Reliability of Spinning Things, Complex Levels and Types of Backups - A List of Ideas, Tips, Approaches

[DevTech]

EDIT: I will convert the main post to a summary over time of whatever might be useful as an information resource.

 

Reference Links:

 

Backblaze.com:  https://www.backblaze.com

 

Unlimited backup for one computer: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html

 

10 gigs of free storage: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage.html

 

Backblaze Reliability Data: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-2018/

 

Backblaze SMART Analysis: 

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-smart-stats-indicate-hard-drive-failures/

 

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-smart-stats/

 

Backblaze Open Source Hardware Pod Design: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/storage-pod.html

 

 

 

 

----------------------------------------------------

Background:

 

I just had a hard drive fail with 2 TB of unknown stuff of unknown importance.

 

So, how did that happen?

 

1. All drives fail, sooner or later.

 

2. I was gradually reorganizing things across various drives on various computers on my home LAN. And I used this drive as a "Parking Lot" to hold about 30 gig "chunks" of things that "belonged" somewhere else. It also had media files which are a different kind of issue.

 

3. So, I don't know what was on the drive, just the enormity of what can be inside of 2 TB!

 

4. So, before I purchase a new 4TB or 6TB or 8TB to replace it, I am motivated to consider ideas for improving the organization of information, the types and importance levels of "things that need backing up" and whatever types of software that could help with an improved strategy.

 

 

Things that might help?

 

A) some sort of continuous disk scan across the entire LAN so that if a drive fails, I know what exactly was lost

 

B) A software backup system that has levels/tags/categories etc to account for different methods and different types of coverage across a typical home LAN of 10 computers, with 4 hard drives per computer, maybe 200 TB of which only the most important stuff could presumably be backed up online...

 

C) I might have only 10 TB at most of critical data (and that is always duplicated across the LAN with most critical stuff backed up online), but the other 200 TB becomes a giant pain point when drives fail and and you have to figure out what is gone and how to recover it, so some sort of software that "manages recovery" with different responses to different tiers?

 

D) Backblaze, at $5 per month stops being attractive when you realize it is for 1 computer only and $50 per month for my LAN is just excessive when I only have maybe 10 TB at most of critical data, so do I make a Backblaze type of Mini-POD??

 

E) All the things I haven't yet considered...

 

 

If you all get motivated to contribute lots of ideas and information, even obvious stuff like articles and links etc, I will type it up/assemble it into some sort of reference for the community.

 

 

 

 

[DevTech]

Referencing my analysis of the Backblaze.com reliability data:

 

 

 

The report summary of the year 2018:

 

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-2018/

 

[DevTech]

Unique nature of SSDs might require different attention to where they fit in a "protection" plan.

 

For SSDs, SMART data is useless and they fail completely in a millisecond with ZERO notice or hint of a problem.

 

 

------------------------------------

A cut n paste of my post here: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1378872-reliability-issues-on-6tb-internal-hdds/?do=findComment&comment=598410942

 

 

I had left SSDs off my little ad-hoc list due to complexity.

 

SSD's share one characteristic with keyboards and mice in that they wear down the more you use them. Current generation SSDs will almost certainly make it past the warranty period but then it gets tricky.

 

Once spare cells run down to ZERO, the drive is dead. Personally, I would wish they had been smart enough to just mark the sector involved as an unrecoverable error and then let the O/S remap sectors like it would do for a hard drive. You could then rescue the drive by re-partitioning it, even cut to half-size since spare cells are zero at that point and then the huge new empty partition becomes new spare cell repository for the firmware. It's not hard to imagine the industry doing a standard API between SSD firmware and OS to make that happen...

 

It's Neowin tech people here and some percentage of techies like to eke out every bit of value and lifetime from equipment and in the past most devices (if initially purchased from quality manufacturers) could be expected to survive well past the warranty period by a few multiples even. Hit and miss of course, but still the majority of quality stuff really lasts well...

 

With SSDs, depending on how they are used, there is essentially a countdown clock at end of warranty. Every single write to the drive brings it closer to Drive Cemetery.

