Backblaze Reports Rise in Q2 2026 Drive Failure Rate to 1.73%
Event summary
- Backblaze's Q2 2026 Drive Stats report shows a quarterly annualized failure rate (AFR) of 1.73%, up from 1.24% in Q1 2026.
- Three drive models exceeded the report's outlier threshold of 6.95% AFR, with two being older models.
- Seagate drives showed zero or one failure this quarter across multiple models.
- Backblaze retired two of its longest-serving drive models, the 4TB HGST HMS5C4040BLE640 and the 8TB HGST HUH728080ALE600.
- Drives 20TB and larger now make up more than a quarter of Backblaze's fleet.
The big picture
Backblaze's Q2 2026 Drive Stats report highlights the challenges of maintaining drive reliability as AI workloads demand higher storage capacities. The rise in quarterly AFR and the focus on high-capacity drives reflect broader industry trends toward larger storage solutions, which come with trade-offs in performance and reliability. As Backblaze continues to retire older models and monitor newer ones, the company's ability to manage these dynamics will be crucial for its position in the AI infrastructure market.
What we're watching
- Drive Reliability
- How the rising quarterly AFR will impact Backblaze's storage cloud performance and customer trust.
- High-Capacity Drives
- Whether Backblaze can maintain low failure rates as it deploys more high-capacity drives.
- Shingled Magnetic Recording
- The pace at which SMR drives will be adopted and their impact on Backblaze's fleet reliability.