It is a proven fact that all hard drives will eventually fail. Some will fail prematurely due to manufacturers’ defects while others will fail simply because of wear and tear. The question is: how long until this occurs?
For the last four years, online backup provider Backblaze.com has kept 25,000 consumer-grade hard drives constantly running, keeping a record of whenever a hard drive breaks down. Their results are very interesting.
- For the first 18 months, 92% of all hard drives survive. The ones that fail are typically due to manufacturers’ defects.
- During the next 18 months, only a very small percentage of drives (~2%) will fail. These failures are from random “unlucky” issues and occur rarely anytime during the life of the drive.
- At around the three year mark, hard drives start to wear out due to general usage. 80% of drives will make it to year four and then they drop off at about 12% or more per year thereafter.
Studies such as this show just how imperative it is that you back up your data. With a one in ten chance that your hard drive dies in the first three years of its life and an accelerating chance of failure after that, there is no excuse for not having a solid backup system in place. Make a plan to include equipment replacement into your budget at least every four years with a 10% equipment-replacement expense built in over the first year and then again starting in year three. When it comes to data storage on hard drives, the clock is always ticking.
