PREDICTING DISK DRIVE FAILURE AT A CENTRAL PROCESSING FACILITY USING AN EVOLVING DISK DRIVE FAILURE PREDICTION ALGORITHM

A method of predicting disk drive failure at a central processing facility using an evolving drive failure prediction algorithm (DFPA) is disclosed. A set of quality metric values are transmitted from each of a plurality of remote disk drives to the central processing facility. The DFPA is executed at the central processing facility in response to the quality metric values to detect an impending failure of at least one of the remote disk drives. The DFPA is evolved at the central processing facility in response to a reference data base of quality metric values and a corresponding failure indicator. The processes is repeated so as to improve the accuracy of the DFPA over time.