content: I doubt they are near death? Drives that last more than the first 30 days have good longevity, including SSDs. Backblaze has published some brilliant data and done a ton of research in controlled environments. They've got tons of stuff published on their site, if you like data. Like, tons... Their yearly reports, sometimes more often, are pretty much considered the de facto industry standard and are heavily relied on by IT folks at the sites I frequent.