So, with the thought that even the best NAS drives will fail, what are our choices? NAS storage often comes with three or five-year warranties to cover the first handful of months of operation. It’s only a matter of time before you replace drives inside your NAS, but the goal is to mitigate this and make each drive last as long as possible.

This is an inevitable outcome we should consider when running a NAS. All hard drives eventually fail Rich Edmonds / NAS MasterĪll drives will eventually fail, whether it be a mechanical hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). Combine this effect with four or more desktop drives and you could encounter problems. Each mechanical hard drive has a spinning motor, which causes vibrations. They have thermal controls and anti-vibration technology to enhance endurance and avoid potential data loss through hardware failure. NAS drives are specifically designed to run 24/7. The same goes for desktop-class drives compared to NAS drives. Desktop computers often aren’t running continuously for months between shutdowns whereas a NAS enclosure can do just that without issue. The primary reason why NAS drives are better than those used for desktop PCs is reliability and endurance. The primary reason why NAS drives are better is reliability and endurance. We’ve all been there and biting the bullet for more expensive NAS drives is a tough, but necessary step to creating the best NAS you can afford. Okay, so you’ve just parted with £400 for a new NAS enclosure, but don’t feel comfortable spending another £300 on some new drives.

A network-attached storage server is much like a PC, so why can’t you simply use the same drives that are housed inside your five-year-old system collecting dust in the garage? That’s a very good question! I’m going to run you through what makes storage designed for NAS use far superior to desktop-class drives.

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