SAS or SATA Hard Drive for My NAS: Which One Will Work?
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For a NAS, use a SATA drive: every one of the 30 NAS models in our records has SATA bays, and Seagate says a SAS drive cannot run on a SATA controller. No card or cable makes a SAS drive work in those bays. The other way round is fine, because a SATA drive works on a SAS controller. A SAS drive in a desktop PC needs a SAS host bus adapter and a breakout cable that also carries power.
Check your situation
Work it out for your hardware
The model lookup covers 339 model numbers whose maker data sheet states the interface: Seagate Exos, IronWolf, IronWolf Pro and BarraCuda, WD Gold and Ultrastar, and Toshiba MG. For any other drive, read SAS or SATA from its label.
SAS drive, PC with onboard SATA: needs an HBA and a cable
Connecting a SAS drive to a SATA controller will not work, so the motherboard's SATA ports are out. A SAS host bus adapter in a free PCIe slot runs the drive, with a breakout cable that ends in SFF-8482 plugs, the connector on a SAS drive.
Full cost today: $69.67 for one card and one cable, which connects up to four SAS drives.
If the drive is not bought yet, a SATA drive of the same size needs none of this.
The rules this tool applies, with their sources, are on its own page: Drive Interface Checker.
Safe steps
- Back up your data before you change the system's configuration.[4]
- Turn the computer off and unplug the power cord from the power supply before you fit a host bus adapter.[4]
- If the drive does not appear, look for the card's own setup screen. Some SAS controllers have one outside the motherboard BIOS, and the drive may show only there.[2]
- Check that the drive is enabled in the host adapter's setup utility. If the controller sees it, make sure the SAS controller drivers are loaded correctly.[2]
- On a SAS RAID controller, the drive may need to be assigned to an array before the operating system can see it.[2]
- If the drive does not spin up, reseat it, check the drive startup options in the host adapter, try another port or bay, and test another drive in the same port.[2]
What to buy, if anything
Answer the questions under "Check your situation" and this section narrows to what your case calls for. Until then every table is shown, each with the case it is for.
SATA NAS hard drives that fit a SATA bay
Why this is here: These are SATA drives, the interface every NAS bay in our records is made for, so they are the drives to buy when the NAS has SATA bays. New 3.5-inch SATA NAS and enterprise hard drives whose maker confirms CMR, sorted by price per TB.
Sources
- Seagate knowledge base: Connecting SATA drive to SAS controller checked 2026-10-14
- Seagate knowledge base: Serial-Attached SCSI Installation Instructions checked 2026-10-14
- Seagate Exos 7E10 SAS product manual 100870879, Rev. E checked 2026-10-14
- LSI SAS 9300-8i host bus adapter user guide, DB15-000984-03 checked 2026-10-14
- UGREEN NAS compatibility list: drive notes checked 2026-10-12
Facts on this page were reviewed on October 14, 2026. Prices and stock are from Amazon.com as of October 14, 2026.