> Its then not surprising if they fail at about the same time.
It is, but in a different way. It is a testament to the depth and precision of manufacturing process control, that two insanely complex machines will behave nearly identically for years, up to the point of failing at about the same time, if they've been made in the same batch, and exposed to about the same environment and usage patterns over those years. You'd expect any number of random factors to cause one drive fail way before the other, but no - not only there is very little variation between drives in a batch, tiny variations in usage are damped down instead of amplified.
It is, but in a different way. It is a testament to the depth and precision of manufacturing process control, that two insanely complex machines will behave nearly identically for years, up to the point of failing at about the same time, if they've been made in the same batch, and exposed to about the same environment and usage patterns over those years. You'd expect any number of random factors to cause one drive fail way before the other, but no - not only there is very little variation between drives in a batch, tiny variations in usage are damped down instead of amplified.
It truly is amazing.