 

SSDs come from the factory with a spare cell allotment of 5% to 15% of the drive depending on the FLASH tech involved. I always add another 10% to that on every drive in the hope my SSDs will last like some of my hard drives have...

 

I have already murderd one drive by writing to it too much (first gen doing giant C++ compiles, but still a shock) which opened my eyes to  this new class of all-electronic device that somehow had the feel of a mechanical device getting wear and tear!

 

[+BudMan MVC]

9 hours ago, DevTech said:

home LAN of 10 computers, with 4 hard drives per computer

I am really having a hard time picturing the need of 4 drives in HOME computers.. You mean these are home "servers" that your using to store files - what files?  You have 200TB of what exactly?  Your a data hoarder and just download random stuff of the net to have it local?

 

200TB ? You take a HUGE amount of video for your hobby/job/fun/family?  In 4K?

 

First thing in any real backup plan is data classification, there is just some stuff that makes no point to use up extra storage with any sort of backup.  For example anything that could be replaced say that CD of Music by your fav band - that is very popular and available anywhere, etc etc.  While sure you have in your library... Is it worth backing that up?  Spending cycle caring for the backup, validation of the backup, storage, etc. etc.  So we really need to get a handle on type of data we are talking about.

 

The latest copy of software xyz you install.. Unless your worried about the company going out of business and not providing their software for download again..  Do you really need that in your backup plan, etc.

 

So while I love to join such a discussion, and even when talking these large amounts of space - having a hard time understanding why you would want/need 10 different PCs all with 4 disks in them amounting to 100's of TB?

 

Wouldn't it be better to centralize your storage?  And your PCs should have small amount of work space on them..

 

Is this come sort of community living home, do you have sister wifes and 20 kids... I don't get the 10 PC thing... 2, 3 ok sure.. But 10 PC's with 4 Drives each - just not getting how that happens other than PCs to add space to feed your hoarding wants?  Can you explain how you have 10 PCs with so many disks and what actually makes up this data that your into the 100's of TB?

 

 

[DevTech]

29 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Is this come sort of community living home, do you have sister wifes and 20 kids... I don't get the 10 PC thing... 2, 3 ok sure.. But 10 PC's with 4 Drives each - just not getting how that happens other than PCs to add space to feed your hoarding wants?  Can you explain how you have 10 PCs with so many disks and what actually makes up this data that your into the 100's of TB?

 

Hey dude, it's me, DevTech!

 

I have a community living home, but NOT for people! Based on DMCA, (Digital Millennium Computer Advances) there is a Digital Lifeform friendly environment with all the electricity they want, coexisting in a cooperative caring manner completely sympathetic to the needs of Silicon Based Entities.

 

I am just a techie geek/nerd like many here at Neowin and I like to play around with stuff and also have a normal nuclear family type household where of course everyone has their own PC.

 

I do Dev work (the Dev in DevTech) and use computers and laptops arranged in a semi-circle at my workstation area. etc.

 

-----------------

 

Breakdown:

(everything connected via gigabit cable)

 

DevTech: 2 computers + 2 laptops

 

Family Member #1: 1 computer (plus tablet)

 

Family Member #2: 1 computer

 

Living room: TV/Media: 1 computer (plus Xbox, PS4, Wii, Wii-U, Switch, GameCube) (and yeah I totally WANT to remain with a fully functioning PC for my TV/Movie watching with a real keyboard and mouse, plus it has a GTX 570 for light gaming)

 

Internet Router: 1 computer (ipfire.org) plus 2 16 and 24 port gigabit switches, plus 4 wireless routers repurposed as access points

 

Minecraft Server: 1 computer

 

Misc Servers: 3 computers (VMs, whatever)

 

Planned: 1 computer for central Audio Serving, 1 computer as a Dynamic DNS Web server since hey 15 mbits upload speed, and torn between giant server with RTX GPU cards for GPU Compute processing or else equipping my main dev computer that way with a Socket 771 or 3647 (which permits testing with Games as well)

 

---------------------

 

So It's not like it was planned out that way and certainly with the application of planning, time and a good chunk of cash, some of the computers can be updated and aggregated. Since all the server usages are "hand me down" computers, they tend to have 4 to 8 gigs of RAM and I could really use a server right now with 256 gigs RAM for running some AI/ML stuff (could also use a few GTX 2080 ti for GPU computing)

 

Everything except the router runs Windows with any Linux experiments running as a VM. I am slowly setting up each server as a mini test bed for a Kubernetes cluster with Docker Containers both Windows based and Linux based for some true XPLAT testing...

