Why hard drive prices are rising and what it means for your video storage
Why hard drive prices are rising and what it means for your video storage
For years, storage has been the predictable part of video surveillance. You sized up the recorder, set your retention period, and forgot about it. If the system was recording, everything seemed fine.
However, things are changing.
Demand for hard drives is growing, and most of that demand is coming from AI and large data centres, which require enormous amounts of storage.
Major manufacturers have confirmed that most of their HDD production is already committed to these buyers. Western Digital — a leading global manufacturer of data storage solutions — has said its 2026 output is mostly covered by firm purchase orders from major customers, with agreements even stretching beyond that.
Hard drives have not disappeared, and manufacturing is continuing — but allocation has tightened, and as a knock-on effect, pricing has responded accordingly.
For industries that depend on hard drives for storage, including video surveillance, this may represent a problem. With that in mind, Videoloft examined what's driving the shift and how organizations can adapt.
Surveillance has always been storage dependent
Higher resolutions, longer retention times, and increasing camera counts mean today’s surveillance systems are producing more data than they have in the past.
In online communities, including forums like Reddit, users have been asking why hard drives are “suddenly becoming so expensive in 2026.” In one thread, a Redditor puts it simply: “AI requires data centres. Data centres require hard drives.”
These are engineers and IT professionals who regularly buy hardware. The fact that they’re raising the same concerns shows how apparent the problem has become.
In an average NVR system, storage is purchased at the start. You decide how many days of footage you need, estimate how much data your cameras will use, and buy enough hard drive space to cover it.
If you need more storage later, you can buy more drives or upgrade the system.
When hard drive prices were stable, and supply was predictable, you could plan confidently, knowing the hardware would be available and roughly the same price next quarter as it was today.
When prices rise or lead times stretch, that predictability reduces. Budgets start to move, and expansion timelines slow down, not because your system has failed, but because the hardware behind it is less predictable.
The problem isn’t technology, it’s rigidity
On-premise storage assumes that storage needs won’t change too much, and that hardware will always be available when required.
But businesses don’t stand still — sites expand, camera counts increase, and retention expectations shift. Each change means more storage, and more storage means more hardware.
A different way to think about surveillance storage
As hard drive supply becomes more volatile, is it time to reassess how video storage is handled? Across the board, businesses are looking to reduce their dependence on physical hardware like NVRs.
Cloud-based storage is one alternative some organizations are exploring. With cloud storage, there are no hard drives to buy, and therefore no vulnerability to supply issues or price hikes.
Demand for hard drives is unlikely to disappear. Data centre growth continues. This doesn't mean that NVRs will stop working tomorrow, but it does mean storage is no longer as simple as it once was.
For organizations reviewing their surveillance strategy, it may be time to ask whether storage should remain fixed and hardware based, or whether it should become something more flexible.
What should you do next?
With storage becoming more unpredictable, how can you respond sensibly and not be caught short?
These are some practical steps you can take now:
1. Protect the drives you already have
Hard drives are sensitive to power quality. Sudden spikes, drops, or unstable supply can shorten their lifespan.
Surge protectors are useful, but they don’t protect against power outages. A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) may be a better option. It keeps power delivery consistent and provides temporary backup during outages, helping to extend your hard drive’s life and reduce the risk of corruption.
2. Maximise the storage you already have
Not every system needs to record at its maximum settings. Storage use is directly influenced by things like frame rate, resolution, bitrate, and retention period. You could try reducing the frame rate slightly — for example, from 3 fps to 15 fps in noncritical areas — which can considerably reduce storage use without affecting usability.
3. Use edge storage as a failover
It’s worth checking if your cameras support a microSD card for onboard recording. This will allow footage to be stored directly on the camera, so if your recorder fails or the network drops out, the camera can record locally. For smaller systems with just a few cameras, edge storage might be sufficient on its own. Supply of MicroSDs isn’t under the same pressures as HDDs, meaning this might be a practical solution in certain situations.
4. Decrease hardware dependency altogether
Many organizations are considering whether storage should remain tied to physical devices.
The global cloud storage market is projected to grow from 197.8 billion in 2026 to 809.99 billion by 2034, and it’s not hard to see why. Cloud-based storage removes the need to purchase drives and respond to fluctuating HDD pricing. Capacity can scale as your needs change, rather than being fixed at installation.
At a time when high-capacity hard drive production is being allocated to AI and data centres, this flexibility becomes an important advantage.
Hard drives aren’t disappearing, and security systems will still continue to work, but storage is no longer as predictable as it once was.
Organizations that plan ahead — either by protecting their existing hardware or moving towards more flexible storage solutions — will be better placed as the market changes.
This story was produced by Videoloft and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
