Seagate ST16000NM001G 16 TB failure rate and reliability

B Grade B: Good

Backblaze logged 117,216 drive-years on the Seagate ST16000NM001G from Q1 2023 to Q3 2026, with 35,594 in service at the end of that period. In that time 725 drives failed, an annualised failure rate of 0.62%.

That is 59% lower than the 1.52% average across every drive in the same data, which earns it grade B (good).

Among the 8 graded 16 TB hard drives it ranks 3 of 8 for reliability.

The rate has been steady: 0.53% over the latest 8 quarters against 0.75% before.

Failure rate / year: 0.62%
Average, all drives: 1.52%
Drives in use: 35,594
Drive-years: 117,216
Failures: 725
Capacity: 16 TB
Type: HDD
Model number: ST16000NM001G

Failure rate by quarter

Quarter	Drive-days	Failures	Failure rate / year
Q1 2023	1,897,163	31	0.60%
Q2 2023	2,242,685	54	0.88%
Q3 2023	2,502,941	42	0.61%
Q4 2023	2,517,423	49	0.71%
Q1 2024	2,579,015	50	0.71%
Q2 2024	2,995,255	68	0.83%
Q3 2024	3,077,569	71	0.84%
Q4 2024	3,085,815	37	0.44%
Q1 2025	3,029,485	41	0.49%
Q2 2025	3,078,040	49	0.58%
Q3 2025	3,125,133	57	0.67%
Q4 2025	3,149,031	35	0.41%
Q1 2026	3,098,105	44	0.52%
Q2 2026	3,162,117	57	0.66%
Q3 2026	3,244,143	40	0.45%

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

All 16 TB hard drives compared

Grade	Model	Type	Size	Failure rate / year	Drives in use	Drive-years	Failures
A	Seagate ST16000NM002J	HDD	16 TB	0.56%	463	1,607	9
B	Western Digital WUH721816ALE6L4	HDD	16 TB	0.60%	26,751	87,781	529
B	Seagate ST16000NM001G	HDD	16 TB	0.62%	35,594	117,216	725
B	Toshiba MG08ACA16TA	HDD	16 TB	1.03%	38,772	121,800	1,260
B	Toshiba MG08ACA16TE	HDD	16 TB	1.14%	6,170	22,458	257
C	Toshiba MG09ACA16TE	HDD	16 TB	1.71%	1,009	703	12
C	Western Digital WUH721816ALE6L0	HDD	16 TB	1.81%	2,896	10,953	198
D	Toshiba MG08ACA16TEY	HDD	16 TB	2.91%	4,767	19,015	554
–	Seagate ST16000NM000J	HDD	16 TB	2.23%	171	269	6
–	Seagate ST16000NM005G	HDD	16 TB	0.00%	25	94	0
–	Toshiba MG11ACA16TE	HDD	16 TB	0.00%	76	34	0