 

So, from a geek perspective we all WANT (sometimes "need") to always be upgrading our main computers that we use every day and also from a tech-geek philosophy, every major upgrade yields a motherboard, CPu and RAM which of course is another server on the LAN!

 

So when I need disk space, it has been a case of slapping a hard drive into any convenient computer with an available drive bay.

 

Maybe Neowin is short on tinkerers lately, but if I don't have a typical geeky home setup here, then it at least mimics the backup requirements of a small small-business LAN.

 

 

 

 

[xendrome]

Seems like it's impossible to quantify broad reliability data for billions of devices out there that could be in billions of different climates, conditions, setups, use cases, etc.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

Doesn't SSD degrade over time, only with write cycles, but (in theory) have no wear / unlimited read cycles?

[+BudMan MVC]

Hhehehe ok, so the amount of machines is just all uncontrolled growth/creep?  Crazy..

 

I would say I am self proclaimed king of the nerds, atleast in my circle of friends and family and don't have that many PCs   Multiple iot devices and stuff connected to my network.. But if I add up all the HDD that are online of any size its a total of lets see 3,3x4,8,3x2 = 29TB.. This is not counting SSDs and or laptops/tablets/etc..  But actually data that is of any concern is very small fraction of that..

 

So is your 200TB number total available space - or occupied storage with data on it?  What is the actual amount of DATA that is of need?

 

I would suggest you look to building a Large Storage box.. Where your files that need to be backed up, or even centrally used can be housed.. It will make it simpler for clarification and storage and access and backup.  This NAS could then provide space to your other project machines via NFS/SMB/iSCSI/etc..

[DevTech]

2 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Hhehehe ok, so the amount of machines is just all uncontrolled growth/creep?  Crazy..

 

I would say I am self proclaimed king of the nerds, atleast in my circle of friends and family and don't have that many PCs   Multiple iot devices and stuff connected to my network.. But if I add up all the HDD that are online of any size its a total of lets see 3,3x4,8,3x2 = 29TB.. This is not counting SSDs and or laptops/tablets/etc..  But actually data that is of any concern is very small fraction of that..

 

So is your 200TB number total available space - or occupied storage with data on it?  What is the actual amount of DATA that is of need?

 

I would suggest you look to building a Large Storage box.. Where your files that need to be backed up, or even centrally used can be housed.. It will make it simpler for clarification and storage and access and backup.  This NAS could then provide space to your other project machines via NFS/SMB/iSCSI/etc..

I do dev work so I'm religious about backing up important data. That's not an issue for me.I stated in the first post that 10 TB covered that and I could easily weed that down to 200 gigs..

 

The problem is all the other categories of data that really add up, the typical hi-res photos and movies, but also tons of VM images, version-ed and labeled for one experiment or another. If I loose a drive full of those, it can be recreated but all the info on what is what is in the directory structure of the drive that would fail and well I could just toss it but then a year later I realized I need that widget thing and it's on an O/S image on....

 

So my bad on labeling/describing...

 

The correct issue is how to back up stuff that isn't critical, can be gathered and recreated over a certain time period that is typically too long for comfort and involves lots of hours copying stuff and setting it all up again...

 

If you loose all your movie drives, how long to set all that up again, and if time is money, what kind of cost liability are we really risking?

 

I've just been asked by a family member for a save file from an emulated Twilight Princess from 2 years ago and I'm worried it is on the recently dead drive and from my point of view it didn't occur to me to prioritize old game images...

 

Some of it could be sentimental nuts stuff - booting up an old desktop of OS/2 etc - I could wipe all that kind of thing but then what the heck are computers supposed to be good for, if not more perfect memories than we have ourselves...

 

 

22 minutes ago, BudMan said:

I would suggest you look to building a Large Storage box..

 

Ok, so that's tempting, but the usual choice between new motherboard/CPU/GPU and storage box where the more exciting PC upgrade has won in the past... maybe it's time to do it differently...

