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N3RD_01 50.3K Views
Jan 12, 2026 9:02 PM

26TB Seagate Expansion Desktop USB 3.0 External Hard Drive

$280

$320

12% off
+ Free Shippingat Seagate.com
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Deal Details
Seagate has 26TB Seagate Expansion Desktop USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (STKP26000400) on sale for $279.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to Community Member N3RD_01 for sharing this deal.

Note: Please use selection buttons on product page to select the '26TB' option before adding to cart. Our links may go to a product variant that is out of stock or not included in this deal.

Product Details:
  • Seagate Expansion desktop hard drive is user-friendly, requiring only a power adapter and USB-C Type-A cable to get started.
  • USB 3.0 allows fast file transfers for efficient data management.
  • Easily save files by simply dragging and dropping them, with no additional setup required.
  • It automatically recognizes both Windows and Mac computers for quick installation, although reformatting is necessary for Time Machine compatibility.
  • For added security and peace of mind, the drive comes with a limited warranty and includes Rescue Data Recovery Services.
  • Dimensions L x W x D: 178.75mm/7.037in × 41.90mm/1.649in × 125mm/4.921in.
  • Weight: 1176g/2.592lb.

Editor's Notes

Written by Nate650 | Staff
  • About this deal:
  • About this product:
    • Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars based on over 100 Seagate customer reviews.
    • 1-year limited warranty
  • Additional notes:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the wiki and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.

Original Post

Written by N3RD_01
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Seagate has 26TB Seagate Expansion Desktop USB 3.0 External Hard Drive (STKP26000400) on sale for $279.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to Community Member N3RD_01 for sharing this deal.

Note: Please use selection buttons on product page to select the '26TB' option before adding to cart. Our links may go to a product variant that is out of stock or not included in this deal.

Product Details:
  • Seagate Expansion desktop hard drive is user-friendly, requiring only a power adapter and USB-C Type-A cable to get started.
  • USB 3.0 allows fast file transfers for efficient data management.
  • Easily save files by simply dragging and dropping them, with no additional setup required.
  • It automatically recognizes both Windows and Mac computers for quick installation, although reformatting is necessary for Time Machine compatibility.
  • For added security and peace of mind, the drive comes with a limited warranty and includes Rescue Data Recovery Services.
  • Dimensions L x W x D: 178.75mm/7.037in × 41.90mm/1.649in × 125mm/4.921in.
  • Weight: 1176g/2.592lb.

Editor's Notes

Written by Nate650 | Staff
  • About this deal:
  • About this product:
    • Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars based on over 100 Seagate customer reviews.
    • 1-year limited warranty
  • Additional notes:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the wiki and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.

Original Post

Written by N3RD_01

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Top Comments

ShrewdString611
78Comments
228Reputation
Same price at NewEgg and Best Buy (Seller NewEgg)

https://www.newegg.com/seagate-ex...6822185116

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/s...J37C5H54FV
Go to Comment
Frank_Nitty
9.8KComments
432Reputation
Yep, that's why I bought mine back in June and at that time, it was $250 though B&H. I do remember Seagate was selling it for around $290 at the time which made me side w/ B&H.
Go to Comment
AquaGalley8616
2.1KComments
305Reputation
not my experience. I bought 2 of these 26TB Seagates and I get around 240-250 MB/s speeds in the enclosure , I just plugged it into my usb 3 port on my PC. I transferred stuff from my SSD/NVMe to this drive.

Also, before I bought this drive, I watched on youtube guys that bought the device, and shared their experience. I recommend doing that for anyone that buys something like this.
Go to Comment

Community Reviews

The 26TB Seagate Expansion Desktop is drawing attention as a cheap source of large-capacity storage, especially for shucking into NAS builds or using as cold backup space. The enclosure has been getting real-world transfer reports around 240 to 250 MB per second over USB 3, and some setups run Plex or media storage fine when the drive is not the bottleneck. The main cautions are noise, heat, and uncertainty about what drive is inside, with reports of Barracuda or HAMR based units and warnings that it is not rated for 24/7 NAS use. The micro USB B connector and awkward shucking process also stand out. A practical pick for bulk storage if you can live with the quirks.

Common Questions (5)

  • Yes, it can be shucked, but the enclosure can be stubborn and may require a craft knife, guitar pick, flathead screwdriver, or box cutter along the logo side. Reports on the internals vary by batch, with many units identified as Barracuda and some later stock described as HAMR-based drives.

