How Safe Is Your Data? Backblaze Hard Drive Stats for Q1 2025 Explained

Welcome to Tech Brewed, where your hosts Greg Doig cuts through the digital clutter to bring you the week’s most important tech news and practical advice. In this episode, we’re diving into Backblaze’s Q1 2025 Drive Stats Report—a treasure trove of insights on hard drive reliability from one of the industry’s storage giants. Whether you’re safeguarding precious family photos or running a business, this episode will help you make smarter decisions about your data storage options. From surprising performances by tried-and-true 4TB drives to the reliability of massive 20TB giants, we’ll break down what these stats mean for you, highlight which drive models to watch out for, and share timeless tips—like the 3-2-1 backup rule—to keep your data safe. Join us as we turn a “boring” topic into essential knowledge for every tech user!

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Transcript

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Welcome to the tech tip podcast with Greg Doig, where we filter out the noise and serve up the week's essential tech news, tips, and guides. Today, we're pouring a perfect blend of tech topics and digital innovations that matter to you. Let's talk about something that might sound boring at first, but trust me, it could save your precious photos, documents, and memories from disappearing forever. We're talking about hard drive reliability. You know that sinking feeling when your computer won't start up or when that external drive with all your vacation photos suddenly stops working? Pretty awful. Right? Well, today, we're gonna look at some really interesting data that might help you avoid that nightmare scenario. Every three months, a company called Backblaze releases what they call their drive stats report. Now Backblaze is a cloud storage company that uses thousands, actually, tens of thousands of hard drives in their data centers, And they do something pretty amazing. They share detailed information about which drives are failing and which ones are holding up well. Their latest report just came out for the first quarter of twenty twenty five, and I've got some interesting takeaways to share with you that might help you when you're buying your next computer or external drive. First, let's talk about what they found. Overall, the failure rate across all their drives was about one point four two percent for the quarter. That might not sound like much, but when you're running a business or storing your precious family photos, even a small chance of failure is too big a risk. Right? Here's what I found fascinating. Some of the most reliable drives weren't the newest, biggest, most expensive models. The good old four terabyte drives, which are relatively small by today's standards, were actually some of the most dependable performers. It's kinda like how that reliable old car in your driveway just keeps going while your neighbor's fancy new model is always in the shop. On the other end of the spectrum, Backblaze is also testing some monster sized drives. We're talking 20 terabytes and above. That's enough storage to hold about 5,000,000 photos or ten thousand hours of HD video. And surprisingly, these huge drives are performing really well with less than a 1% failure rate over the year. That's pretty impressive for such new technology. Now not all the news was good. Some specific models didn't do so well. There were particular 10 terabyte Seagate drives and 12 terabyte HGST drives that had higher failure rates than average. This is why it's so important to research specific models before buying. Not all drives of the same size are created equal. So what does this all mean for you and me? Well, I've got a few practical takeaways. First, if reliability is your top priority, maybe you're storing irreplaceable family photos or important documents, those four terabyte drives are still a solid choice. They've been around longer, and manufacturers have worked out most of the kinks. Second, if you need massive storage and were worried about reliability, those big 20 terabyte plus drives are actually looking pretty good. Technology is advancing faster than we might think. Third, and this is really important, the specific model matters more than just the brand or size. Do a little research before buying any drive. A quick Internet search for reliability reviews could save you from a data disaster down the road. And finally, remember that any drive can fail. The question isn't if, but when. That's why backups are so important. Even the most reliable drive in Backblazes study still had some failures. The three two one backup rule is still king. Three copies of your data on two different types of media with one copy off-site. And before I wrap up, I should mention that Backblaze does something really cool. They make all their data publicly available. So if you're curious and wanna dig deeper, you can download the complete dataset from their website and look at it yourself. Just remember to give them credit if you use it for anything, which I am doing right now. Thank you, Backblaze. And that's all for this episode. I hope this helps you make better decisions about where you store your digital life. And remember, the most boring purchase you make, a reliable hard drive, might end up being the most important one. And until next time, it's Greg Doy reminding you, back up your data and keep your tech talk positive. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Tech Tips with Greg Doig. If you found this information helpful, be sure to subscribe so you never miss future episodes where we'll continue breaking down complex technology into simple, actionable advice. You can also follow us at gregdoig.com for more tech insights and quick solutions to common tech problems. This has been Tech Tips with Greg Doig proudly brought to you by WBBI, the voice of Beaver Island. Until next time, stay curious and keep your technology working for you, not against you.