 

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/storage-pod.html

 

https://www.storagereview.com/backblaze_storage_pod_60_review

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could modify the design to hold a LGA-3647 mobo and get a new server at the same time...

 

 

[+BudMan MVC]

So your question is more on how to catalog everything?  I think you would have great time over at https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

 

And would have lots of feedback and discussion on your topic more than here to be honest..

[DevTech]

6 hours ago, BudMan said:

So your question is more on how to catalog everything?  I think you would have great time over at https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/

 

And would have lots of feedback and discussion on your topic more than here to be honest..

Interesting link. I generally avoid Reddit due to the extreme variability in the "quality" of participation...

 

Horrible name of course which by itself seems to imply there is something wrong with keeping data at a time in human history when governments and corporations are seriously stepping up their efforts to store and retail the most trivial details about everything...

 

Data is power. Those in power have been messaging to the sheep-like masses that there is something not quite right about "hoarding" in all areas of life as a way of exerting control and making the masses completely dependant by convincing them to let go of everything so that in the end the 1% become the .1% 

 

They might use "Data Hoarding" to convince the public to switch to 1% owned online storage, BUT for themselves,  the corps use the phrase "Data Retention" instead to fuel the path to power and dominance in the next decade of Machine Learning and AI.

 

The word "hoarding" is one of those Red Flag alarm words that signify a less than honest agenda. But if the 1% really wants to sell the common public on the "hoarding horrors" they should start by letting go of all that money they are hoarding that does nothing for anyone other than fuel some deep sense of satisfaction in that smallest segment of mankind that has no empathy for any of us, but instead is mesmerized by their billions like Evil Dragons in their lairs protecting their gold. 

 

Anyways, I will think about the types of PC software and utils that might give the common man and small business owners the the tools to manage a flexible Data Retention Plan...

 

 

[DevTech]

https://www.backblaze.com

 

Unlimited Online Backup

 

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html

 

Backblaze will automatically back up all your files including documents, photos, music and movies. Unlimited files. Unlimited file size. Unlimited speed

 

Restore and Access

 

You can download a free restore of 1 file or all your files anywhere in the world. There is an option to have a 256 GB flash drive ($99) FedEx to you or an external drive up to 8 TB ($189). Access files on iPhone, iPad or Android. 

 

 

Other Features:

 

Restore multiple versions up to 30 days

Automatic or scheduled backups

Locate a missing or stolen computer

Be notified of your backup status

Auto threading & throttling - or set your own upload limit

Order a USB drive of your data and mail it back to us in 30 days for a refund.

File sharing via Backblaze B2 - share files you've backed up.

 

Individual Files:

 

Individual files within a Backblaze backup can be directly shared from the View/Restore Files page.

To share a file, an account must first have B2, Backblaze's cloud storage service, enabled via the account settings. Once B2 is enabled, up to 10 GB of data can be stored and shared for free, with up to 1 GB per day of download bandwidth. Additional usage will follow normal Backblaze B2 pricing. 

 

Price for Unlimited Data Backup

 

Prices are per computer. Plus applicable taxes.

 

$ 5 per month, $ 50 per year 

 

Native Clients:

 

- PC

 

- MAC

 

I'll check to see if there is any 3rd party Linux clients out there...

 

 

[DevTech]

8 hours ago, Eternal Tempest said:

Doesn't SSD degrade over time, only with write cycles, but (in theory) have no wear / unlimited read cycles?

Other than the hardwired self-destruct button of cell write limits, the SSD is a normal circuit board of modern electronics.

 

In this millennium, circuit boards (PCB) in every consumer category (i.e NOT Military/Aviation/Medical) are  increasingly designed to save every possible penny and are determined like calculations on a spreadsheet to last some cost effective minimum percentage past the warranty period AND NO MORE.

 

So for most people, the SSD will blow up mysteriously of some component failure inside an impossible to understand surface mounted PCB full of components you need a microscope to see BEFORE the cells reach their write limit as long as the percentage of SPARE provisioned cells is large enough to exceed the calculated warranty period.