    PurplePolice771CitizenWozcoinmacEnderall12

  • It can work for Plex storage, especially for local playback and media libraries, and some users run Plex from similar USB externals without issues. The main caveat is that TV apps can be the bottleneck, so a wired connection and a dedicated streamer like a Fire TV, Roku, or Apple TV may matter more than the drive itself.

    mannyvlylerasputinJewCouponUserrb5505

  • It is better suited to extra storage, cold storage, or occasional backups than always-on NAS/server duty. The drives inside are described as Barracuda-class and not officially rated for 24/7 use, so frequent spin-up/spin-down or nonstop operation may be a poor fit for important data.

    gamingdroidpaliknightedrock200gamingdroid

  • Real-world speeds reported range from about 100 MB/s in the slowest complaint to roughly 240-250 MB/s when connected to a USB 3 port and copying from SSD/NVMe. For large sequential transfers, it can perform like a typical hard drive, but it is not an SSD replacement.

    ptt1404AquaGalley8616

  • The 24TB version was reported to arrive formatted as exFAT, requiring reformatting to NTFS for Windows use. That suggests you may need to reformat before using it as a Windows-native storage drive.

    SuperTXLurker

AI-generated summary based on comments from the community. Updated ago

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140 Comments

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Jan 13, 2026 10:44 PM
635 Comments
Joined Oct 2013
lylerasputinJan 13, 2026 10:44 PM
635 Comments
Quote from fuzzyballz View quoted comment :
Remember back when Seagate actually put Exos and IronWolf Pro inside these Expansion Desktop drives? Good times.
From what I'm reading on reddit etc, these are binned EXOS drives etc.. (down from 30TB etc)

I would not sweat it too much.
Jan 13, 2026 11:06 PM
1.4K Comments
Joined Feb 2005
rb5505Jan 13, 2026 11:06 PM
1.4K Comments
Quote from SuperTXLurker View quoted comment :
I paid this for the 24 TB in September, and it's not bad, but it's noisier than I thought. The 24 TB was also formatted in exFAT, so I reformatted it to NTFS (#becauseWindows).
yeah, i got the 24tb on sale on 12/10 for $240. $10/tb is my buy point. this 26tb will be $259 at some point.
Last edited by rb5505 January 13, 2026 at 10:44 PM.
Jan 13, 2026 11:10 PM
1.4K Comments
Joined Feb 2005
rb5505Jan 13, 2026 11:10 PM
1.4K Comments
Quote from SouEu View quoted comment :
I gave up on Seagate external hard drives after I had 3 fail, all within a year. I didn't even use them that much and they were stationary.
for every story like this there are many good ones, including me. never had one fail and have had many. some constant use, some turned on only to backup. i guess, generally more come here to complain then compliment. hey, that's like every other forum on the internet.
Jan 13, 2026 11:16 PM
1.4K Comments
Joined Feb 2005
rb5505Jan 13, 2026 11:16 PM
1.4K Comments
Quote from AquaGalley8616 View quoted comment :
not my experience. I bought 2 of these 26TB Seagates and I get around 240-250 MB/s speeds in the enclosure , I just plugged it into my usb 3 port on my PC. I transferred stuff from my SSD/NVMe to this drive.

Also, before I bought this drive, I watched on youtube guys that bought the device, and shared their experience. I recommend doing that for anyone that buys something like this.
looking at reviews on the sites that sell them gives you a better overall look, imo. searching for keywords in those reviews can also be helpful.
Jan 13, 2026 11:19 PM
1.4K Comments
Joined Feb 2005
rb5505Jan 13, 2026 11:19 PM
1.4K Comments
Quote from lylerasputin View quoted comment :
but again, sure wish I had stocked up more 3 years ago or whatever before all the nonsense that is going on across many levels. Oh well.
yeah, all those on sd that constantly ask the "should i wait for a better deal" question, often get burned. will they ever learn?
Jan 13, 2026 11:55 PM
742 Comments
Joined Nov 2010
itank2Jan 13, 2026 11:55 PM
742 Comments
Quote from mannyv View quoted comment :
In for one. Need to consolidate my drive collection. They're all about 80% full - which makes it impossible to move stuff around to free up space.I'm probably panic buying since all the storage stocks are going up due to AI storage hype.
No, you're just using common sense. If you research further, you'll realize there's almost no chance that prices will come down for at least 5 more years. All new inventory has already been contracted and sold for years and no major new fabs(manufacturing factories) are coming online anytime soon. If anything, prices will get worse for regular consumers over the next few years.
Jan 13, 2026 11:55 PM
151 Comments
Joined Jun 2018
JewCouponUserJan 13, 2026 11:55 PM
151 Comments
Quote from mannyv View quoted comment :
your system isn't slow because of your drive. I run plex off of an 8tb wd usb external and it's fine. Be sure to use a wired connection and any old i5/i7 and turn off the plex junk you don't use.
Thanks, found that out after I invested in SSD and noticed not a single change. It's not a wired connection, but on my OLED LG TV a few years old, C-Model, the app runs so slow, it takes roughly a full minute to boot up and 2 second pauses to scroll, I can switch to a Fire TV Stick, just like the convenience of having it all built in. Eventually need to upgrade TV.

