Seagate IronWolf & SkyHawk — NAS and Surveillance Drives

Purpose-built drives for 24/7 NAS arrays and always-recording video systems

About NAS & Surveillance Drives

Desktop drives fail fast in NAS enclosures and NVRs — they lack rotational-vibration compensation and aren't rated for 24/7 duty. Seagate builds two families for exactly these workloads, and we stock both.

IronWolf & IronWolf Pro — NAS

4 TB to 20 TB drives with AgileArray firmware, RV sensors and 180 TB/yr (IronWolf) or 300 TB/yr (Pro) workload ratings. The standard choice for Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS and Asustor arrays up to 24 bays. Pro models add Rescue data-recovery coverage and higher sustained transfer for RAID rebuilds.

SkyHawk & SkyHawk AI — Surveillance

ImagePerfect firmware optimized for 24/7 sequential writes from up to 64 HD camera streams. SkyHawk AI models (8–20 TB) add workload headroom for on-NVR analytics — the drive spec Hikvision, Dahua and Axis systems assume.

Running business-critical storage instead? Consider Exos — higher workload rating, often at similar cost per TB. Not sure which fits? The FAQ below covers the tradeoffs, or ask us with your enclosure model.

Featured NAS & Surveillance Drives Products

Browse all 89 NAS & Surveillance Drives SKUs.

Frequently Asked Questions

IronWolf vs Exos — which should I put in my NAS?

For 1-8 bay home/office NAS: IronWolf — quieter, cooler, tuned for small arrays. For 8+ bays or heavy sustained workloads: IronWolf Pro or Exos. Exos carries the highest workload rating (550 TB/yr) and often costs less per TB, but runs louder — fine in a server room, noticeable under a desk.

Can I use a SkyHawk surveillance drive in a regular NAS?

It will work, but it is the wrong tool: SkyHawk firmware prioritizes uninterrupted sequential writes (video streams) over the mixed random I/O a NAS serves. Use IronWolf for NAS file storage and SkyHawk for NVR/DVR video duty.

What drives does a Synology or QNAP NAS support?

Both accept standard 3.5" SATA drives; IronWolf is on the compatibility list of virtually every Synology and QNAP model. For rackmount or 12+ bay units, use IronWolf Pro or Exos SATA. Check your NAS model’s max-capacity note if you are installing 16 TB+ drives on older firmware.

How many cameras can one SkyHawk drive record?

Standard SkyHawk supports up to 64 HD camera streams; SkyHawk AI is rated for 64 video streams plus 32 AI analytics streams. In practice the NVR’s recording bitrate matters most — at typical 4-8 Mbps per 4MP camera, a single drive handles a full 16-32 channel NVR comfortably.