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

Many fail in the first year, and those that do often don’t even warn you there’s a problem

By Jonny Evans Nov. 8, 2026 4:45 pm EST Dan74/Shutterstock Add Engadget on Google: Google Discover

One problem with Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) is mechanical unpredictability. In other words, they can fail because of a factory defect in the first week or chug away quite happily until failing without warning once they get older.

Recent data from the cloud storage giant Backblaze shows roughly 1.5% of all HDDs fail and nearly half of those fail in year one. Additionally, 30% of those failed drives break down without warning. That data is based on its experience managing a huge fleet of over 350,000 storage drives.