Prime Day is the perfect time to buy a bigger NAS hard drive
There are two parts to building a NAS server. First up is the enclosure itself - we've already highlighted the best Prime Day NAS deals - and once you have that sorted out, you'll need to pick up hard drives to slot into the NAS.
Thankfully, Prime Day has a few decent deals for NAS-focused hard drives, so whether you're buying a NAS for the first time and need storage or are looking to buy additional hard drives to increase the storage of your enclosure, these are the best deals. I have dozens of hard drives from all major manufacturers, and in this post I'm recommending drives that I've used in my own NAS enclosures for at least three years or more. Essentially, these are the best hard drives for NAS enclosures.
There's one point to note here: hard drives that are 6TB or more are still very limited in availability, so you won't find these drives on sale for Prime Day. However, if you're looking for drives between 1TB and 6TB, there are plenty of great deals available right now.
Prime Day NAS HDD deals:Seagate NAS HDD Prime Day dealsSeagate's IronWolf is the gold standard for NAS hard drives. Their main differentiation is that they include firmware that accounts for vibration resistance - key for NAS enclosures that are designed to run 24/7 - and they also include a generous warranty and data recovery service.
The IronWolf series is aimed at mainstream users and comes with a three-year warranty as standard, with the IronWolf Pro aimed at enthusiasts. These drives have a five-year warranty and best-in-class performance.
Seagate IronWolf 1TB NAS HDD | 5% off at Amazon
These drives are designed for 24/7 use, spin at 5900RPM, and can write up to 300TB a year. You also get a generous three-year warranty and data recovery service bundled with the drive.
Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB NAS HDD | 20% off at Amazon
I have over 40TB of storage running on IronWolf Pro drives for three years now, and they've been rock-solid. These drives spin at 7200RPM, have a five-year warranty, deliver outstanding performance, and have an endurance of 1.2 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF).
WD NAS HDD Prime Day dealsWD makes a LOT of hard drives across various categories, and the Red series is aimed at NAS enclosures. WD switched up the naming convention of its HDDs, with the Red branding now denoting entry-level drives that use SMR tech. I generally stay away from these drives, so I'm instead focusing on the Red Plus and Red Pro drives for this post.
WD also has HDDs in the Blue, Green, and a multitude of other colored notations, but these drives are not designed to run 24/7 in a NAS server. You're paying a premium for the Red drives, and that's because they have firmware that ensures they're stable in day-to-day NAS workloads.
Western Digital 1TB Red Plus NAS HDD | 19% off at Amazon
If you're looking to save some cash, the WD Red Plus is a robust alternative to IronWolf drives. These drives use the same CMR tech as Seagate, include a three-year warranty, go up to 5400RPM, and have an endurance of 1 million hours MTBF as well as 1280TB/year.
Western Digital 2TB Red Plus NAS HDD | 21% off at Amazon
This 2TB option gives you a little more flexibility in terms of storage, and the affordability makes it an easy recommendation. You're getting the same set of features as the 1TB drive, but with double the storage, you don't have to worry about running out of room to store your media collection or photos.
Western Digital 6TB Red Plus NAS HDD | 24% off at Amazon
WD's 6TB Red Plus hard drive strikes the ideal balance between affordability and feature-set. It costs just over double that of two 2TB drives, but you're getting 6TB of storage here, and the drive spins at 5700RPM, making it marginally faster in day-to-day workloads.
Western Digital 6TB Red Pro NAS HDD | 22% off at Amazon
With the Red Pro series, WD offers a similar level of performance as the IronWolf Pro drives, but you get more affordability here. This 6TB drive spins at 7200RPM, comes with a five-year warranty, 300TB/year workload rating, and has vibration resistance baked into the firmware that makes it ideal for NAS enclosures.