Hard Drive Prices Spike 40 to 90 Percent Since March
News related to:eRacks Open Source Systems · 2 min read
Hard drive prices have seen a significant increase, with some models now costing 40 to 90 percent more than they did in March, according to eRacks, an open-source server maker. The company, which tracks daily street prices of major drive lines, has published its findings, showing a substantial rise in costs for various storage drives.
Seagate Barracuda drives, for instance, have seen their price per terabyte (TB) increase from $16.25 to $31.25, marking a 92 percent rise. Similarly, Western Digital (WD) Red Pro drives have increased from $24.84 to $41.22 per TB, a 66 percent hike. Seagate IronWolf Pro drives have also seen a notable increase, from $21.78 to $33.75 per TB, a 55 percent jump. WD Gold drives have increased by 48 percent, moving from $29.79 to $44.17 per TB. Toshiba MG enterprise drives have risen by 38 percent, going from $22.17 to $30.64 per TB. Seagate Exos SATA drives, however, have seen the smallest increase, rising by 15 percent from $24.33 to $27.92 per TB.
Joseph Wolff, the founder and CTO of eRacks, explains that the company monitors these prices closely as they are integral to their daily operations. "The old habit was to buy extra capacity while it was cheap. It is not cheap, and it is not getting cheaper, so that habit now costs you."
Wolff advises storage buyers to size their arrays for real near-term growth rather than stocking up. He suggests leaving drive bays open for later and comparing offers based on dollars per terabyte rather than the headline discount on a single drive. Every eRacks NAS quote is re-priced against the day's drive market, and the company informs customers when waiting is the better option.
The company notes that the same demand driving memory and GPU inflation is now affecting spinning disk. Wolff adds, "The enterprise lines moved the least, and the consumer lines moved the most, but nothing fell. The same demand behind this year's memory and GPU inflation now reaches spinning disk."
For those looking to understand the full breakdown, including why the enterprise lines held up best and which capacities the shortage hits hardest, eRacks provides a detailed analysis on its blog: blog.eracks.com/2026/09/hard-drive-price-per-tb-tracking-2026-08.