PSA: Seagate 3TB Class Action Lawsuit

The fine folks at PC World have published an article regarding a class action lawsuit against Seagate related to the viability and longevity of their 3TB Barracuda-based storage solutions.  The supporting evidence from customer reviews and Backblaze’s experience with these drives on a large scale align with our own personal experience.  Five of these drives were procured to populate a flash accelerated and lightly used Drobo 5D in April of 2013. At this time, three four of these drives have failed under a usage pattern that doesn’t come close to that of a Backblaze storage pod.  Unfortunately, one of the three drives failed one month after the paltry two-year warranty had expired.  Packaging, or the lack thereof when drives are sold bare, doesn’t appear to be a factor in the overall failure rates.  Firmware versions are not necessarily to blame for the failures of these models either.  If you’ve experienced a premature failure on the specific models noted in the article, head on over to the Hagens Berman Seagate Hard Drive class action lawsuit page.