Online backup service Backblaze uses the same hard drives most of us use to store our data—which means they have almost 35,000 consumer drives housing our data. Their latest report claims that consumer hard drives are actually slightly more reliable than expensive "enterprise" style drives.

We've covered their analysis before, and they still rank Hitachi/HGST drives the most reliable. This time, they discovered that the drives designed for corporate server use—that is, so-called "enterprise drives"—actually failed more often than consumer drives. If you're buying enterprise drives because you think they'll last longer, it may be worth looking into that decision further.


Your mileage may vary and this is just one company's analysis, but it's an interesting stat. Check out the link and decide for yourself which drive is the most reliable.


Hard Drive Reliability Update — Sep 2014 | Backblaze