have a small set of drives, spend a little extra and get the "Black" or RE drives with 5 year warranty. Avoid any "Green" drive.

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#35

Post by maratd »

gambiting wrote: post #26
maratd wrote: post #9

It depends on the warranty period of the drive. Your hard drive manufacturer knows precisely how long the drive will last and sets their warranty period to expire right before your drive gives up the ghost.

Yeah, if that was true that would be completely against EU regulations,so you could sue manufacturers and win millions. So if you have any proof that they are doing that, you are practically a millionaire, I don't know why are you not on your way to the court yet.

You realize drives are made for specific markets, branded for specific markets, and warranty periods are specified on a per market basis?

Not everyone lives in the EU. In fact, the majority of people don't.

Outside your regulation happy haven, warranty periods aren't random and do indicate durability under normal use.

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#37

Post by svantana »

ck2 wrote: post #16

Part of the problem is the move by manufacturers to have consumers basically burn-in test their products for them as cost reduction and shift the expense to retailers.

Well ultimately it's the consumer/user who does the work. I've considered buying second-hand disks just to get around this problem. Although that usually comes with other issues...

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#38

Post by JoeAltmaier »

velodrome wrote: post #34

The hard disk drive quality has dropped over the last few years. * Most consumer drives over 2TB have extremely poor reliability. Just check any Amazon or Newegg review (DOA and early mortality show up with more frequency). Yes, I know using reviews are not accurate but since there is no public information of drive failure rates there is not really much to go on. * The reduction of manufacturer warranty since Thailan…

I have to suspect its because bleeding-edge drives have to be over-rated to compete. They have better margins which should mean they could afford better quality. But they can barely make the drive at all; they want to ship before reliability is quite there; so top-end drives are sketchy.

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#39

Post by pyGuru »

Just out of curiosity, I wonder what the savings would amount to if this company used something like SpinRite to fix / recover failed drives? Although I've never used it from what I hear its pretty good at saving drives...

Re: How long do disk drives last?

#40

Post by theandrewbailey »

Extremely useful info here. Most of my HDs have been running for years and still work fine, but you go online, and all you read about is that HDs are horrendously unreliable and all fail after a year or two. (manufacturer propaganda, anyone?)

The optical drives I've had, on the other hand, are actually unreliable. They all seem to break down after about four years, and I don't use them all that often!

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