Disk drives are designed to support certain levels of work
Current Seagate disk drives keep track of various drive usage such as power on hours, lifetime writes and lifetime reads from the host computer. With this data we can calculate an Annualized Workload Rate using this simple formula:
(Lifetime Writes + Lifetime Reads) * (8760 / Lifetime Power On Hours)
8760 are the number of hours in a year. The Workload Rate becomes an annualized average expressed as TB/year.
Disk drives are specifically designed to perform to up to certain levels of Workload Rates. These are called Workload Rate Limit s (WRL). Here are the common Workload Rate Limits for the common disk drive design segments:
Enterprise Capacity (Nearline) <550 TB/yr
Terascale (Nearline Lite) <180 TB/yr
You may use SeaTools for Windows to measure your drive’s Annualized Workload Rate by running the Drive Information test. In the table above, compare your Workload Rate to the corresponding Workload Rate Limit. If your value is below the WRL then the drive activity is supported by the design. If the value is above the WRL then the reliability of the drive will begin to decline. Warranty policy does not change. However, Seagate reserves the right to limit warranty claims when drive usage exceeds specifications, as defined in the product manual. Product Manuals are available for every Seagate SATA or SAS disk drive. Please visit our Products page to locate the Product Manual and other appropriate downloads for your drive.
