Black Friday 2026 SSD and Hard Drive Deals: How to Spot Real Ones

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday 2026 is Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday follows on Monday, November 30. The sales often run longer: in its analysis, Which? counts four weeks around Black Friday as the sales period.

Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday of November, which is November 26 in 2026. The key dates:

Amazon and other retailers set the exact start and end of their sales themselves. For your comparison that does not matter: you need a reference price from today and the price on the day of the deal.

Are Black Friday hard drive deals actually good?

Often they are not. UK consumer group Which? tracked 175 products for a full year: 83% were the same price or cheaper at least once outside the Black Friday weeks. At Amazon the share was 88%.

Which? recorded prices from May 2024 to May 2025 and compared them with the price during the sales period from November 15 to December 12, 2024. The study covered home, tech and health appliances at eight retailers, Amazon among them (Which?, 11/25/2025). Storage was not part of it. The pattern still makes the point: a Black Friday price is only a deal if it is below what the product costs at other times.

Storage prices also move all year. ratioDB has recorded amazon.com prices since Jul 30, 2026. Over the last 90 days, the TB index for all SSDs changed by +2.2% and for all hard drives by +0.6%. A discount on a price that went up shortly before can still be more than the price a few weeks earlier.

How do I spot a real SSD or hard drive deal?

A real deal has three signs: its price per TB is below the index for its drive type, the price is the lowest in 90 days, and the history shows no short spike right before the sale. The percentage off on its own proves nothing.

Check every offer in three steps:

1. Work out the price per TB: Divide the price by the capacity in TB. A round number example: $200 for 4 TB is $50 per TB, $360 for 8 TB is $45 per TB. The bigger drive costs more but less per TB. ratioDB does this for every offer automatically.
2. Compare with the index: The index is the median of the 10 cheapest new offers of a drive type. An offer below it is among the cheapest on the market.
3. Look at the 90-day low and the history: Every ratioDB product page shows the lowest price of the last 90 days and the history. An offer with the 90-day low badge is as cheap as it has been in 90 days.

ratioDB only awards the 90-day low badge with enough data: it needs at least 30 days with a price, an earlier low only counts if it held for at least 2 days, and the highest price in those 90 days must be at least 5% above today's. That way a price that has not moved for months does not count as a low.

What do SSDs and hard drives cost per TB today?

On amazon.com, M.2 NVMe SSDs cost $132.05 per TB according to the index, internal 3.5" hard drives $36.25 per TB. The type closest to its own 90-day low right now is 2.5" SATA SSD, the furthest away is External SSD at 7.6%.

This table is your Black Friday reference. Write down today's index for the type you want. If an offer on the day of the sale is well below it per TB, it is a good deal. If the index itself is higher on the day of the sale than today, a discount is worth less than it looks.

Index per drive type and distance from the 90-day low on amazon.com, as of Oct 28, 2026 at 1:17 AM UTC

"Above the low" shows how far today's index sits above its lowest level of the last 90 days. 2.5" SATA SSD is only 1.6% above it right now. RAM is listed per GB for comparison. The day by day curves are on the price history pages for SSDs, hard drives and RAM.

Which SSDs are at their 90-day low right now?

On amazon.com, 45 of 228 new SSD offers are at their 90-day low right now. The box shows the cheapest of them per TB. It refreshes with every price check, so on Black Friday it shows the sale prices.

A low on its own is not enough: also compare the price per TB with the index above. A model can sit at its own 90-day low and still cost more per TB than other models of the same class. The full list of lows is under SSD offers at their 90-day low. Which SSD lines are worth buying is covered in Best SSD, and why SSD prices moved the way they did in SSD prices.

Which hard drives are at their 90-day low right now?

On amazon.com, 19 new hard drive offers from well known manufacturers are at their 90-day low right now, out of 179 new hard drives in total. The table shows the cheapest of them per TB with price and 30 day change.

New hard drives at their 90-day low on amazon.com, cheapest per TB first, as of Oct 28, 2026 at 1:17 AM UTC

We only list offers sold under the manufacturer's name, such as Seagate, WD or Toshiba, and leave out reseller brands. All lows are under hard drives at their 90-day low. For a NAS, see Best NAS hard drive, for backups at your desk Best external hard drive, and for the bigger picture Hard drive prices.

