Are There Manufacturer Differences in Hard-Drive Reliability?

Based on the Backblaze hard disk drive (HDD) dataset, we analyze whether the four major HDD manufacturers represented in the dataset—HGST, Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital (WD)—show differences in short- to medium-term HDD failure rates. Using two different duration regression models, we find—holding constant drive age, capacity, form-factor, and drive temperature—that Toshiba's failure rate is slightly above Seagate's. HGST HDD failure rates are the lowest, about 41% of Seagate's. WD HDD failure rates are significantly above HGST's, but still only about 52% of Seagate's. We also document the effects of age, capacity, temperature and drive location on failure rates.