Some first year hard disk failure rates from a desktop PC 
seller

    http://storagemojo.com/2007/04/05/finally-some-drive-model-failure-numbers/

Numbers after drive type are quantity in sample and dead 
drives

A "safe" conclusion is failure rates in the 2% to 4% range 
can be expected overall and that your single drive may have 
a 100% failure in the first year.
(You could guesstimate that it has about a 1:30 chance of 
100% failure in the first year but that's pushing the data a 
little.

Whatever, it certainly shows that backup is needed if you 
value your data.

I have here two x Seagate 320 GB Barracuda 7200.10 drives. 
Both failed in about a year. One is mine and one is a 
friend's. Mine MAY possibly have some photos with no copy 
elsewhere, and may not. My friends has (or had) valuable 
business data on it. Both drives seek forlornly every few 
seconds forever. In both instances, swapping the on board 
controller card for a known good one does not alter the 
behaviour. Anyone had any experience of this type of fault 
in this model of drive.

____________

Hard Drive Model# of UnitsFailure %
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB SATAII    280    3.21%

Seagate SATA Barracuda 80GB    271    2.58%
Western Digital SATA Raptor 74GB    592    2.03%
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATAII    202    1.98%
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB SATAII    265    1.89%
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB SATAII    403    1.74%
Western Digital ATA100 80.0GB WD800JB    290    1.72%
Western Digital SATA Raptor 150GB    278    1.44%
Total # of drives    2581    2.05%


        Russell


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