> "Correct my if I'm wrong, but other than the connection itself, aren't most modern high speed thumb drives very similar to SSDs" The mid to high end stuff ar

> "Correct my if I'm wrong, but other than the connection itself, aren't most modern high speed thumb drives very similar to SSDs" The mid to high end stuff are. The lower end is less so. But you pay a premium for decent storage capacity on a decent thumb drive, so either way, you're back to an external HDD / SSD drive. > "and other USB storage effectively an HDD in an enclosure with a USB interface?" Indeed. Hense why I said "So you're better off with a HDD / SSD" when referring to other USB storage devices. > "I mean if you have an 8TB NAS, and you want to use an 8TB USB drive to backup said NAS locally, I'm not sure I see that as a problem. Backup doesn't HAVE to be significantly more durable than the source material, which is why multiple backups and at least one off site are recommended." I don't have an issue with USB storage per se, I was just saying there are caveats to consider. And while you're right that backups don't have to be more durable than the source, you have to bare in mind that the kind of people who would be looking for advice about using USB devices as a backup solution would likely be the same kind of people who wouldn't have multiple USB devices nor the kind of people who would test their backups to ensure the medium hasn't degraded. They also wouldn't likely be the same people to keep their backups offsite. As these kinds of checks and additions can add significant costs. Or to put it another way, if one is unwilling to spend $1000 on a second NAS then they are unlikely to want to spend $1000 on a few decent external drives. So that person is going to start scaling back their requirements (cheaper drives, fewer drives, etc) and quickly end up in a situation where their backup solution is total garbage. Bare in mind, the kind of people who would wander onto FreeNAS's forums looking for backup advice are unlikely to be people like you and I who understand how to implement these things correctly. So it doesn't surprise me that many members of the FreeNAS community veto recommending USB drives knowing how easy it would be for someone inexperienced to get things wrong (eg leaving their USB device connected forgetting that some malware would just write to USB device as well)