Best Drives for Unraid (2025 Edition)

Quick Picks

What to Consider Before You Buy

• Capacity and Parity The parity drive must be as large as your largest data drive. Choosing a larger parity drive now makes future upgrades easier.
• CMR vs SMR Avoid SMR for parity or heavy‑use drives. CMR drives handle random writes reliably. SMR drives use overlapping tracks and are slower for parity or heavy workloads.
• NAS vs Consumer NAS drives are designed for 24/7 operation. NAS drives include features such as TLER and vibration resistance. Consumer drives are cheaper but less suited to 24/7 operation.
• SAS vs SATA SAS requires a compatible controller. SAS drives are enterprise grade and durable but require a compatible controller. SATA drives are simpler and widely supported.
• Cache Pool SSD or NVMe cache improves write performance. Use SSDs or NVMe drives for a cache pool to improve write speeds and host apps. Mirror the drives for redundancy.
• New vs Renewed Drives Recertified drives are tested more thoroughly than new drives and are a very cost effective way of adding storage, but they often come with shorter warranties.

Overall Best Drive

Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB

A powerhouse for homelabs: 7200 RPM, CMR, 5-year warranty, and a 300TB/yr workload. It balances speed and longevity, ideal for parity or data disks.

Why we love it: Enterprise-like performance without the full enterprise price. Perfect for Plex servers or mixed workloads.

Best Budget Drive

Seagate Exos (Recertified) 14TB

Large-capacity enterprise drives, factory-tested and typically sold at significant discounts. They are all individually tested, and offer incredible price-per-terabyte value. Many homelab users report excellent results with these renewed models. Other sizes of the Seagate Exos (Recertified) drives are great values as well.

Why we love it: Enterprise durability for a budget-friendly price.

What to watch: Expect a shorter warranty but solid testing and high capacity for the money.

Performance Tier

WD Gold / Ultrastar 22 TB

550TB per year workload rating and 2.5 million-hour MTBF. They include HelioSeal technology, dual vibration sensors, and ArmorCache (on 22 TB+ models) for power-loss protection and consistent performance.

Why we love it: Lightning-quick sustained speeds (~269 MB/s), rich SMART reporting, and enterprise durability—all wrapped in a 5‑year warranty. A solid step up from NAS-class drives for serious homelabs.

Most Reliable

Seagate Exos X Series Drives

Enterprise class drives also with a 550TB per year rating, built for heavy workloads and constant operation. Pick the capacity that matches your data volume and budget, you’ll get the same rigorous engineering and durability at any size. They feature high MTBF and workload ratings, helix, ECC, and helium-sealing.

Why we love it: Bulletproof reliability and speed. Great choice for parity or all-data roles. Solid real-world track record and long warranties.

Highest Capacity

Seagate Exos 28TB (Recertified)

If you want the absolute most storage per disk, the Exos 28TB stands at the top. These drives are often recertified enterprise units, offering huge capacity and 7200 RPM performance. They’re typically louder and draw more power than NAS-focused drives, and come with shorter warranties—but for adventurous homelab builders, they’re unbeatable for sheer space.

Why we love it: Incredible capacity for those willing to accept enterprise quirks. (Safer option?) For a more traditional NAS-grade option with full warranty, consider the WD Ultrastar 22 TB.

Best NVMe Cache

Samsung 990 Pro

Blazing speeds and 1200TBW endurance. Perfect for Docker appdata, Plex metadata, and VM storage.

Why we love it: Your Unraid feels snappier, transfers complete fast, and the drive can handle years of writes.

Best SATA SSD

Samsung 870 EVO

A trusted SATA option with solid performance and a long warranty. Ideal when NVMe is not available.

Why we love it: Great for cache or secondary storage when NVMe isn’t an option.