The WD Gold 26TB, model WD261KRYZ, is Western Digital's retail/channel enterprise nearline option at 26TB. The important points are CMR recording, SATA 6Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 512MB cache, 550TB/year workload positioning, a five-year warranty and a high-capacity platform using HelioSeal, OptiNAND and ArmorCache.
This page is the broad buyer guide. The procurement question is not just whether a 26TB WD Gold exists; it is whether WD Gold is the right WD line instead of Ultrastar HC590 for datacenter shelves or WD Red Pro 26TB for NAS appliances.
The WD Gold 26TB is a CMR enterprise SATA hard drive for servers, workstations, backup targets and storage systems that want a new WD retail/channel drive with a five-year warranty. Choose it over Ultrastar HC590 when the Gold channel, proof-of-purchase and SATA-only simplicity matter. Choose Red Pro 26TB instead when the deployment is a multi-bay NAS where NAS-specific qualification is the priority.
Manufacturer-published values for the exact product family. Retail listings can collapse these details, so match the part number before ordering.
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Model number | WD261KRYZ |
| Capacity | 26TB decimal marketed capacity |
| Recording technology | CMR on Western Digital's high-capacity WD Gold platform |
| Platform | Retail/channel enterprise nearline WD Gold drive with HelioSeal, OptiNAND and ArmorCache on the 26TB model |
| Interface | SATA 6Gb/s |
| Sector format | 512e format in the WD Gold 26TB ordering row; verify any OEM suffix before fleet purchase |
| Spindle speed | 7200 RPM |
| Cache / buffer | 512MB |
| Maximum sustained transfer rate | Up to 291MB/s on the current WD product page; confirm the exact data-sheet revision on purchase orders |
| Workload rating | 550TB/year |
| Reliability rating | Up to 2.5M hours projected |
| Warranty | 5-year limited warranty |
| Power | Current WD Gold data-sheet rows should be used for enclosure budgeting; expect high-capacity 7200 RPM enterprise-class power, not desktop-idle behavior. |
| Acoustics | Confirm the current WD Gold data sheet before noise-sensitive workstation use. |
| Operating temperature | 5C to 60C operating; -40C to 70C non-operating |
| Compatibility note | Best for enterprise servers, workstations and storage appliances that accept SATA enterprise nearline drives. |
No exact in-stock live row is currently matched for WD261KRYZ. Relevant live alternatives are shown so the page does not collapse into an empty catalogue.
Live prices · updated every 4-5 hours · last checked 1 hr ago · exact model not currently matched in live stock
| Model | Capacity | Recording | RPM | Workload TB/yr | Warranty | $/TB | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WD Gold 18TBREFURB | 18TB | CMR | 7,200 | — | 5 yr | $33.33 | $600 | Buy |
| WD Gold 22TB | 22TB | CMR | 7,200 | — | 5 yr | $44.09 | $970 | Buy |
| WD Gold 18TB | 18TB | CMR | 7,200 | — | 5 yr | $60.98 | $1098 | Buy |
Workload rating is recorded per part number from Seagate's datasheet for that exact model, not blanketed across the line — two drives of the same capacity can differ because they are different generations. A dash means the figure is not stated for that listing. Recording technology comes from the manufacturer's published CMR/SMR list; a model absent from that list is shown as UNVERIFIED rather than guessed. Rows priced above 3× this line's in-stock median are flagged and excluded from the winner callout and from every median we compute.
This table is computed from live DatacenterDisk rows when an exact in-stock match exists. It is intentionally blank for unavailable models rather than filled with stale prices.
| Live model | Drive price | $/TB | 100TB raw target | 500TB raw target | 1PB raw target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No exact in-stock row is available right now. Use the availability table for nearby live alternatives, then re-check the exact model before ordering. | |||||
Raw capacity is not usable capacity. This table shows the slot-level math before filesystem overhead, snapshots, reserved space and vendor-specific parity layouts.
| Drive count | Raw capacity | Single-parity usable | Dual-parity usable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 bays | 104TB | 78TB | 52TB |
| 6 bays | 156TB | 130TB | 104TB |
| 8 bays | 208TB | 182TB | 156TB |
| 12 bays | 312TB | 286TB | 260TB |
These are raw decimal capacities. RAID, ZFS, snapshots and filesystem reservations reduce usable capacity.
