Western Digital is going to split into two independent companies next year, and both of them will focus on storage. One on HDDs and the other Flash Memory.
The HDD AFR is +0.55%, but if you look at the drive count and drive day numbers, you can see why the SSD AFR varies pretty wildly, and why the confidence interval is way higher.
If you think this is enough to say SSDs reliability is definitively solved, that’s fine, but
HHDs have mechanical parts that make them far less reliable.
It looks like they’ve gotten better recently, but exactly how much isn’t really clear.
Backblaze lifetime annual failure rates for:
HDDs: 1.45%
SSDs: 0.90%
The HDD AFR is +0.55%, but if you look at the drive count and drive day numbers, you can see why the SSD AFR varies pretty wildly, and why the confidence interval is way higher.
If you think this is enough to say SSDs reliability is definitively solved, that’s fine, but
is a bit much.
SSD’s just need good power delivery and cooling, where as a HDD needs those plus a means of dampening vibration for good longevity.
HDD’s are no longer a good choice for mobile devices like laptops as an SSD is more likely to survive a fall than a HDD.
SSD’s however require periodic supply of power to maintain data integrity (power it on for an hour each year afaik), where as a HDD does not.