DiskGradeSeagate ST500LM021 500 GB failure rate and reliability
– Not graded: too little data
Backblaze logged 104 drive-years on the Seagate ST500LM021 from Q1 2023 to Q3 2026, with 21 in service at the end of that period. In that time 2 drives failed, an annualised failure rate of 1.93%.
That is too little running time to grade: we require 100,000 drive-days, and this model has 37,879. Treat the rate as a rough indication only.
- Failure rate / year
- 1.93%
- Average, all drives
- 1.52%
- Drives in use
- 21
- Drive-years
- 104
- Failures
- 2
- Capacity
- 500 GB
- Type
- HDD
- Model number
- ST500LM021
Failure rate by quarter
| Quarter | Drive-days | Failures | Failure rate / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2023 | 2,738 | 1 | 13.33% |
| Q2 2023 | 2,670 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q3 2023 | 2,730 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q4 2023 | 2,760 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q1 2024 | 2,730 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q2 2024 | 2,729 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q3 2024 | 2,760 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q4 2024 | 2,699 | 1 | 13.52% |
| Q1 2025 | 2,610 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q2 2025 | 2,550 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q3 2025 | 2,484 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q4 2025 | 2,390 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q1 2026 | 2,092 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q2 2026 | 2,002 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Q3 2026 | 1,935 | 0 | 0.00% |
Single quarters with few drive-days swing widely; the overall figure above is the dependable one.
All 500 GB hard drives compared
| Grade | Model | Type | Size | Failure rate / year | Drives in use | Drive-years | Failures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | Western Digital WD5000LPVX | HDD | 500 GB | 3.37% | 37 | 326 | 11 |
| F | Seagate ST500LM030 | HDD | 500 GB | 5.05% | 144 | 673 | 34 |
| F | Seagate ST500LM012 HN | HDD | 500 GB | 5.40% | 50 | 648 | 35 |
| F | Toshiba MQ01ABF050 | HDD | 500 GB | 10.58% | 98 | 605 | 64 |
| F | Toshiba MQ01ABF050M | HDD | 500 GB | 11.53% | 86 | 590 | 68 |
| – | Western Digital WD5000LPCX | HDD | 500 GB | 1.12% | 33 | 179 | 2 |
| – | Seagate ST500LM021 | HDD | 500 GB | 1.93% | 21 | 104 | 2 |
| – | Western Digital WD5000BPKT | HDD | 500 GB | 0.00% | 7 | 28 | 0 |