| Drive count | Raw capacity | Difference versus 24TB drives | Typical buying implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 drives | 104TB | +8TB raw | Useful in a small workstation or compact server when only four bays are available. |
| 8 drives | 208TB | +16TB raw | Material for RAIDZ2 or RAID 6 systems where an extra bay is expensive. |
| 12 drives | 312TB | +24TB raw | Can defer an expansion shelf if the live price premium is reasonable. |
| 24 drives | 624TB | +48TB raw | Large enough to affect rack, power and spare-planning economics. |
WD Gold is Western Digital's enterprise-class SATA line sold through retail and channel distribution. For WD261KRYZ, the draw is a new high-capacity CMR drive with enterprise workload positioning that can be bought one or a few at a time without entering an OEM datacenter procurement lane.
That makes it attractive for storage workstations, media servers, backup repositories, small office servers, local AI datasets and production systems where new-stock warranty handling matters. It is also a credible NAS candidate where the enclosure accepts enterprise SATA drives, but it is not the line WD primarily markets as NAS-specific.
WD Gold and Ultrastar can look extremely close because both sit in Western Digital's enterprise nearline world. The safe way to describe the difference is channel and qualification, not a fake mechanical split. WD Gold uses WDxxxKRYZ retail model numbers and is sold to integrators and buyers who want enterprise drives without a datacenter purchasing program. Ultrastar HC590 uses WUH model numbers and is the line more commonly qualified in storage shelves, OEM systems and large fleet purchases.
If a rack platform or vendor-approved bill of materials names Ultrastar HC590, use that qualification. If the build is a SATA server or workstation and the live WD Gold row is attractive, WD261KRYZ can be the cleaner order. Do not assume firmware equivalence between Gold and Ultrastar unless the system vendor has actually qualified the specific model.
The comparison with WD Red Pro 26TB is different. Red Pro is explicitly the WD NAS line, so it is the better first choice for Synology, QNAP, Asustor, TerraMaster or other multi-bay NAS appliances when the exact Red Pro model appears in the compatibility list or the vendor support path clearly prefers NAS drives.
Gold becomes more compelling when the host is a server, workstation, DAS chassis or storage appliance where the drive is treated as an enterprise SATA disk rather than a NAS-specific drive. Both lines can share capacity, CMR status, 7200 RPM class and long warranty positioning, so the answer is workload and support context rather than a simple hierarchy.
CMR is the important architecture point for ZFS and conventional RAID. WD261KRYZ does not carry the host-managed SMR restrictions discussed on HC680, HC690, MA11 or Mozaic SMR pages. That does not make rebuilds short. A 26TB disk still imposes a long read/reconstruct window, especially in dense arrays.
For four bays, mirrors or RAIDZ1-style layouts can be reasonable only when backups are strong and recovery-time expectations are modest. For eight or more bays, dual parity is usually the practical floor. Treat raw capacity, protected capacity and restore time as separate numbers.
The page deliberately uses live product rows for current pricing. Static article text should not quote a changing street price for WD261KRYZ. The right calculation is simple: live price divided by 26 equals current price per raw terabyte; protected price per terabyte depends on RAID layout.
If no exact WD261KRYZ row is live, the fallback rows are only context for adjacent WD Gold stock. They are not a substitute for the exact 26TB model. If a project requires 26TB exactly, wait for the model row or switch deliberately to HC590, Red Pro 26TB or another qualified 26TB drive.
WD261KRYZ is CMR in Western Digital's current WD Gold positioning. It is not a host-managed SMR drive.
No public WD document used here establishes WD261KRYZ as firmware-identical to HC590. They are both WD enterprise nearline products, but Gold is the retail/channel WD Gold line and HC590 is the Ultrastar datacenter line with SATA and SAS variants.
It can be a good SATA enterprise drive in a NAS that supports it, but WD Red Pro is the WD line aimed directly at multi-bay NAS use. Check the exact enclosure compatibility list.
Eight drives provide 208TB raw before RAID, filesystem overhead, reserved space and snapshots.
No. Price per TB is the first screen, not the whole decision. Match recording method, interface, bay count, firmware support, warranty position and rebuild risk before accepting the cheapest row.
Specification claims on this page were checked against the pages below on 1 September 2026. Where a widely-repeated figure did not survive that check, we report what the source says now and say so in the text rather than repeating the familiar number.