Backblaze Q2 2026 Drive Stats: 354K HDDs Analyzed
Original: Backblaze drive stats for Q2 2026
Why This Matters
With 13+ years of real-world fleet data, Backblaze's Drive Stats remain one of the few large-scale, vendor-neutral HDD reliability benchmarks available publicly.
Backblaze published its Q2 2026 hard drive failure report, covering 354,415 drives monitored from April 1 to June 30, 2026. The report spans models from HGST, Seagate, and Toshiba, with annualized failure rates ranging from 0% to 9.33%. The company also previewed analysis of emerging storage technologies including SMR and higher-capacity drives above 20TB.
Backblaze's latest quarterly Drive Stats report covers 359,101 drives total, after excluding 3,881 boot drives and 705 HDDs that didn't meet inclusion thresholds (minimum 100 drives, 10,000 drive days). That leaves 354,415 hard drives in the analysis pool.
Standout failure rates this quarter: Seagate's ST10000NM0086 10TB model posted the highest AFR at 9.33% across 965 drives, while the HGST HUH721212ALN604 12TB came in at 7.63% across 9,694 drives. At the other end, several models recorded 0% failures — Seagate's ST8000NM000A, ST12000NM000J, and ST14000NM000J all had zero failures in Q2, though drive counts and days are relatively low.
Seagate's ST16000NM001G 16TB remains the fleet workhorse with 35,100 drives and an AFR of just 0.65%. Toshiba's MG07ACA14TA 14TB also shows strong numbers with 37,171 drives — the largest single model cohort in the dataset.
Beyond the raw stats, Backblaze flagged growing interest in drives at 20TB and above, noting that higher-capacity models are becoming more load-bearing in their infrastructure. The report teases a deeper look at differences between conventional CMR HDDs and newer drive technologies, with a dedicated webinar scheduled for October 8, 2026.