 

Anyone notice that a large amount of stuff you buy these days seems to fail just after the manufacturer's warranty period? It's not a conspiracy, it's just the modern preciseness of the supply chain and manufacturing...

 

 

 

 

[DevTech]

9 hours ago, xendrome said:

Seems like it's impossible to quantify broad reliability data for billions of devices out there that could be in billions of different climates, conditions, setups, use cases, etc.

For hard drives, for all of humanity, for what it's worth (limited to specific drives they purchased) this is ALL we have available and as frustrating as that might be, all we had before Backblaze came along was NOTHING. Just an internet filled with the BS of personal anecdotal "information"

 

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-2018/

 

Every tech person should read that report.

 

[DevTech]

I suppose that the "Hard Drive in the Cloud" idea promoted by Google and Amazon and Microsoft might have some specific backup uses and while I was at the Backblaze site, I saw some low priced options.

 

Like Amazon S3 etc, it has a comprehensive API that would permit all sorts of software to connect to it...

 

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage.html

 

Like Google and Microsoft there is a FREE tier which for Backblaze is 10 GB.

 

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html

 

They seem to be aiming at 1/4 the price of the competition...

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

Can you up that 10GB at any time?

[DevTech]

1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

Can you up that 10GB at any time?

https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html

 

That's the idea - expand infinitely at those rates...

 

At those prices, it also makes sense to park data on Amazon AWS or Azure for example ML training data etc and then pull it in from B2 to Azure or Amazon for processing.

 

Their hardware design for the storage pods is Open Source Hardware, so I'd love it if they designed a "Compute Pod" and started hosting Cloud Servers...

 

[exotoxic]

4 hours ago, DevTech said:

The word "hoarding" is one of those Red Flag alarm words that signify a less than honest agenda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_hoarding

[DevTech]

1 hour ago, exotoxic said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_hoarding

Obviously it is a semantic term that people associate with a meaning which is why I said it was a "Red Flag"

 

I am disturbed that this word has entered the digital domain at a time in technology when the ordinary person should be encouraged to "hoard" information as an exercise in NOT conceding the new power of AI to faceless international corporations who do not have our interests in mind at all. Excessive consumerism leads to an eternal need to throw things out in order to get people to buy the same crap again as something "new" but buying the same digital bits over and over again hits a new level of absurdity.

 

This issue was first raised in 1960 and hasn't gotten any better since in order for the 1% to do "Money Hoarding" they need to convince the common people to get rid of more stuff so they can buy more stuff...

 

It works by a cycle of socially transmitted stupidity by taking a word that used to mean a good thing (hoard of gold) and convincing people to feel the exact opposite... 

 

"manipulation of ordinary people by business interests" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waste_Makers - hence the "Red Flag" issue where the usage of the word itself implies either "manipulation of ordinary people" is in progress or else evidence that the manipulation was successful.

 

And the end result becomes this insanity:

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-29/marie-kondo-conquered-netflix-and-is-now-training-cleaning-consultants

 

If the average person is going to be tricked by the grifters in charge, I fervently hope tech people everywhere can see a bit deeper and keep data in the hands of the people in an age where it would actually be possible to have Backblaze type storage pods connected P2P in an informal Mesh Network that empowers all of us and not just a privileged few.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

 

 

[DevTech]

I have been doing some additional investigation into hard drives where most of our time is spend reading tea leaves when we stray outside the Backblaze reliability data...

 

1. Still convinced WD Black is one of the best constructed spinning platter drives

 

2. Impressed also by WD Gold

 

3. The Backblaze experience with WD Red is alarming

 

4. Seagate IronWolf Pro looks promising

 

5. It seems that drives made for NAS are actually not the best choice for NAS for a typical or even enthusiast home user. WD Black, WD Gold, or Ironwolf Pro is going to give you a better NAS experience...

 

6. Manufacturer spec sheets are getting increasing vague in many areas - the reason for that is they want to mix up Rotation Speed, Number of Platters, Recording Density, etc in various patterns to fix a marketing profile and don't want tech users to select a drive based on any of these individual specs. 

 

But that means that any tests, experience, brand loyalty etc that you have about a favorite 4 TB hard drive for example, will NOT apply to the 3 TB or the 6 TB model in the same product lineup...

