The 5 Best Hard Drives for Windows 11 [Price & Capacity]

Finding the best hard drive requires more than just Windows 11 support; it must also meet your needs in terms of storage space, speed, and other factors.

Many users praise HDDs (Hard Disk Drives) for their remarkably high capacity and low price. Although slightly sluggish compared to SSD, HDD comes in handy when you need a lot of storage.

You can easily save a variety of files, including videos, images, and programs, on a single HDD without worrying about running out of space.

So, if you are in the market to find a suitable HDD for Windows 11 PC, it is very time-consuming. Therefore, we have selected the best ones for you.

What should you know before buying a hard drive for your Windows 11 PC?

Many factors such as transfer rate speed, capacity and reasonable price are essential before purchasing the best hard drive.

For example, hard drive rotation speed, measured in RPM (revolutions per minute), varies between 1,200 and 10,000. The lower the disk RPM, the slower the read/write process.

Another key factor to consider before purchasing a hard drive for your Windows 11 PC is capacity. HDD has higher storage capacity than SSD.

If you want to buy a hard drive for gaming or archiving large files, the right choice is to choose a hard drive with a larger capacity. However, if you are a regular desktop user, you should consider an HDD with a smaller capacity.

What is the best hard drive for Windows 11?

Seagate BarraCuda 8TB hard drive

• Proven reliability
• Multi-layer cache
• 5400 rpm

• Limited Cache

If you are an avid gamer, you probably won’t overlook the Seagate BarraCuda 8TB hard drive. The hard drive has an impressive 8 TB capacity.

In terms of speed, the Seagate BarraCuda 190MB/s has a sustained transfer rate speed, which is sufficient above the average HDD speed.

According to buyer feedback, in addition to the above competitive advantages, this hard drive also has some shortcomings.

It's not a completely dead hard drive, it will make some low whirring noises after working for a while. So, from a user's perspective, this is a huge disadvantage.

Also, you may face some locking when HDD writes certain files. Therefore, overall performance may be degraded due to this issue.

Western Digital Black 4TB 3.5-inch

• Uses dynamic caching technology
• User-friendly setup
• 5-year warranty

• Will get hot

This drive is slightly faster than the Seagate BarraCuda 8TB HDD (7200 RPM) for personal, gaming and business use It is an excellent turbocharger for many applications.

Considering capacity, it's slightly lower than giants like the 20 TB WD Enterprise Class HDD series, but its actual capacity varies depending on your operating environment.

The HDD design looks slightly bulkier compared to the 2.5-inch version (measuring 5.79 x 4 x 1.03 inches). However, that doesn’t stop it from ranking second on the list of the best hard drives for Windows 11.

In addition to the above features, it also has some shortcomings. The Western Digital Black 4TB may get hot from spinning very quickly.

So without adequate ventilation or airflow, it can get hot and noisy. Additionally, it's significantly more expensive (nearly $180) than the WD Blue 4TB series.

Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB

• High average drive preparation time (8 seconds)
• Good power consumption
• 5-year warranty

• Low Storage
• Expensive

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Although it is a low storage hard drive, the Western Digital VelociRaptor has 10,000 RPM. This hard drive is one of the leaders in Western Digital's production line.

Due to its fast writing speed, VelociRaptor is on par with SSD in terms of read and write performance.

Using the SATA 6Gb/s interface backwards, the Challenger can also transfer large amounts of data instantly at rates of 500-550MB/s.

However, as some buyer reviews reported, it has compatibility issues with some laptops, especially Dells. Additionally, the VelociRaptor is quite expensive compared to several WD product lines.

Cooling system with ice pack kit is better than Western Black 4TB. Western has decided to replace the heatsink with an ice pack in this HDD range. Ice packs act as a buffer to absorb heat, causing it to cool down faster.

Seagate IronWolf 6TB NAS

• IronWolf Health Management Monitoring System
• Excellent 1 million hours MTBF

• Bifei NAS drives are expensive

# If you are looking for 1 to 8 bay NAS technology storage, the IronWolf 6TB NAS is the right choice. It allows you to save files online on a centralized disk that can be accessed by multiple users.

So you don’t have to worry about file loss. It's also suitable for NAS professionals and individuals eager to store large files.

However, according to buyer reviews, there are issues when placing the drive into a NAS server like the Synology DS413j. Additionally, some buyers reported higher-than-standard visit times.

Unlike the Seagate BarraCuda 8TB, there is no vibration. Additionally, its spindle speed reaches 7200 RPM, making it a fuel-injected hard drive.

Additionally, the powerful 256MB cache SATA turns it into a world-class hard drive and one of the best hard drives for Windows 11.

Western Digital Blue 2TB

• 2 Year Manufacturer Limited
• Free backup with Acronis True Image WD Edition software
• Low Power Consumption

• Smaller drives are less valuable

The WD Blue 2TB is one of the popular hard drives. Like most HDDs, the WD Blue 2TB is useful when you want to archive many files. Additionally, it is helpful for desktop users due to its excellent storage capacity.

It enjoys a speed of 5400 RPM to help your PC run programs faster. When you compare WP Blue to its competitors, it’s more affordable, selling for nearly $60.

The recording head never comes into contact with the disk media, greatly reducing wear on the recording head and media and improving drive protection during shipping.

Importantly, a free version of Acronis True Image can be downloaded from the Western Digital support website to back up all your important data to a new WD drive.

Is a hard drive worth buying?

To answer this question, we have to say that it depends on your purpose of buying a hard drive. If you want to store multiple large files or play games, there is no doubt that you will choose HDD.

The only drawbacks to internal hard drives are their mechanical parts, and the time it takes to read and write data. So, if speed is your top priority, we recommend going with an SSD.

Although HDDs are faster than SSDs today, budget friendliness is one of the advantages of hard drives.

Therefore, it is better to install the operating system and software on SSD and save the data on HDD. If your SSD isn't performing as expected, check out this article.

If you are looking for an affordable high-capacity hard drive, or in other words, the best hard drive for Windows 11, we recommend the Seagate BarraCuda 8TB hard drive.

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