Seagate used lasers to cram 30TB of storage into this NAS HDD, and it is magnificent

Seagate's IronWolf Pro drives continue to be my go-to choice when recommending the best NAS HDDs. I've used dozens of these drives over the course of the last decade, totaling over 120TB of storage. I'm yet to see an issue on any of the drives, and even after 40,000 hours of continuous use, these drives have proven to be reliable.

IronWolf Pro start at 2TB, and now they go all the way up to 30TB. That's made possible thanks to heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), a technology Seagate pioneered over the last five years. It's exciting to see these drives now becoming available, and I tested the IronWolf Pro 30TB extensively.

The best part is that these 30TB drives can be slotted into existing NAS systems; Seagate sent over two 30TB drives, and I used them with the UGREEN DXP4800 Plus and DXP8800 Plus. If you've got a Plex NAS or are setting up a homelab and want a drive that can store just about anything, this is the HDD for you.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 30TB: Specs, pricing, and availability

Seagate unveiled the IronWolf Pro 30TB in July 2025, and the HDD is now available in select global markets, including the U.S. and U.K. It costs $599 on Amazon and Best Buy, which is the same as the Exos M variant of the same drive. Like other IronWolf drives, the 30TB model gets a five-year standard warranty along with Seagate's data recovery services.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 30TB: What I like

When I built a gaming machine in high school two decades ago, I started out with an 80GB HDD — I got two 40GB WD drives. I thought that was plenty of storage at the time, and that machine served me well for several years. I upgraded to a machine with a 250GB hard drive in college, and eventually moved up to 1TB later on.

To now be able to store 30TB on a single drive is mind-boggling. My storage needs have sky-rocketed in recent years, and I now manage over 380TB across three NAS servers. Even then, I mostly use 18TB and 24TB drives, and it's exciting to see HDD manufacturers push the boundaries of recording technology.

The IronWolf Pro 30TB uses Seagate's HAMR tech to great effect. While it doesn't have the Mozaic 3+ label on the drive — unlike the 30TB Exos M — it is built on the same platform. The HAMR tech uses a laser to heat up a small portion of a platter to over 450 degrees Celsius (842 degrees Fahrenheit), and the magnetic head writes data into the heated section (which lasts just a nanosecond) at that time.

The goal with this tech is to maximize areal density, allowing Seagate to introduce platters that hold 3TB of data each. That's how Seagate managed to go up to 30TB on a drive; the IronWolf Pro 30TB has 10 disc platters, each holding 3TB of data. Seagate plans to increase areal density over the coming years, rolling out 32TB and 36TB HDDs.

Just like the 24TB Exos and IronWolf Pro drives, the 30TB IronWolf Pro uses CMR tech to actually write the data onto the platter, with HAMR enabling the greater areal density. The IronWolf Pro 30TB HDD also gets the same feature-set that are present in other Seagate NAS drives, including vibration sensors, a 512MB cache, and 550TB/year endurance. The 3.5-inch drive spins at 7200RPM, uses the 6GB/s SATA interface, and has 2.5 million hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures).

Coming to everyday use, the IronWolf Pro 30TB delivers over 265MB/s reads and 270MB/s writes. Reliability is just as great as other IronWolf Pro drives I used in recent years, and I didn't run into any issues in the two months I used the drive. I used it mostly to store data and move 4K video content to and from other NAS servers. Read/write is fast enough that it wasn't an issue while editing videos with the data stored on the NAS.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 30TB: What I don't like

There isn't any limitation with the IronWolf Pro 30TBas such, and the only issue as of now is that it costs quite a bit. This is always the case with new drives; even the IronWolf Pro 24TB drives were costly when they debuted. With the 30TB drive at $599, you're looking at $19.9/TB, with the 28TB IronWolf Pro delivering better value at $17.1/TB (the drive costs $479 as of writing).

Seagate IronWolf Pro 30TB: The alternatives

I tend to recommend IronWolf Pro drives most of the time as they've been reliable in my testing. Seagate also has 30TB Exos M drives that are priced at $599, and they have a similar feature-set to IronWolf Pro HDDs. While WD and Toshiba also make CMR drives up to 20TB, I prefer IronWolf Pro, so if you don't need 30TB in a single drive, you can get any IronWolf Pro drive in either 28TB, 24TB, 20TB, 16TB, or 12TB configurations.

Seagate IronWolf Pro 30TB: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if:

• You have a homelab and ever-increasing storage needs
• You want cutting-edge HDD tech

You shouldn't buy this if:

• You need the best value
• You don't want to store all your data on a single drive

I get to test the latest tech products — including Huawei's tri-fold Mate XT, a half-dozen foldables just this year, and the latest smart glasses — and it takes a lot to impress me. Seagate's IronWolf Pro 30TB HDD managed to do exactly that; just the fact that we can now store 30TB of data on a single HDD drove home the point of how much technology has evolved.

My entire storage needs (across eight HDDs) didn't cross 30TB five years ago, and being able to slot in a single drive and have that much storage capacity is outstanding. Outside of that, the IronWolf Pro 30TB is just as reliable as the rest of its siblings; I didn't see any issues moving huge amounts of data to and from the drive, and it doesn't make too much noise.

Ultimately, if you see yourself needing up to 30TB of storage on a single drive, then you should just buy it. Yes, it costs a lot and isn't really the best value, but the storage potential it offers is unmatched right now.