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HGST HUH721212ALE604 12 TB failure rate and reliability
D Grade D: Below average
Backblaze logged 49,399 drive-years on the HGST HUH721212ALE604 from Q1 2023 to Q3 2026, with 12,885 in service at the end of that period. In that time 1,184 drives failed, an annualised failure rate of 2.40%.
That is 58% higher than the 1.52% average across every drive in the same data, which earns it grade D (below average).
Among the 7 graded 12 TB hard drives it ranks 4 of 7 for reliability.
The rate has been steady: 2.75% over the latest 8 quarters against 1.99% before.
- Failure rate / year
- 2.40%
- Average, all drives
- 1.52%
- Drives in use
- 12,885
- Drive-years
- 49,399
- Failures
- 1,184
- Capacity
- 12 TB
- Type
- HDD
- Model number
- HUH721212ALE604
Failure rate by quarter
| Quarter | Drive-days | Failures | Failure rate / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2023 | 1,178,671 | 23 | 0.71% |
| Q2 2023 | 1,181,748 | 42 | 1.30% |
| Q3 2023 | 1,209,190 | 16 | 0.48% |
| Q4 2023 | 1,215,089 | 45 | 1.35% |
| Q1 2024 | 1,198,593 | 65 | 1.98% |
| Q2 2024 | 1,195,749 | 94 | 2.87% |
| Q3 2024 | 1,211,283 | 172 | 5.18% |
| Q4 2024 | 1,220,593 | 105 | 3.14% |
| Q1 2025 | 1,197,864 | 93 | 2.83% |
| Q2 2025 | 1,207,348 | 115 | 3.48% |
| Q3 2025 | 1,227,006 | 65 | 1.93% |
| Q4 2025 | 1,221,499 | 85 | 2.54% |
| Q1 2026 | 1,183,774 | 86 | 2.65% |
| Q2 2026 | 1,190,182 | 110 | 3.37% |
| Q3 2026 | 1,192,156 | 68 | 2.08% |
Single quarters with few drive-days swing widely; the overall figure above is the dependable one.
All 12 TB hard drives compared
| Grade | Model | Type | Size | Failure rate / year | Drives in use | Drive-years | Failures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | HGST HUH721212ALE600 | HDD | 12 TB | 0.90% | 2,590 | 9,719 | 87 |
| B | Seagate ST12000NM000J | HDD | 12 TB | 0.97% | 1,067 | 2,271 | 22 |
| B | Seagate ST12000NM001G | HDD | 12 TB | 1.13% | 13,006 | 49,098 | 553 |
| D | HGST HUH721212ALE604 | HDD | 12 TB | 2.40% | 12,885 | 49,399 | 1,184 |
| D | Seagate ST12000NM0008 | HDD | 12 TB | 2.78% | 17,915 | 71,422 | 1,986 |
| F | HGST HUH721212ALN604 | HDD | 12 TB | 4.60% | 9,328 | 37,997 | 1,747 |
| F | Seagate ST12000NM0007 | HDD | 12 TB | 7.88% | 931 | 4,021 | 317 |
| – | Seagate ST12000NM003G | HDD | 12 TB | 0.00% | 27 | 47 | 0 |