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Best 12TB Hard Drives by Price per TB

The best 12TB deal comes down to two kinds of offer: a renewed enterprise-class drive with a seller warranty, or a new NAS-class drive with the maker's warranty — the ranking below puts both side by side by price per TB.

A 12TB drive is a common pick for home NAS builds, Plex and Jellyfin servers, and single-drive backups of several computers. It holds a large media library without the cost of the biggest drives. The list below ranks today's Amazon offers for exactly 12TB — internal and external, new, renewed, and used — by price per TB, and re-ranks itself every time our price snapshot refreshes.

12TB is a mature capacity. It has been on sale for years, so a large share of offers are renewed or recertified drives pulled from data centers, listed next to new NAS and desktop drives. That changes the math: a renewed enterprise drive is built for heavier duty but comes with a seller warranty, while a new NAS drive carries the maker's warranty. The condition on each entry tells you which you're looking at.

  1. Seagate Exos x12 12TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache Enterprise Hard Drive 3.5in (ST12000NM0127) (Renewed)

    $307.99 · $25.67/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #1 at $25.67/TB — 9% below the typical 12TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".

  2. TOSHIBA Internal Hard Disk Server for NAS 3.5" Enterprise HDD 12TB SATA 6 Gbit/s 7200rpm 3 Year Warranty MG07ACA12TE (Renewed)

    $329.99 · $27.50/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #2 at $27.50/TB — 3% below the typical 12TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5", 3 yr warranty.

  3. HGST Ultrastar He12 | HUH721212ALE601 | 0F27454 | 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Cache | 512E | BitLocker Hard Drive Encryption | Power Disable Function |

    $329.99 · $27.50/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #3 at $27.50/TB — 26% below the typical 12TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".

  4. HGST WD Ultrastar DC HC520 12TB HDD 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Enterprise Hard Drive | Power-Disable | HUH721212ALE604 0F29592 (Renewed)

    $329.99 · $27.50/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #4 at $27.50/TB — 3% below the typical 12TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".

  5. MDD (MDD12TSATA25672NAS) 12TB 7200RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal NAS Hard Drive - 5 Years Warranty (Renewed)

    $339.99 · $28.33/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #5 at $28.33/TB. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5", 5 yr warranty.

  6. HGST 12TB Ultrastar DC HC520 SATA 6Gb/s 7200RPM 3.5-inch 256MB Cache HUH721212ALE604 0F29592, with Power Disable Feature (Renewed)

    $339.99 · $28.33/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #6 at $28.33/TB. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".

  7. MDD 12TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5inch Internal Desktop Hard Drive, MD12TBGSA25672

    $349.99 · $29.17/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #7 at $29.17/TB — 22% below the typical 12TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5".

  8. MDD MAXDIGITALDATA 12TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for Surveillance Storage (MD12TBGSA25672DVR) - 3 Years Warranty

    $349.99 · $29.17/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #8 at $29.17/TB — 22% below the typical 12TB HDD. New condition, SATA, 3.5", 3 yr warranty.

  9. Seagate Exos x12 12TB SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache Enterprise Hard Drive 3.5in (ST12000NM0007) (Renewed)

    $359.99 · $30.00/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #9 at $30.00/TB — 6% above the typical 12TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".

  10. Seagate Exos X16 ST12000NM001G 12 TB Hard Drive - Internal - SATA (SATA/600) (Renewed)

    $359.99 · $30.00/TB as of Sep 26, 12:43 PM

    Ranks #10 at $30.00/TB — 6% above the typical 12TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA.

Compare live hard disk prices for all matching deals →

What to look for

Decide renewed versus new before you compare prices. Renewed 12TB drives are often ex-data-center enterprise models rated for 550 TB of writes a year, but the warranty comes from the seller, not the drive maker, and is usually shorter than a new drive's. If a failure would take out your only copy of the data, a new drive with the maker's warranty is worth a higher price per TB. For a second copy, renewed is a reasonable economy.

Match the drive class to the job. Desktop-class drives are rated for 120 TB of writes a year, limited power-on hours, and a 2-year warranty; entry NAS-class for 180 TB and 3 years; pro NAS and enterprise-class for 550 TB and 5 years. A desktop-class drive belongs in a PC. A NAS or ZFS pool that runs around the clock needs NAS or enterprise class.

Don't worry about SMR or helium at this size. Seagate lists all of its current 12TB consumer and NAS drives as CMR, and WD's Red Plus and Red Pro lines are CMR too. Most 12TB drives are helium-filled, but a few models are still air-filled; both are normal. Expect Windows to show about 10.9 TB — drive makers count in decimal terabytes and Windows counts in binary, so nothing is missing.

FAQ

Is 12TB a lot of storage?

For one person's files, yes — it is more than most PCs ever fill. For a media server or NAS it is a solid mid-size drive that leaves room to grow, and several of them in an array add up to tens of terabytes of usable space.

How many movies fit on a 12TB hard drive?

About 2,400 movies at 5 GB each (a typical 1080p file), or about 240 at 50 GB each (a 4K disc rip). Real libraries land between the two, since file sizes vary with resolution and compression.

How much does a 12TB hard drive cost?

It moves with the market and differs a lot between new and renewed drives, which is why this page ranks live offers instead of quoting a number. Compare the price per TB and the condition on each entry, not only the sticker price.

Are renewed 12TB drives worth it?

Often, for a second copy of data or an array built around redundancy. Many are enterprise-class drives from data centers, but the warranty comes from the seller and is usually shorter than a new drive's. Buy from sellers with clear warranty and return terms.