What does a "was" price really mean?

Under the FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, a former price in a US price comparison should be the actual, bona fide price at which the item was openly offered to the public for a reasonably substantial period. A "was" price that barely existed is a red flag.

The FTC guides (16 CFR 233.1) say a former price is "not necessarily fictitious merely because no sales at the advertised price were made", but it must have been "openly and actively offered for sale, for a reasonably substantial period of time" (16 CFR 233.1). What that means for you:

• The comparison price can be old: A "was" price can reflect what the item cost a while ago.
• Each seller counts on its own: The same drive may have been cheaper from another seller on amazon.com for weeks.
• Price per TB beats percentages: 20% off an expensive line is often still more per TB than the normal price of an equivalent line.

ratioDB shows the cheapest offer from all sellers on amazon.com for each product, together with its price history for the last 90 days. That tells you more than any "was" price.

How do I track prices until Black Friday?

Add the drives you want to the ratioDB watchlist today and write down the index for your drive type. On the day of the sale, open the watchlist and see right away which drive got cheaper per TB.

The ratioDB watchlist and compare feature store your picks only in your browser, no account needed. How to prepare:

1. Save candidates: On every product page and in every list, the heart icon adds a drive to your watchlist.
2. Note a reference: Write down today's price per TB and the index for the drive type from the table above.
3. Check the history: The product page shows the price for the last 90 days, so you can see whether a price went up right before the sale.
4. Compare on the day: If the new price per TB is below your reference, and ideally at a 90-day low, it is a real deal.

Is it worth waiting for Black Friday?

Nobody can predict that. If you need the storage now and an offer is below the index per TB or at its 90-day low, it is already a good price today. If you can wait, note today's index and compare on the day of the sale.

Whether prices drop or rise by late November depends on supply and demand that nobody knows for sure. The TB index for all SSDs on amazon.com changed by +2.2% over 90 days, so discounts start from today's level. A simple plan:

1. Set a target price: Take today's index for your drive type and subtract an amount that makes waiting worth it to you.
2. Pick the capacity: Bigger drives are often cheaper per TB. Decide in advance which size you need.
3. Compare on the day: Open the list for your drive type on ratioDB, sorted by price per TB. Offers at a 90-day low are marked.
4. Do not buy on the discount alone: An offer below your target price is good, one above it is not, however big the discount looks.

What should I watch for in Black Friday storage deals?

Besides price per TB, check condition, form factor, warranty and, for hard drives, the recording method. Used or refurbished drives often show up in sales with big discounts, but they are no comparison for new drives.

More on recording methods is in CMR vs SMR, and more on used drives in Refurbished hard drives.

SSD or hard drive: which is the better Black Friday buy?

Per TB, hard drives stay much cheaper on Black Friday too: the TB index for all hard drives on amazon.com is $35.00, for all SSDs $118.71. For lots of storage and backups the hard drive wins, for the operating system and games the SSD.

A deal only pays off for what you actually need. An SSD makes an old PC feel much faster, a large hard drive stores photos and videos cheaply. The differences in detail are in SSD vs HDD. The lists by price per TB are under M.2 NVMe SSD, External SSD, Internal 3.5" HDD and External 2.5" HDD.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday belong to the same sales period. A Cyber Monday deal is not automatically better or worse than a Black Friday one. ratioDB checks every store's prices regularly, so the lists show the current state with a timestamp on both days.

How does ratioDB help on Black Friday?

ratioDB checks the amazon.com prices of every listed drive regularly, converts them to price per TB and marks every offer at its 90-day low. The index per drive type is the median of the 10 cheapest new offers, with 1 TB equal to 1,000,000,000,000 bytes.

Every number in this guide refreshes with each price check, so on Black Friday it shows the sale prices. Every offer is listed with condition, price, capacity and timestamp. Multipacks are divided by their total capacity, and new, renewed and used offers are never mixed in one index. All rules are on the Methodology page, all groups under SSDs and Hard drives.