The Declining Reliability of HDDs: Is it Time to Switch to SSDs?

Backblaze has published its quarterly hard disk drive failure rate statistics, revealing that the annualized failure rates (AFR) have remained relatively stable. As the HDD population grows, the average AFR is 1.54 percent. The latest report shows a recovery in drive reliability after a 10TB failure rate peak, with the newest 16TB drives being the most reliable in Backblaze's HDD buying history. Seagate has the lowest reliability rating, and the average age of failed drives is two years and six months. Backblaze's HDD test data page is available for public use, but users must cite Backblaze as the source and cannot sell the data.