Hard drive prices are set to soar "immediately" according to leaked WD letter

WD is planning to raise all its hard drive prices across the board, according to leaked correspondence between the storage specialist and its customers. The letter cites "unprecedented demand" for its products and the need to invest in innovation for future growth as the reason behind the decision, and warns customers to expect an increase in shipping times of up to ten weeks.

You'll see several WD-branded solid-state drives in our guide to the best gaming SSD at the moment, but the company's mechanical hard drives are also used by gamers for all sorts of reasons, whether it's for external storage, use in a NAS box, or simply for large-scale media storage. It's good to have your OS and games installed on a fast SSD, such as the WD Black SN8100, but good old-fashioned hard drives still have their place with some gamers.

The letter was leaked by tech news site TrendForce News, after being spotted by "industry sources" who passed it on to the site. The letter, which is signed by WD executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer Scott Davis, states that WD "will be gradually implementing price increases on all HDD products, effective immediately."

Meanwhile, according to the letter, the aforementioned shipping delays will be the result of WD looking to use ocean freight to ship more of its products, rather than doing it by air. The leaked WD letter says this is a result of its "deepening commitment to sustainability."

If you're thinking about buying a new USB storage device, check out our guide to buying the best external SSD, which, despite its name, does still include external hard drives if you want plenty of storage space for not much money.

Are you still using a mechanical hard drive? I still have one in my NAS box. Let us know where you still prefer to use a hard drive over an SDD in our community Discord server.