Just don’t do it!
When populating your network-attached storage (NAS) with drives, it’s important to consider hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). These are excellent for reliably storing lots of data and are specifically designed for use inside NAS devices. Another medium that can be used to expand your NAS’s capacity is the trusty USB drive. Many prebuilt turnkey NAS enclosures have a few USB ports available, but here are some reasons why you shouldn’t rely on USB drives for storing data long-term.4 Only available in limited capacities
USB drives suffer from similar issues to standard SSDs and don’t offer as many capacities as hard drives. A NAS HDD can be bought with a capacity of up to 24TB. SSDs are slowly catching up with the most expensive drives coming in at 8TB but USB flash drives are even lower at 2TB. That’s not a lot compared to standard-sized drives in bays. Although 2TB sounds like a lot, you’ll rely on the number of available USB ports on the NAS. Once they’re all populated, you’ve reached the limit. Using USB ports also limits what else you can do with the NAS, including connecting a keyboard and/or mouse.
