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Report: SSDs Are Still Way More Efficient Than HDDs for Data Storage

Informe: SSDS todavía es más eficiente que los HDD para el almacenamiento de datos

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As SSD prices fluctuate, they’re still the most efficient drive for personal data storage.

hard drives repair rates feature

Cloud backup and online storage solution provider Backblaze has released their latest hard drive and solid-state drive failure report. As you might expect, SSDs outperform older HDDs, again making them the most reliable way to store your data.

Backblaze’s quarterly reports give a good indication as to overall storage drive performance, with the drives used for cloud backups and other storage solutions under constant use—but it isn’t all doom and gloom for HDDs.

SSDs Are More Reliable Than HDDs

In short, solid-state drives are more reliable than HDDs. This won’t come as a surprise to those familiar with storage drive technology, as the SSDs have no moving parts, are not as prone to overheating issues, and are generally more energy-efficient.

Backblaze’s Q1 2021 drive failure rate report found that across their 171,919 HDDs, there was only a 0.85 percent rate of failure versus just shy of 15 million total drive days, which is nothing short of incredible.

However, most of these drives are used for storage alone. Backblaze uses its SSDs as boot drives for system access, diagnostics, logging, analysis, and more. The SSDs are not used for storage in the same manner as the hard drives, so they provide a different comparison for good measure.

The following table compares SSDs and HDDs used in the same capacity, performing the same activities and functions over the same period.

backblaze ssd hdd failure comparison

From January 1, 2021, through March 31, 2021, the SSDs only suffered two total drive failures versus the HDD’s 44 total drive failures. This gives the SSDs a failure rate of 0.58 percent compared to the HDD’s failure rate of over 10 percent.

Related: SSD vs HDD: Which Storage Device Should You Choose?

Of course, there are further caveats. The average hard drive age in the study is nearly 50 months old, whereas the solid-state drives have an average age of 12 months. Indeed, Backblaze indicates that the oldest HDDs are 96 months old, while the oldest SSD is just 30 months old.

These ages make a substantial difference to performance and the overall chance of failure but still illustrate why most users are switching to solid-state drives to protect their personal data.

Related: Warning Signs Your SSD Is About to Break Down and Fail

Time to Switch to an SSD?

Backblaze’s drive failure stats are illustrative and confirm what many have said for years: solid-state drives are faster, more efficient, and less prone to failure. As with any drive, the rate of failure will increase as the drive ages, but as solid-state drives have fewer moving parts, they will last longer in general.

That’s not to say there isn’t a place for traditional hard drives. Hard drives with multiple terabytes of storage are now phenomenally cheap, making them an excellent backup choice, especially for backup solutions that are not under much strain.

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