I'm always running out of storage, and while I finally did something about that this year — I switched to a 100TB server — it's getting to the point when I'll need to pick up hard drives in the next year or so. With HDD sizes increasing by a considerable amount, I decided to use 18TB and 24TB drives in my NAS, but the secondary NAS (a DiskStation DS1019+) that's now being used to back up vital data (photos, documents, and so on) is still going strong, and it has 12TB and 16TB IronWolf drives.
The DS1019+ has been in constant use for the last five years, and the IronWolf drives housed within are close to hitting 40,000 hours of use. When I set up the NAS back in 2019, I had no idea the drives would last this long, and it's great to see the HDDs exceed Seagate's usage ceiling. While this NAS is not being used as the primary server any longer, I still have plenty of valuable data on it (which is thankfully backed up elsewhere), and I'm now just interested in seeing how long these drives actually last.
If you've got a home server and are thinking of picking up additional drives, the 12TB IronWolf HDD I'm using is now down to $199 on Amazon. That was what it went down to last year as well, but the deal ran out at the retailer, and if that's the case, you can get the same discount at Newegg and B&H Photo.
I think the 8TB IronWolf is a great starting point if you don't need too much storage, and the drive is a good choice if you have a 2-bay NAS. The drive is now down to $149, which is $10 more than what it was this time last year, but still a decent $30 savings on its retail price. The 12TB drive is my go-to recommendation, and I've used four of these over the course of the last five years to good effect.
The 16TB IronWolf Pro is once again down to $249, and if you're considering this drive, I'd recommend upgrading to the 24TB model instead, which is a better deal at $399. With 24TB of storage on a single drive, you don't need to worry about storage for several years.
Regardless of what storage variant you get, all IronWolf drives come with long-term reliability, spin at 7200rpm, and include custom software with vibration resistance — necessary in a NAS server. The 12TB IronWolf HDD for $199 is my pick thanks to the value you're getting, but I've also used the 16TB variants, and I'm now getting started with the 22TB option.
