Add a Drive to Expand Storage Capacity
If there are empty drive slots on your DiskStation, you can install additional drives and add them to an existing storage pool. This article provides instructions to expand an existing storage pool by installing additional drives.
Before You Start
Before starting, make sure the drives that you want to add meet the following size requirements:
- For SHR: The capacity of the drive you wish to add must meet one of the following conditions: larger than the largest drive in the storage pool or equal to any of the drives in the storage pool. For example, if your SHR volume is composed of three drives – 2 TB, 1.5 TB, and 1 TB respectively – then the capacity of the new drive must be at least 2 TB or equal to 1.5 TB or 1 TB.
- For RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID F1: The capacity of the drive you wish to add must be equal to or larger than the smallest drive in the storage pool. For example, if your volume is composed of three drives – 2 TB, 1.5 TB, and 1 TB respectively – then the capacity of the new drive must be at least 1 TB.
Check Volume Status
Make sure the status of your storage pool is Normal. If not, you must first repair it.
Note:
- SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID) is available on specific models only. For more information, please visit Synology website.
- RAID F1 is available on specific models only. For more information, please visit Synology website.
- We recommend using drives in the Synology Products Compatibility List to prevent any issues. Using incompatible drives may lower the system performance or even cause data loss on your DiskStation.
Add a Drive to a Storage Pool
Hard drives can be added to the following RAID types:
- Synology Hybrid RAID (SHR)
- JBOD
- RAID 5
- RAID 6
- RAID F1
Note:
- For an SHR volume containing one drive, storage capacity will only be expanded when two or more drives are added.
- The status of the drive for replacement must be Initialized or Not Initialized.
To add a drive to a storage pool:
- Power off your DiskStation. (Skip this step if your DiskStation supports hot-swapping.)
- Insert a new drive into an empty drive slot.
Note:
- To avoid harming yourself or damaging your DiskStation, please follow the drive installation instructions found in the Hardware Installation Guide for your Synology product.
- Power on your Synology NAS and launch Storage Manager.
- Select the storage pool you wish to expand. Then click Add Drive from the Action drop-down menu.
- Select the drives with which you wish to expand the storage pool.
- Follow the steps of the wizard to finish.