Backblaze 341,000-HDD Study: You're Probably Buying the Wrong Hard Drive

Backblaze analyzed over 341,000 hard drives in Q1 2026: models 20 TB and above had an annualized failure rate (AFR) of 0.85%, compared to 1.24% fleet-wide. The leader was WDC 22 TB with 0.38% AFR, while Toshiba 24 TB had 0.22%.

• AFR for 20 TB+ drives: 0.85%, fleet average: 1.24%
• Of 10,220 new drives, 92% were over 20 TB
• WDC 22 TB: 0.38% AFR with 45,000+ drives installed
• Toshiba 24 TB: 0.22% AFR on a sample of 7,203 drives