Subject: Google's hard disk reliability survey

From: Eli Billauer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:34:34 +0200

Hello,

As one can guess, Google has a hard disk or two in their facilities. And 
they've run a statistical survey on their disks for a few years, in 
order to determine what makes a hard disk die sooner, and if the crash 
can be predicted by S.M.A.R.T data.

They've been kind enough to publish the results. It's an interesting 
piece of information for all of us who get a bit nervous when the disk 
starts to work hard.

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

Spoiler: They found no correlation between the hard disk load and the 
frequency of failure. In other words: If your hard disk LED is on all 
day, there's no reason to worry. It's when it goes off that you should 
see what's going on. ;)

Enjoy,
    Eli

-- 
Web: http://www.billauer.co.il

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From: "Arik Baratz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:47:28 -0700

>  day, there's no reason to worry. It's when it goes off that you should

Another spoiler: The number one factor for disk failure is operating
temperature.

-- Arik