# A sample of over 5,000 drives reveals one problem with new HDDs

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/a-sample-of-over-5000-drives-reveals-one-problem-with-new-hdds/
- Published: 2026-11-08T21:45:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-08T22:03:18+00:00
- Original publisher: Engadget
- Original article: https://www.engadget.com/2309632/one-problem-with-new-hdds-5000-drives-study/
- Topics: Research, Science

## Key points

- HDDs can fail early or without warning.
- They remain cheaper than SSDs for high-capacity storage.
- Use backups and plan for ageing drives.

## Summary

Data from large drive fleets suggests hard disk drives carry a meaningful risk of early or unexpected failure, reinforcing the need to plan for data protection. HDDs remain much cheaper per gigabyte than SSDs, particularly for high-capacity storage, so they continue to make sense where cost matters more than speed.

Backblaze says about 1.5% of its HDDs fail, with nearly half of those failures occurring in the first year and 30% happening without warning. Secure Data Recovery, analysing drives that had already failed, reports an average lifespan of 807 days; the article also says failure risk rises as drives age, especially beyond seven years. It recommends replacing ageing drives and keeping additional copies, such as cloud or off-site backups.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.