Engadget has broken down Google’s paper on hard drive failures to save us all the time of reading it, and I’m going to break it down even further for you:

1. 1ook 80-400GB 5400-7200rpm drives evaluated.
2. SMART doesn’t work very well.
3. Failure rates correlate to manufacturers.
4. Drive usage is not a major factor.
   1. (Except in young or old drives.)
5. Heat isn’t as big an issue as you’d think.
   1. (Overcooling is actually worse.)