Backblaze Q2 drive stats show annualized failure rate rises to 1.73%
BLZE•Backblaze’s Q2 2026 analysis covered more than 350,000 production hard drives and found the annualized failure rate rose to 1.73% from 1.24% in Q1.
1. Drive failure rates
Backblaze’s Q2 2026 Drive Stats analysis covered more than 350,000 production hard drives across its storage cloud. The annualized failure rate rose to 1.73% from 1.24% in Q1, while the lifetime rate edged up to 1.41%; three models exceeded a 6.95% outlier threshold, with results skewed by older drives and small model populations.
2. Fleet capacity mix
Drives of 20TB and above accounted for more than 25% of the fleet. Backblaze flagged SMR as a potential capacity lever, though none are in its current fleet, and said future additions will be tracked.
