Best 22TB NAS Drives UK 2026: Price per TB Ranked
22TB NAS-rated CMR drives by price per TB
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices and availability come from Amazon.co.uk as of the last update and may change.
The Toshiba N300 PRO 22TB (ASIN B0CYQJPN96) is the best-value 22TB CMR NAS drive at around £909.44, working out to £41.34/TB at last check on 24 July 2026. It edges out the standard N300 bulk unit by a fraction and undercuts the WD Red Pro and WD Ultrastar DC HC570 comfortably. All four drives here are genuine CMR, NAS-rated, and rebuild-safe for RAID 5/6 or multi-drive pools, so the decision mostly comes down to warranty length, workload rating and whether you need enterprise firmware.
Best 22TB NAS drives
All four drives below are CMR (not SMR), which matters enormously at 22TB where a shingled drive would make RAID rebuilds painfully slow or risky. Prices and £/TB are indicative, last checked 24 July 2026.
Which 22TB drive should you buy
Choose the Toshiba N300 PRO if
- You want the lowest £/TB in CMR at this capacity
- You're filling a large-bay NAS (8 to 24 bays) and buying multiple drives
- You need a high annual workload rating without paying enterprise prices
- You're comfortable with Toshiba's NAS warranty terms rather than WD's
Choose the WD Red Pro or Ultrastar if
- You want WD's specific NAS firmware and vibration tolerance in a busy multi-bay chassis
- You're building a business-critical array and want the Ultrastar's enterprise pedigree and longer duty cycle
- You already run WD Red drives and want firmware consistency across the pool
- You value WD's established RMA process over marginal £/TB savings
Who actually needs 22TB drives
22TB drives make sense once you're building serious storage, typically 4-bay NAS units aiming for 40TB+ usable in RAID 5, or 6-8 bay setups where you want fewer, larger drives rather than more, smaller ones. If you're running a 2-bay NAS for family photos and backups, 22TB per drive is overkill and you'll pay a premium for capacity you won't use for years. Where 22TB earns its keep is media servers, video production scratch pools, and business file servers where total pool size (say, 60-100TB) matters more than per-drive cost, and where fewer physical drives mean less rack space, lower power draw, and simpler management.
CMR versus SMR is the single most important spec at this capacity, full stop. SMR (shingled magnetic recording) drives overlap data tracks to pack in more capacity cheaply, but this makes random writes and RAID rebuilds dramatically slower, sometimes taking days instead of hours, and in worst cases causing rebuild timeouts that kick a drive out of the array entirely. At 22TB, a failed rebuild on SMR can mean losing the whole array during reconstruction, precisely when you can least afford it. All four drives listed here are CMR, which is exactly what you want. Some retailers still list SMR drives at this capacity without labelling them clearly, so always check the datasheet specifically for CMR or SMR before buying anything outside this list.
The rebuild safety caveat
Even with CMR drives, a RAID 5 rebuild at 22TB can take the best part of a day, and RAID 5 with a single parity drive leaves you exposed if a second drive fails during that window, which is a real risk given all drives in an array are often the same age and batch. For anything beyond a 4-bay array at this capacity, RAID 6 or a similar dual-parity scheme is worth the extra drive it costs, precisely because it buys you a second layer of protection during the long rebuild that a 22TB CMR drive requires.
22TB NAS drives, by price per TB
| Product | Capacity | Price | £ / TB | Type | Prime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOSHIBA N300 PRO 22TB Large-Sized Business NAS (up to 24 Bays) 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive - Up to 300 TB/Year Workload Rate CMR SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 512 MB Cache - HDWG62CXZSTB | 22 TB | £909.44 | £41.34 | NAS HDD · SATACMR | - |
| Toshiba N300 NAS HARD DRIVE 22TB BULK Serial ATA GB 7200rpm SATA 512MB | 22 TB | £921.80 | £41.90 | NAS HDD · SATACMR | - |
| WD Red Pro 22TB NAS 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR Recording Technology, 512MB Cache | 22 TB | £982.00 | £44.64 | NAS HDD · SATACMR | - |
| Western Digital Ultrastar DC HC570 3.5" 22 TB Serial ATA III | 22 TB | £1,123.99 | £51.09 | Enterprise HDD · SATACMREnterprise | - |
Prices are indicative — last checked 8 September 2026, from Amazon.co.uk. They are not live; check the current price on Amazon before buying. Best £/TB is the lowest at last check.
Frequently asked questions
Is 22TB CMR or SMR on all these drives?
All four drives listed here, the Toshiba N300 PRO, Toshiba N300 bulk, WD Red Pro, and WD Ultrastar DC HC570, are genuine CMR (conventional magnetic recording), which is what you want for NAS use and RAID rebuilds.
What's the difference between the Toshiba N300 PRO and the standard N300 bulk drive?
Functionally they're extremely close, both CMR, 7200rpm, 512MB cache. The N300 PRO carries a higher workload rating (300TB/year) and is positioned for larger, busier NAS builds, while the bulk N300 is aimed at similar use but sold without full retail packaging, which is why it's occasionally cheaper or pricier depending on stock.
Is the WD Ultrastar DC HC570 worth the extra cost over WD Red Pro?
Only if you need enterprise-grade endurance and are running a demanding, always-on workload such as a business file server or surveillance archive. For typical home or small-office NAS use, the WD Red Pro's 5-year warranty and NAS-specific firmware give you nearly all the same reliability at a lower £/TB.
How many 22TB drives do I need for a useful storage pool?
In a 4-bay NAS with RAID 5, four 22TB drives gives roughly 66TB usable. In RAID 6 (recommended at this capacity), you'd get around 44TB usable but with dual-drive failure protection, which is the safer choice given how long rebuilds take at 22TB.
Should I mix drive brands in the same array?
It's technically fine as long as all drives are CMR and similarly rated, but many NAS builders prefer matching drives from the same batch avoided (staggered purchase dates reduce the risk of correlated failures), while still using the same model and firmware for consistency.