Stumbled across a deal for 10 64 GB USBs for 12 bucks. Figured it was so cheap that it can’t possibly hurt to have them, but now I’m wondering if they’re particularly useful for anyone?

I have a few HDDs that I intend to use for data backup. The projected use case is a full overwrite of contents every month or so, and I intend to read only in the event of data loss on my primary memory units.

I want these drives to last as long as possible, which is why I plan to only keep the drives connected when I want to write and evaluate health. In my mind, this prevents degradation while protecting from edge-case power surges and device theft. Is this strategy going to do anything to extend lifespan, or am I better off keeping the drives plugged in?