Seagate BarraCuda 120 SSD ZA250CM10003 250 GB failure rate and reliability

A Grade A: Excellent

Backblaze logged 4,095 drive-years on the Seagate BarraCuda 120 SSD ZA250CM10003 from Q1 2023 to Q3 2026, with 1,072 in service at the end of that period. In that time 8 drives failed, an annualised failure rate of 0.20%.

That is 87% lower than the 1.52% average across every drive in the same data, which earns it grade A (excellent).

Among the 7 graded 250 GB SSDs it ranks 2 of 7 for reliability.

Failures have fallen: 0.00% over the latest 8 quarters against 0.41% before.

Failure rate / year: 0.20%
Average, all drives: 1.52%
Drives in use: 1,072
Drive-years: 4,095
Failures: 8
Capacity: 250 GB
Type: SSD
Model number: BarraCuda 120 SSD ZA250CM10003

Failure rate by quarter

Quarter	Drive-days	Failures	Failure rate / year
Q1 2023	100,306	1	0.36%
Q2 2023	100,319	0	0.00%
Q3 2023	103,347	0	0.00%
Q4 2023	103,296	3	1.06%
Q1 2024	101,392	1	0.36%
Q2 2024	100,759	1	0.36%
Q3 2024	101,086	2	0.72%
Q4 2024	99,686	0	0.00%
Q1 2025	97,408	0	0.00%
Q2 2025	97,089	0	0.00%
Q3 2025	98,520	0	0.00%
Q4 2025	98,559	0	0.00%
Q1 2026	96,480	0	0.00%
Q2 2026	97,347	0	0.00%
Q3 2026	98,964	0	0.00%

Single quarters with few drive-days swing widely; the overall figure above is the dependable one.

All 250 GB SSDs compared

Grade	Model	Type	Size	Failure rate / year	Drives in use	Drive-years	Failures
A	Seagate IronWolf ZA250NM10002	SSD	250 GB	0.00%	201	510	0
A	Seagate BarraCuda 120 SSD ZA250CM10003	SSD	250 GB	0.20%	1,072	4,095	8
A	Western Digital WDS250G2B0A	SSD	250 GB	0.35%	170	576	2
A	Crucial CT250MX500SSD1	SSD	250 GB	0.36%	683	2,475	9
B	Seagate BarraCuda SSD ZA250CM10002	SSD	250 GB	0.74%	458	1,889	14
C	Seagate SSD	SSD	250 GB	1.33%	97	377	5
F	Western Digital Blue SA510 2.5 250GB	SSD	250 GB	4.80%	140	417	20