NAS drives: the Canadian reference
By Amara Okonkwo · Data checked by Owen Nakamura · Updated · Prices checked For most Canadian NAS builds, a CMR NAS drive from Seagate IronWolf, WD Red Plus or Toshiba N300 is the right pick: all rated for 24/7 use and priced below the enterprise drives once you count warranty and noise. Step up to IronWolf Pro or WD Red Pro for a 5-year warranty and higher workload, or to Exos/Ultrastar enterprise drives for the lowest CA$/TB if you can accept the noise. The table below ranks what is in stock by price per terabyte.
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How to choose a NAS drive
Three things decide it: the recording method, the workload rating and the price per terabyte. The recording method is non-negotiable: use CMR, never SMR, because SMR drives collapse during a RAID rebuild. Every family we list is CMR.
The workload rating (TB written per year) and warranty separate the standard and Pro lines. Standard NAS drives (IronWolf, Red Plus, N300) carry a 180 TB/yr rating and a 3-year warranty: more than a home NAS ever reaches. The Pro lines add a 550 TB/yr rating and 5 years, which matters for a busy multi-user box, not a family file server.
Then it is price per terabyte, in Canadian dollars. That is what the live table ranks, and at mainstream capacities the sweet spot usually sits at 8 to 16 TB.
Standard, Pro or enterprise?
- Standard NAS drives (Seagate IronWolf, WD Red Plus, Toshiba N300): the right call for the vast majority of home and small-office NAS units. 180 TB/yr, 3-year warranty, quiet.
- Pro NAS drives (IronWolf Pro, WD Red Pro): 7200 rpm, 550 TB/yr, 5-year warranty and often data-recovery service. Worth it for many concurrent users or a business box.
- Enterprise drives (Seagate Exos, WD Ultrastar): frequently the lowest CA$/TB and built for a rack. They are CMR and reliable, but audibly a datacentre drive: fine in a basement, less so in a living room.
NAS drives on Amazon.ca, by CA$/TB
CMR NAS drives in stock on Amazon.ca, ranked by price per terabyte in CAD. SMR drives are deliberately excluded: they collapse during a RAID rebuild.
| Model | Capacity | Recording | Price | CA$/raw TB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Western Digital 20TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD202KFGXNewbest price per TB CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon.ca · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$1,201Buy on Amazon | 20 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,201 | CA$60.03/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 22TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD221KFGXNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon US · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026 · ships from the US through Amazon.caCA$1,452Buy on Amazon | 22 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,452 | CA$66.00/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 16TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD161KFGXNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon.ca · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$1,060Buy on Amazon | 16 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,060 | CA$66.25/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Seagate IronWolf Pro 14TB Enterprise NAS Internal HDD Hard Drive – CMR 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM 256MB Cache for RAID Network Attached Storage, Rescue Services - FFP (ST14000NTZ01)New CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Deals2You · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$930Buy on Amazon | 14 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$930 | CA$66.43/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 12TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD122KFBXNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon US · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026 · ships from the US through Amazon.caCA$815Buy on Amazon | 12 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$815 | CA$67.94/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 4TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 128 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD40EFZZNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon.ca · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$275Buy on Amazon | 4 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$275 | CA$68.75/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 HD 18TB N300 PRO NAS 3.5 in 7200RPM SATA III TOSHIBA HDWG81JXZSTBNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Canada Direct - Often Ships Same Day! · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$1,253Buy on Amazon | 18 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,253 | CA$69.61/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 3TB WD Red Plus NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" -WD30EFPXNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Generic Computer · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$210Buy on Amazon | 3 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$210 | CA$70.00/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Seagate IRONWOLF 6TB NAS 3.5IN 6GB/S SATA 256MBNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Compute4Less Corp · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$423Buy on Amazon | 6 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$423 | CA$70.50/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 24TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 512 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD241KFGXNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Amazon US · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026 · ships from the US through Amazon.caCA$1,697Buy on Amazon | 24 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$1,697 | CA$70.71/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 HD 14TB N300 PRO NAS 3.5 in 7200RPM SATA III TOSHIBA HDWG81EXZSTBNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Canada Direct - Often Ships Same Day! · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$992Buy on Amazon | 14 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$992 | CA$70.87/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Toshiba N300 PRO 8TB 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 - HDWG780XZSTBNew CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by OneDealOutlet Canada · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$572Buy on Amazon | 8 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$572 | CA$71.51/TB | Buy on Amazon |
Show renewed and used offers (4)
Kept out of the table above: a renewed or used drive has a different warranty and an unknown history, so its price per TB is not comparable with a new drive’s. Each row shows its condition.
| Model | Capacity | Recording | Price | CA$/raw TB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Western Digital 18TB WD Red Pro NAS WD181KFGX 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s CMR 256 MB Cache 3.5" Internal Hard Drive HDD (Renewed)Renewed CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by ServerPartDeals · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$996Buy on Amazon | 18 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$996 | CA$55.32/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 Western Digital 8TB WD Red Pro NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD - 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, CMR, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD8003FFBXUsed CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Computer Supply · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$511Buy on Amazon | 8 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$511 | CA$63.86/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 WD Red Pro 6TB 3.5-Inch SATA III 7200rpm 128MB Cache NAS Internal Hard Drive (WD6002FFWX) (Renewed)Renewed CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Computer Supply · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$426Buy on Amazon | 6 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$426 | CA$70.96/TB | Buy on Amazon |
 WD Red Pro 6TB NAS Internal Hard Drive - 7200 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 256 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD6003FFBX (Renewed)Renewed CMR recording, SATA NAS drive rated for 24/7 use Amazon.ca · sold by Computer Supply · one bare internal drive; shipping and taxes not included · checked Oct 15, 2026CA$426Buy on Amazon | 6 TB | CMR ✓ | CA$426 | CA$70.96/TB | Buy on Amazon |
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Frequently asked questions
What is the best NAS drive in Canada?
For most homes, a Seagate IronWolf, WD Red Plus or Toshiba N300: all CMR, 24/7-rated, and reasonably priced per TB. For a busy or business NAS, the Pro versions add a 5-year warranty and higher workload; for the lowest CA$/TB, Exos or Ultrastar enterprise drives if you accept the noise. The live table ranks what is in stock.
Which NAS drives are CMR, not SMR?
All Seagate IronWolf and IronWolf Pro, WD Red Plus and Red Pro, and Toshiba N300 drives are CMR. The trap is the plain WD Red (WD20EFAX to WD60EFAX), which is SMR: buy Red Plus, not Red.
Do enterprise drives work in a home NAS?
Yes: Exos and Ultrastar are CMR and reliable, and often the cheapest per TB. The catch is noise and vibration: they are built for a rack, so they are louder than a NAS drive. Fine in a closet, less ideal beside your desk.
Amara Okonkwo works out what a NAS costs to run over a year on provincial Canadian hydro rates, and ranks drive prices by Canadian dollars per terabyte, using the site's Amazon.ca price sync.
Data checked by Owen Nakamura, Technical editor (data checking)