Your NAS probably has several free USB ports that you might be tempted to put to use with any number of peripherals. Most of them are fine, but there are a handful that you should avoid. At best, some low-quality peripherals might make your NAS less reliable than it would be otherwise. At worst, they could physically damage it.
USB-mounted fans can kill your ports
Most USB ports aren’t designed for constant vibration or torque
USB-powered fans that you plug in to a USB port are widely available. They’re designed to create airflow directed at you, or perhaps the computer, laptop, or NAS to improve cooling.
Unfortunately, USB-mounted fans create constant, low-level vibrations that travel directly into the connector and solder joints of the USB port. They also put all of their weight directly on the port itself. Over months or years, the vibrations combined with the torque on the port can actually work the port loose, rendering it unreliable or even completely inoperable.
When you consider that the airflow benefit from a tiny USB fan is negligible compared to proper case ventilation, the potential trade-off isn’t worth it. You’re better off improving the cooling of the room where the NAS lives or upgrading the internal fans, if that is an option. If you do replace a fan inside a NAS—either as an upgrade or a replacement—make sure to get the right kind of fan. Some fans are optimized for airflow while others are optimized for static pressure, and that can make a performance difference.
- Brand
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UGREEN
- CPU
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Intel 12th Gen N-Series
- Memory
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8GB (Upgradeable to 16GB)
- Drive Bays
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2 x 22TB
- Ports
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2.5GbE, USB-C, USB-A (x3)
- Caching
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Expandable up to 8TB
This cutting-edge network-attached storage device transforms how you store and access data via smartphones, laptops, tablets, and TVs anywhere with network access.
Don’t plug in random USB devices
Leave the weird USB drive in the park where you found it
Whether it is a flash drive you found in a parking lot or a friend’s device that they plugged in to create a “quick backup,” unknown hardware is a huge vulnerability. Beyond the obvious risk of malware and other unwanted programs, there are also USB killer devices that send a large voltage surge back into the motherboard. They’ll usually fry any computer, including your NAS.
Why I’ll Never Plug in a Random USB Drive Again—and You Shouldn’t Either
Plug and play shouldn’t feel more like plug and pray.
You should never connect mystery hardware directly to the system holding your backups. If you must recover data from an unknown device, check it first on an isolated machine that isn’t connected to your network.
Avoid unknown USB cables
A bad cable can corrupt data or even harm your NAS
It is tempting to grab any unbranded or damaged cable from a junk drawer to connect an external drive. However, cheap cables often suffer from poor shielding, undersized conductors, and shoddy assembly. Unstable power delivery caused by a low-quality cable can corrupt files mid-transfer, and if something is loose, even a slight vibration could cause a transfer to fail halfway through a 10TB copy operation.
To avoid the potential pitfalls of a garbage cable, always use the cable shipped with the device or pick up a high-quality cable that matches or exceeds the data and power delivery specs of the port you’re connected to.
Additionally, there are cables out there that function like killer USB drives. They’re designed to physically damage your hardware. If you see a random USB cable sitting on a sidewalk or in an airport, just leave it. The risk to your NAS is not worth the price of a USB cable.
Don’t use low-quality USB hubs
Power instability turns one bad hub into multiple failures
Most USB devices don’t consume all that much power, but cheap, poorly-made hubs can still pose a problem. These hubs split a limited amount of power across too many devices. When the power dips, your device may randomly disconnect. If that is just a keyboard, it is annoying. If it is a hard drive, that power dip could cause read or write errors (if one is in progress) and force the drive to remount.
Don’t try running full-sized (3.5-inch) hard drives without an external power supply. It might work, but you’re asking for trouble.
If you need to connect multiple devices, and you don’t have enough ports, make sure that you buy a good powered hub from a reputable brand with its own power supply.
Don’t use USB flash drives as storage or cache
They’re designed for high-volume and portability, not reliability
Flash drives manage to pack a ton of storage into a tiny footprint, but they’re not designed for the kind of sustained read and write operations you get when using them as a backup solution, or worse, cache space.
They have relatively low endurance, which means they’ll wear out and die quickly compared to an SSD, and they don’t usually handle sustained write operations well—they tend to throttle.
Flash drives often fail without warning. If that happens, anything stored on them is likely gone forever.
Only use flash drives for occasional transfers, or for storing data that you don’t mind losing. Anything that you care about should be stored on an SSD or HDD instead; they’re much more reliable.
Treat the NAS USB port as part of your data integrity, not a junk drawer
There is a good rule of thumb for evaluating USB devices: if a device is cheap, unknown, or power-hungry, don’t attach it directly to the computer that stores all of your important backups. Don’t attach anything that moves either; regular USB ports aren’t designed to handle the mechanical stress over prolonged periods.
By spending a little more on quality cables and powered enclosures, you ensure that the devices you connect to your NAS don’t wind up damaging anything. Considering the cost of NASes and storage today, cheap devices just aren’t worth the risk.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
