Best Hard Drive deals 2025 — HDD deals from WD, Seagate, and Toshiba

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Best Hard Drive Deals

1. Quick List
2. Best HDD Deals
3. Best External HDD Deals
4. HDD Shopping Tips

Mechanical hard drives may seem like ancient technology, but they still provide 'good enough' performance in many applications, and easily offer the most storage capacity for the price. We've collected the Best Hard Drive deals here in this constantly updated article.

Be alert when looking at HDDs, as not every drive is born equal and worthy of your money or a place of honor in your PC. Differences in recording technologies, like whether the drive uses conventional magnetic recording (CMR) or shingled magnetic recording (SMR), come with or without DRAM, and the spindle speeds they offer can all have a tremendous impact on the performance and pricing of your drive. That's why we've compiled the best HDD deals in this constantly-updated article, based on our in-depth knowledge gained from thorough reviews, extensive benchmarks, and comprehensive historical price analysis.

We list internal drives for PCs, the best HDDs for NAS systems, and external hard drives, with the latter possibly including shuckable drives, meaning you can pry the HDD out of the external casing and use it in your desktop PC. Proceed at your own risk with Shucking, though: Shucking the drive voids the warranty, but you do get a capable drive for far cheaper than you normally would (be sure to do your homework first to determine if the drive can be shucked; not all models can).

Best HDD Deals: Quick Links

Amazon: Save up to 62% on WD HDDs
Newegg: Up to 43% off HDDs
Best Buy: Up to $100 off HDDs
Amazon: All HDD deals
Newegg: Seagate Barracuda 24TB for all-time low $249.99
B&H: Elements 14TB Desktop External Hard Drive 26% Off

Best HDD Deals

Best External HDD Deals

HDD Deals: What to Look For

It is important to be aware of the drive’s form factor, with 3.5” being the most common for the best HDDs (this is the only type we cover). If you need 2.5”, your options are more limited, especially for capacity. Otherwise, your computer case’s ability to house a certain number of 3.5” drives might be your primary limitation.
The ubiquitous SATA interface is used for desktop PCs, and most motherboards have ample available ports, which makes expansion easy. Most consumer NAS systems also use SATA, with the SAS interface typically reserved for servers and enterprise-class NAS.
If you're shopping for an HDD, you’re probably looking for the lowest possible cost per terabyte, but you should also consider performance and support for specific applications. There are several potential performance pitfalls to consider when purchasing a new HDD, and the type of recording technology is one of the most crucial factors. Unless you are solely interested in cost and willing to sacrifice performance, we only recommend conventional magnetic recording (CMR) drives and not shingled (SMR), as the latter comes with performance and operational caveats.
For performance, HDDs are also often gauged by rotations per minute (RPM), which is usually a direct indicator of performance. The RPM value affects both sequential transfers and random access latency. Lower RPM drives tend to be quieter and more efficient, while higher RPM drives have better performance. There are also variable RPM drives that try to achieve the best of both worlds. Power draw, heat, and noise are factors related to performance.
HDDs also have a certain amount of DRAM to help temporarily cache data. This amount of cache typically scales with the drive's capacity. More cache is, of course, better, but if it comes at the expense of something else — for example, a support service — then you should carefully consider your priorities when making a purchase.
You will want specialized drives for NAS, surveillance/DVR/NVR, raw storage for media and backups, or for heavier workloads. Certain drives will offer a better value for the money if you just want the extra capacity, or you may require a lower RPM drive to avoid the noise associated with faster drives.

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Paul Alcorn is the Editor-in-Chief for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

6 Comments Comment from the forums

lmcnabney

And not a deal to be found. HDD prices haven't dropped in many years. Capacity goes up and prices go with them. A large plattered drive will cost more than most CPUs and GPUs and deliver a tiny fraction of the performance of solid state storage. 2025 is almost over and they can only get close to a penny per GB by stripping the warranty bare. Weren't we supposed to be well under that four years ago?
Reply
USAFRet

lmcnabney said:
and deliver a tiny fraction of the performance of solid state storage.
And for mass storage, still can't compete.

My NAS has 100+TB of spinning rust in or attached.
That won't be replaced by solid state anytime in the near future.

All my house PC's, OTOH, are all solid state.
Reply
lmcnabney

USAFRet said:
And for mass storage, still can't compete. My NAS has 100+TB of spinning rust in or attached. That won't be replaced by solid state anytime in the near future. All my house PC's, OTOH, are all solid state.

USAFRet said:
And for mass storage, still can't compete. My NAS has 100+TB of spinning rust in or attached. That won't be replaced by solid state anytime in the near future. All my house PC's, OTOH, are all solid state.
And that cost you more than a top-tier gaming system and barely has a warranty anymore. Spinning rust is still hovering slightly under 1.5 cents per GB while solid state is moving under 5.
Reply
USAFRet

lmcnabney said:
And that cost you more than a top-tier gaming system and barely has a warranty anymore. Spinning rust is still hovering slightly under 1.5 cents per GB while solid state is moving under 5.
The drive space in that NAS has been built up over the years.
Not a one time mass purchase.

lmcnabney said:
Spinning rust is still hovering slightly under 1.5 cents per GB while solid state is moving under 5.
Sooooo...still cheaper?
Reply
Mark Knight

lmcnabney said:
And not a deal to be found. HDD prices haven't dropped in many years. Capacity goes up and prices go with them. A large plattered drive will cost more than most CPUs and GPUs and deliver a tiny fraction of the performance of solid state storage. 2025 is almost over and they can only get close to a penny per GB by stripping the warranty bare. Weren't we supposed to be well under that four years ago?
I don't think you understand use cases, let alone lifespan of a heavily used hdd compared to an ssd.
Reply
Shiznizzle

lmcnabney said:
And that cost you more than a top-tier gaming system and barely has a warranty anymore. Spinning rust is still hovering slightly under 1.5 cents per GB while solid state is moving under 5.
Spinning rust as you call it will still have its information after years. SSD's wont even hold onto that for a year. SSD's are not a long term storage solution and not everybody needs or even wants a SSD. HDD are not going anywhere but into systems till a better solution to long term storage is found.

HDD have been around for longer than me and i am 55 years old.
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