Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

MTBF ratings are measured in hours and indicate the durability of hard disk drives.

New IDE disk drives have MTBF ratings of >500,000 hours. This means that at least half of the disk drives with such a rating will fail once in the first 500,000 hours of operation. Most working conditions are not ideal, so MTBF ratings can be considered as only approximate guidelines for determining the longevity of disk drives. The fact that MTBF ratings exist at all, however, underscores the fact that every disk drive will eventually fail if run long enough.

Some manufacturers do not differentiate between various usage profiles (e.g., power-on hours, power saving modes, non-operating periods or operating temperatures within the published specification.)

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