Windows 10: The most reliable hard drives in 2015, according to Backblaze

Read more: The most reliable hard drives in 2015, according to Backblaze | ZDNet

:)

 

Windows 10 PC experienced a power surge and need to restore files from an external backup

Hi Michael, I assume you need to download the BackBlaze software and use that to restore the files form the Flash Drive

You can download their software from the link below:

www.backblaze.com

Also, you should be able to log into their website and download your backed up files from their server - that is the default operational model that BackBlaze operates under . . .

 

Is there a preferred type of external hard drive to use for backing up a complete Windows system ?

I'm familiar with the Backblaze data, which are for drives in continuous use. They simply don't apply to normal home use.

 

I wonder which WD drives were failing, as the 4TB ones had the 2nd lowest failure rate according to the 2nd graph.

 

I'll still stick with WD Black.

 

WD has proven to me to be very reliable. Other than my new Samsung SSD I just purchased for my boot drive(which was a awesome deal) I will always buy WD either USB or internal drives.

 

SSD is proven reliable and alternative storage
but different usage scenario
for archiving mass data, traditional hdd have more benefit over SSD
beside the capacity, data retention on SSD is limited (client at 30C 1year/enterprise 40C 3months without power)
although it possible real scenario better than that, i believe no one willing to take risk losing data
thus for those usage, people still using traditional hdd

 

I would say it's their green ones, I have a storage array I put together that has 8 of them of in it and 3 failed within the past 2 years.

 

The green ones ?
Please elaborate so that I will not buy them.
Thank you.

 

Lol they do all of their drives in colors. The green ones are the environment friendly ones. Actually this is new...I'm almost positive its the green ones now:

I also found their new disclaimer:

These are the exact drives I'm using in it: Amazon.com: WD AV-GP 2 TB AV Video Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA II, 64 MB Cache - WD20EURS: Electronics

 

This makes me laugh as I remember days when hard disks often failed. Even relatively poor one by modern standards are far more reliable than some years ago.

Any 'old boy' knows to make image backups regularly to protect against hdd failure!

 

One day Seagate is facing a class action lawsuit, the next day they're #1. I thought for sure it would be WD.

 

I still wouldn't trust Seagate, I had the 3TB external one and that failed in a 2 year period as well. I have hitachi's too and those are probably like 10 years old and still going strong.

My theory is all hard drives will fail and it's a matter of when, each is a time bomb. Some just have shorter fuses than others.

 

I Still agree with most of you guys, I would only buy WD drives, but I only prefer their High end models. I still don't trust Seagate.

 

not sure if there relation or not
but for one green drive is intended for low power (green power)
WD make it to park-head after 8secs idling, which some people find it rather not good (you can disable it with WDidle)
whether that often park-head causing early wear or not, we cant be sure

the one you bought are AV (audio video) series, rather than normal green drive
but i believe the different most likely just firmware that tuned for AV, while parts wise (hardware) is same to normal green drives

@davidhk
for desktop drive, u want at least BLUE, for faster performance (7200rpm)

but for me, if money not issue/consideration, pick BLACK instead BLUE
longer warranty (5years vs 2years) might not help much, as when hdd fail we lose our data anyway and WD warrranty not cover it
but based my experience, BLACK series seems using better parts compared to BLUE/GREEN series
so far i dont have any issue with BLACK HDD except it a bit warmer

or if you intend for storage purpose (NAS), pick RED series, there is RED PRO if u need better quality one
(RED PRO is replacing WD RE [sata] enterprise series imo)
RED drive specification-wise similar to green drive
but wd claims its ok for 24/7 usage and its been tested for NAS environment also longer warranty (3years)

while i am not sure RED - GREEN drive is not just about firmware+label different
but based review so far, seems RED drive more reliable than GREEN...
i havent hear many failure in RED drive

but again none HDD fail-prove ... more over traditional hdd have/use moving parts
so always backup important data
and for me, replace HDD after 27000hours (3years) of usage