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Jan 14, 2026 6:48 AM
1.4K Comments
Joined Feb 2005
rb5505Jan 14, 2026 6:48 AM
1.4K Comments
Quote from JewCouponUser View quoted comment :
Thanks, found that out after I invested in SSD and noticed not a single change. It's not a wired connection, but on my OLED LG TV a few years old, C-Model, the app runs so slow, it takes roughly a full minute to boot up and 2 second pauses to scroll, I can switch to a Fire TV Stick, just like the convenience of having it all built in. Eventually need to upgrade TV.
i use plex on a firetv 4k stick and have none of the slowness you describe. also using a 2 year old lg oled tv.
Jan 14, 2026 2:20 PM
3.4K Comments
Joined Jul 2013
madmax718Jan 14, 2026 2:20 PM
3.4K Comments
More of a recommendation question, I have an older Synology 218j with 4tb drives. I've been the only one using it, so while it's on 24/7, so has my desktop PCs. It's been running for about 6 years, and while not very fast, does what I need it to do (file server and backups).

I am thinking about retiring these drives to backup service, and getting two of these.
What do you think?
Jan 14, 2026 2:30 PM
169 Comments
Joined Jul 2018
TheslashJan 14, 2026 2:30 PM
169 Comments
Quote from gamingdroid View quoted comment :
Remember when 1GB was massive amount of storage?
It was a whole one thousand megabytes!
When I purchased my first computer, the guy at sams told me I would NEVER fill the 1gig hard drive.
Jan 14, 2026 2:35 PM
169 Comments
Joined Jul 2018
TheslashJan 14, 2026 2:35 PM
169 Comments
Quote from fuzzyballz View quoted comment :
Remember back when Seagate actually put Exos and IronWolf Pro inside these Expansion Desktop drives? Good times.
Thats why I just snagged a 16tb for 229. Still exos enterprise. Wouldnt touch one of these if you paid me.
Jan 14, 2026 4:04 PM
426 Comments
Joined Dec 2003
RoborJan 14, 2026 4:04 PM
426 Comments
Quote from JewCouponUser View quoted comment :
Thanks, found that out after I invested in SSD and noticed not a single change. It's not a wired connection, but on my OLED LG TV a few years old, C-Model, the app runs so slow, it takes roughly a full minute to boot up and 2 second pauses to scroll, I can switch to a Fire TV Stick, just like the convenience of having it all built in. Eventually need to upgrade TV.
Get yourself an Apple TV and use that instead of your "Smart TV". Also remember when streaming Plex locally it's better to do Original Quality than have it convert.
Jan 14, 2026 4:27 PM
1.6K Comments
Joined Oct 2004
aguptawebJan 14, 2026 4:27 PM
1.6K Comments
Quote from ShrewdString611 View quoted comment :
Same price at NewEgg and Best Buy (Seller NewEgg)

https://www.newegg.com/seagate-ex...6822185116

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/s...J37C5H54FV
Looking like $329 there now 😞
Jan 14, 2026 4:32 PM
4K Comments
Joined Dec 2007
Ducman69Jan 14, 2026 4:32 PM
4K Comments
Quote from madmax718 View quoted comment :
More of a recommendation question, I have an older Synology 218j with 4tb drives. I've been the only one using it, so while it's on 24/7, so has my desktop PCs. It's been running for about 6 years, and while not very fast, does what I need it to do (file server and backups).

I am thinking about retiring these drives to backup service, and getting two of these.
What do you think?
If it does what you need, what's the advantage? I assume when not in use that its letting the drives sleep and so not really hogging power.

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Jan 14, 2026 4:43 PM
381 Comments
Joined Dec 2019
Sandles8Jan 14, 2026 4:43 PM
381 Comments
Remember when 256GB was the bomb? We thought we could never fill that much space.

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