In this tutorial, we’re going to look at how to expand Synology NAS.

As your storage or backup data increases, the original hard drive storage may not be enough, and that’s when you can expand your Synology NAS storage capacity by replacing them with new hard drives or adding more hard drives to arm them with a little more power. Without the hassle of migrating your data, and you can continue to use your existing Synology NAS.

There are three main forms of capacity expansion depending on the model and needs, so let me explain.

1. Add a new drive to the free space

This method is obvious, suitable for students with free disk space, and relatively easy to do.

First shut down the NAS (if the NAS supports hot-plugging, you can not shut down the NAS), then install the new hard disk into the free disk space, open the NAS and log in to DSM with your admin account, click Storage Space Administrator > Storage Pool > Action > Add Hard Disk. After [Next] a warning will pop up, the hard disk data will be completely erased, if you have important data please make sure to backup it. After [Confirm], click [Apply], the capacity in this interface is also the available capacity in the existing RAID mode by adding the hard disk, you can also simulate the calculation of RAID capacity in advance on the official website.

At this point, a data consistency check is performed on the storage space after the drive is added. This process takes longer, but NAS files can still be accessed during the process.

2. Replacing an active drive with a larger capacity drive

This method is more suitable for students whose disk space is already full and whose models do not support expansion devices. This method is only applicable to the following RAID types: SHR, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID F1. Tip: The replacement process will not delete existing data, but it is still recommended to back up your data in advance.

First open Storage Space Manager > Storage Pool to see which existing drive has the smallest capacity and remember the drive’s number. Then shut down the NAS (if the NAS supports hot-plugging, you can leave it off), and then you can uninstall the smallest capacity drive and replace it with a new, larger capacity drive (it will beep during the process, just go to the control panel to stop it). Open the NAS and log into DSM with your admin account, go to [Storage Space Manager] > [HDD/SSD] and make sure the new drive is recognized.

Storage space status is displayed as “unavailable”, select Action > Repair, select the replacement hard disk jump, out of the hard disk data will be erased warning, confirm the information click Apply. The display will repair the storage space after adding the hard disk, data consistency checks, the process takes longer, but the process can still access NAS files, wait quietly to complete.

Note: If you selected [Flexibility Increase] when you created the storage pool, your storage space will not increase immediately after you expand it using the above two methods. You need to click [Storage Space Administrator] > [Storage Space] > [Action] > [Configuration] to increase the storage space capacity to use the expanded new space.

3. Expansion with Expansion Unit

This method is suitable for those who have enough budget for Synology NAS to support expansion devices.

First of all, you can check if your NAS supports expansion devices at the official website. If it does, it is very easy to connect the eSATA port of the expansion unit to the NAS eSATA port, install the hard drives in the expansion unit, and then power on the NAS.

After both the NAS and the expansion unit are powered on, you can check whether the expansion unit is successfully connected in [Control Panel] > [External Devices]. After successful connection, click Storage Space Manager > Storage Space > Add to create a storage pool and storage space for the expansion device, and click Apply after completing the settings according to the guide. Next, just wait patiently while the system completes the consistency check, and you can still access your NAS files normally during the process.

Conclusion – How To Expand Synology NAS

After understanding the tutorial, isn’t it easy to expand your Synology NAS now? I hope this tutorial helped you out. If you are running out of storage space on your Synology NAS, try to expand your Synology NAS easily by following the above method.

Enjoyed this tutorial? Then be sure to check out our this guide of the Best 10GbE NAS.