Black Friday is a great opportunity to get bulk storage for cheap. Here's how to put the "inexpensive" back in RAID.
Black Friday is just around the corner, landing on November 29 this year, bringing with it plenty of chances to snag deals on storage. Despite nearly every company pushing a Dropbox competitor—such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Apple iCloud, and Amazon Drive—there is still a compelling case for local storage, particularly as mainstream smartphones have the ability to shoot video in 4K.
Whether you are looking for upgrades for your computer, an external hard drive, a network attached storage (NAS) solution, or just a flash memory card for your phone, there are a wealth of deals to be found.
TechRepublic will update this list as retailers announce sales and as sales end. Deals listed may not be in effect, or may be reference links to products with in-store sale pricing; likewise, popular deals may become out of stock before the sale is scheduled to end.
Black Friday deals on solid-state drives (SSDs)
Solid-state drives are where the big excitement is, and has been for some time—moving from a traditional HDD to an SSD can improve Windows performance considerably. In terms of read/write speeds, the 2.5" SATA SSD is inferior to PCI Express-linked M.2 SSDs, though not all .2 drives are equal—the inclusion of PCIe 4.0 in AMD's second-generation Ryzen CPUs has created a market for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, whereas most mainstream drives are PCIe 3.0.
To learn more about the various types of flash storage used in SSDs and removable media, check out TechRepublic's cheat sheet for flash storage.
Black Friday deals on internal hard drives
For bulk storage, traditional hard drives cannot be beat. Models available at retail are now pushing 16 TB capacities, offering a better cost-per-GB price point than is available with SSDs. Black Friday brings these prices down even further.
Black Friday deals on NAS hardware
Given the relatively meager amount of storage on certain smartphones, and the difficulty of packing in bulk storage in laptops, a NAS device that allows access on-network and across the internet, if configured for that level of access. Earlier this year, TechRepublic interviewed Alex Wang, the CEO of Synology America, about the increasing uses and importance of NAS hardware.
Black Friday deals on external hard drives
2.5" external hard drives are quite convenient for bulk storage on the go, while 3.5" external drives are great for people with mass storage needs, particularly laptop users sitting at a desk.
The WD Easystore is a popular option among hobbyists looking to save cash on storage for their RAID arrays—quite lucky buyers have found enterprise-grade WD Red drives inside, though white-label variants for external enclosures are more common. This YouTube video demonstrates the "shucking" procedure for opening the Easystore enclosure.
Black Friday sales on USB drives
USB drives have become quite ubiquitous—smaller capacities can be found even in convenience stores. Black Friday sees generous discounts on larger capacity USB drives, as well as newer format drives with native USB-C ports or double-ended USB and Lightning ports for use with Apple devices.
Black Friday sales on SD, microSD, and CompactFlash cards
Despite the prevalence of the cloud, removable media still has a secure foothold in a variety of applications from professional cameras to game consoles; some Android handsets still include microSD slots as well. With full-size SD and microSD cards reaching 1 TB this year, the potential savings across all capacities should be felt during Black Friday.
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