NAS?

[George K]

I know "NAS" stands for "Network Attached Storage," and there are enclosures into which you can put hard drives for access over your network.

But I see some HDDs being labeled as "NAS" drives.

How do they differ from regular HDDs, if at all?

[Axtremus]

My current thinking is "an HDD is an HDD, there is nothing special that makes some HDD more suitable for NAS than others."

That said, if you have examples of these so-called "NAS drives," kindly link to some of them and I will take a look. Thanks.

[Mik]

Well, since I wondered why you were posting about Naval Air Stations…..

[George K]

@Axtremus

https://www.newegg.com/red-plus-wd80efzz-8tb/p/N82E16822234504?Item=N82E16822234504

https://www.newegg.com/red-plus-wd140efgx-14tb/p/N82E16822234467

[Copper]

National Advanced Systems (NAS) built mainframes for a while, competing against IBM and Amdahl back in the 1970s.

EDS bought a share of NAS shortly after I left EDS.

The first thing I thought was Naval Air Station there were several in this area.

[Axtremus]

@George-K , thanks.

Seems to come down to two things:

1. Firmware (software running on the HDD that controls the low level operations of the HDD) - maybe some optimization or fine tuning that works better for certain usage patterns that occur more frequently in NAS/RAID systems than in desktop computers.

2. Vibration dampening - maybe designed to dampen the sort of vibrations more typically seen in NAS/RAID systems than in desktop computers.

I wouldn't worry about it if I run a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS, maybe I'll consider paying some premium for these optimizations for 8-bay or larger NAS. Personally I have pretty much gone all SSD, so vibration won't be an issue (no moving parts). That's one fewer dimension in which NAS-centric optimization can be done.

[George K]

Thanks, @Axtremus . Sounds like, if there's a premium to be paid on a NAS compatible drive, it's not worth it in my situation. Everything is connected via USB-c or Thunderbolt.

I use external drives for my backups (note the plural) and for media storage (CDs that I've ripped). At the moment, SSDs are a bit more pricey than I'd like, so HDDs are what I'm using.

[Klaus]

I believe NASware is some proprietary Western Digital stuff about reducing temperature and improving reliability. I don't think it makes a lot of sense, since these are always a concern and not specific to the usage as a NAS.

I'd file it under "marketing BS".

[Axtremus]

Seagate markets NAS HDDs too, so not something unique to Western Digital.