Tools

Free Hard Drive & Storage Tools

Interactive calculators and utilities for planning your storage build. No signup, no account, no fluff — just answers.

RAID Storage Calculator

SMR vs CMR Drive Checker

Look up any hard drive model and instantly see whether it uses SMR (shingled) or CMR (conventional) recording — critical info before buying for RAID.

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Hard Drive Price Trends

Live tracking of cost per terabyte across all major drives. Find the best $/TB by capacity, brand, and condition with charts updated daily.

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Plex Storage Calculator

New

Enter your movies, TV shows, and music to instantly calculate how much storage your Plex server needs — with RAID overhead and growth buffer built in.

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NAS Capacity Planner

Coming soon

Plan your NAS build by drive count, capacity, and RAID level. See total usable storage, parity overhead, and recommended drives.

Drive Lifespan Estimator

Coming soon

Estimate how long a hard drive will last based on workload (TB written/year), MTBF, and warranty period. Plan replacements before failure.

Cost Per TB Comparator

Coming soon

Compare two or more drives side-by-side by price, capacity, and cost per terabyte. Includes shipping and tax adjustments.

Why use TheDiskGuide tools?

Built by storage nerds

Every calculator is designed around real-world drive specs, including the quirks of CMR vs SMR, helium drives, and enterprise-class hardware. Not generic math.

Free and ad-light

All tools are free, with no signup required. We're funded by transparent affiliate links on drive recommendations — never on tools.

Educational by design

Every result includes context — why a number matters, what it means for your build, and what to watch out for. We don't just spit out numbers.

Live data, where it counts

Tools that depend on price (cost per TB, deal alerts, comparisons) use live data refreshed daily from major retailers — so the numbers are always current.