 

 

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

5 minutes ago, DevTech said:

5. It seems that drives made for NAS are actually not the best choice for NAS for a typical or even enthusiast home user. WD Black, WD Gold, or Ironwolf Pro is going to give you a better NAS experience...

That went around for eternity. No, Red's suck. Oh, wait, they have so-and-so added to it! They are the greatest drives you can have! They're a peice of garbage unless you have in a NAS scenario. *scratches head*

 

The Seagate and WD wars arise now? I mean, YES, they are both very strong companies, but a lot of people throw out Seagate drives more than WD. Personally, I do not care. Whatever is cheaper.  (Same with HGST, too..)

[DevTech]

3 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

That went around for eternity. No, Red's suck. Oh, wait, they have so-and-so added to it! They are the greatest drives you can have! They're a peice of garbage unless you have in a NAS scenario. *scratches head*

 

The Seagate and WD wars arise now? I mean, YES, they are both very strong companies, but a lot of people throw out Seagate drives more than WD. Personally, I do not care. Whatever is cheaper.  (Same with HGST, too..)

That sounds almost completely incoherent...

 

In this thread and the other one linked, I am attempting to interpret the ONLY AVAILABLE HARD DRIVE RELIABILITY DATA AVAILABLE TO HUMANITY and combine it with whatever other tech knowledge I have into information that might be helpful.

 

The REAL DATA is NOT a matter of opinion, but however happens to be inconvenient since it references drives that are either expensive or older and impossible to locate.

 

My reference to NAS is that in the low to mid sizes that people tend to afford, the quality and performance is going downwards and the WD Gold for example is a good compromise. If you can afford the 14 TB drives referenced in the Backblaze data then of course go for those models!!!

 

 

[DevTech]

23 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

That went around for eternity. No, Red's suck. Oh, wait, they have so-and-so added to it! They are the greatest drives you can have! They're a peice of garbage unless you have in a NAS scenario. *scratches head*

 

The Seagate and WD wars arise now? I mean, YES, they are both very strong companies, but a lot of people throw out Seagate drives more than WD. Personally, I do not care. Whatever is cheaper.  (Same with HGST, too..)

Now on the other hand, one key word is that I am "interpreting" the Backblaze data in a way that hopefully translates from their Beautiful Red Server Pods to our home usage...

 

I would of course be quite interested if you see anything interesting when you look at the same same data. Two eyes better than one...

 

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

41 minutes ago, DevTech said:

That sounds almost completely incoherent...

 

In this thread and the other one linked, I am attempting to interpret the ONLY AVAILABLE HARD DRIVE RELIABILITY DATA AVAILABLE TO HUMANITY and combine it with whatever other tech knowledge I have into information that might be helpful.

 

The REAL DATA is NOT a matter of opinion, but however happens to be inconvenient since it references drives that are either expensive or older and impossible to locate.

 

My reference to NAS is that in the low to mid sizes that people tend to afford, the quality and performance is going downwards and the WD Gold for example is a good compromise. If you can afford the 14 TB drives referenced in the Backblaze data then of course go for those models!!!

 

 

 

25 minutes ago, DevTech said:

Now on the other hand, one key word is that I am "interpreting" the Backblaze data in a way that hopefully translates from their Beautiful Red Server Pods to our home usage...

 

I would of course be quite interested if you see anything interesting when you look at the same same data. Two eyes better than one...

 

 

You really needed to quote me twice?

 

But, yeah. I only had one WD Black drive, but hasn't failed me yet...And several Blues and Greens. Never touched the other stuff.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

With respect to BackBlaze ... while their hard drive reliability stats are a fun read ... it is far from giving a real world consumer level reliability test on hard drives.  Looking at the "Annualized Hard Drive Failure Rates for Active Drives" half of those drives are consumer and the other half are enterprise.  The consumer drives are being used in an environment which they weren't really designed for. They also do not give the cause of particular hard drive failures (afaik) or how much "thrashing" a failed drive underwent.

 

...but anyway.  That is my take on BackBlaze ... interesting ... but I'm not going to use their data in deciding my next consumer hard drive. /shrug