The Cheapest Hard Drives, Ranked by Price per TB
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The cheapest hard drive is the one with the lowest price per TB that fits your use: a CMR drive for a NAS or RAID, while an SMR or renewed drive can be fine for a single backup if its condition and warranty suit you.
Shoppers looking for the cheapest hard drive usually want one of two things: the lowest total price, or the most terabytes for the money. Those are different questions. The list below answers the second one fairly, ranking today's Amazon hard drive offers of every size — internal and external, new, renewed, and used — by price per TB, and it re-ranks itself every time our price snapshot refreshes.
The lowest number on the list can hide things worth knowing. It may be a renewed or used drive with a short warranty, an SMR drive that suits backup but struggles in a NAS, or an external drive whose warranty ends if you take it out of its enclosure. The sections below explain what to check so the cheapest drive per TB is also the right one.
Toshiba 14TB SATA 512e 256MB Cache 7200RPM 3.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Enterprise Hard Drive - MG07ACA14TE (Renewed)
$329.00 · $23.50/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #1 at $23.50/TB — 3% below the typical 14TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".
MDD MAXDIGITALDATA MDD (MDD14TSATA25672E) 14TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5'' Internal Enterprise Hard Drive - 5 Years Warranty (Renewed)
$329.99 · $23.57/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #2 at $23.57/TB — 3% below the typical 14TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 5 yr warranty.
Basicnology Enterprise HDD 14TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 128MB Cache 3.5inch Datacenter Hard Drive (BG14TSA256E) - 3 Years Warranty (Renewed)
$329.99 · $23.57/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #3 at $23.57/TB — 3% below the typical 14TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5", 3 yr warranty.
MDD MAXDIGITALDATA MDD 14TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-inch Internal Desktop Hard Drive (Renewed)
$329.99 · $23.57/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #4 at $23.57/TB — 3% below the typical 14TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".
Avolusion PRO-H1 14TB 7200RPM USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) External Hard Drive (for Windows or MacOS Desktop PC/Laptop) (Renewed)
$329.99 · $23.57/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #5 at $23.57/TB — 17% below the typical external HDD across all sizes. Renewed condition, USB.
OSENTRiX BX100 14TB USB 3.2 Gen 2 USB-C External Hard Drive for Windows or MacOS Desktop PC/Laptop
$329.99 · $23.57/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #6 at $23.57/TB — 8% below the typical 14TB external HDD. New condition, USB.
Avolusion PRO-T5 Series USB 3.0 External Hard Drive for WindowsOS Desktop PC/Laptop - 2 Year Warranty (14TB White) (Renewed)
$329.99 · $23.57/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #7 at $23.57/TB — 17% below the typical external HDD across all sizes. Renewed condition, USB, 2 yr warranty.
Water Panther WP Arsenal 14TB SATA 7200RPM 3.5-Inch DAS Hard Drive, Mechanical Hard Disk (Renewed)
$334.00 · $23.86/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #8 at $23.86/TB — 2% below the typical 14TB HDD. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".
MDD (MD14TSATA25672NAS) 14TB 7200 RPM 256MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5'' Internal NAS Hard Drive - 5 Years Warranty (Renewed)
$339.95 · $24.28/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #9 at $24.28/TB. Renewed condition, SATA, 5 yr warranty.
Western Digital 14TB Ultrastar DC HC530 SATA HDD - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 512MB Cache, 3.5" - WUH721414ALE604 (Renewed)
$339.99 · $24.29/TB as of Sep 26, 03:42 PM EDT
Ranks #10 at $24.29/TB. Renewed condition, SATA, 3.5".
How the ranking and deal scores work
Compare live hard disk prices for all matching deals →
What to look for
Read the condition before the price. The top of a price per TB ranking can be a renewed or used drive, and the condition column shows which. Amazon's Renewed Guarantee allows a return within 90 days, and Renewed Premium extends that to a year. Seagate and WD also sell recertified drives directly, with a 6-month and a 1-year limited warranty. Other renewed drives carry only the seller's warranty.
Check whether the drive is CMR or SMR. SMR shows up in some desktop and portable drives at smaller sizes — Seagate's desktop line at 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB, and plain WD Red at 4TB and 6TB, for example. An SMR drive writes large files fine, so it can work as a single backup drive, but it can slow sharply under the sustained random writes of a RAID rebuild. For a NAS, pick CMR.
Read the fine print on external drives. Makers don't disclose which drive is inside an external enclosure, so you can't confirm the recording method. If you plan to shuck it — take the drive out to use it bare — Seagate says removing it from the enclosure voids the warranty, and WD's warranty excludes drives whose enclosures were opened. Kept in its enclosure, the warranty stands.
FAQ
What is the cheapest hard drive per TB right now?
It changes daily, so the live ranking on this page is the reliable answer: it sorts today's Amazon hard drive offers of every size and condition by price per TB. Check the condition and warranty of the top rows before you buy.
Is the cheapest hard drive worth buying?
It can be, depending on the job. An SMR drive is fine for a single backup drive but a poor fit for RAID, where CMR is the safe choice. A renewed drive can be a good deal if you run redundancy and test it inside the return window.
Are external hard drives cheaper than internal ones?
Sometimes; the ranking lists internal and external offers side by side, so compare them directly. Keep the trade-off in mind: the maker doesn't disclose the drive inside an external enclosure, and opening the enclosure to use the drive bare voids the Seagate or WD warranty.
Why compare hard drives by price per TB instead of total price?
Because total price isn't a fair comparison across sizes. A bigger drive costs more in total but can cost less per terabyte. Price per TB — total price divided by capacity in decimal TB, with multipacks counted per drive — puts a 4TB and a 20TB offer on the same scale.