Upgrade Synology Hard Drives to Larger Capacity: with Images

Can I get Synology upgrade drive size?

It's OK to enhance your drive size to a larger one. Here are the instructions to upgrade Synology hard drives to larger capacity. The specific rules depend on the type of RAID you're using. For SHR, you'll need to introduce a drive larger than the biggest one currently in the RAID. For regular RAID5 and RAID6 setups, where all drives are the same size, you won't need to pay much attention to this detail. 

How do I execute Synology increase hard drive size

With specific RAID configurations, it's possible to increase the storage capacity of a storage pool by swapping out old drives for larger ones. 

✍Note:
☞Supported RAID types only: SHR, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, RAID F1.
☞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.
☞If your storage pool supports Data Scrubbing, we recommend that you perform Data Scrubbing to check whether your volume and storage pool is normal before replacing drives.
☞If you plan on replacing multiple drives, you must be careful to replace drives one by one. After replacing one drive, you must repair the storage pool before replacing the next one.

Before You Start

Before replacing a drive, please see the following notes:

• Data Backup: While the expansion process doesn't erase existing data, it's highly recommended to back up your data before proceeding. Here I recommend creating a disk backup via professional backup and restore software like AOMEI Backupper Standard.
• Storage Pool Status: Prior to starting, ensure that your storage pool status is Normal. If it's not, you'll need to repair it first.
• Accessibility of Data during Expansion: Your system's data will remain accessible during the expansion of storage pools, although connections may be temporarily interrupted when the process initially begins.
• Using 3TB or Larger Disks: If you intend to expand a storage pool with 3 TB or larger disks, please confirm that your storage pool was originally created using DSM 3.0 or a more recent version.

Replace Drive to Expand Storage Capacity

In the steps below, we will provide an example of replacing the drives of an SHR storage pool.

Step 1. Open Storage Manager. Go to Storage Pool to see which existing drive is the smallest.

Step 2. Turn off your Synology NAS. (Skip this step if your Synology NAS supports hot-swapping.)

Step 3. Remove the smallest of the member drives and install a new, larger drive.

✍Note: To ensure the safety and integrity of your Synology NAS, please adhere to the drive installation guidelines outlined in the Hardware Installation Guide specific to your Synology product.

Step 4. Turn on your Synology NAS.

Step 5. Open Storage Manager again. Go to HDD/SSD to make sure the new disk is recognized.

Step 6. The status of your storage pool should be Degraded. Select the storage pool, click Repair from the Action drop-down menu.

Step 7. Select the replacement drive to add to the storage pool. Then follow the steps of the wizard to finish.

Step 8. Repeat the above process until all desired drives have been replaced with larger ones.

Transfer your data to the target disk securely with AOMEI Backupper

AOMEI Backupper Standard stands out as a versatile backup, restore, and cloning software designed for Windows users. It offers compatibility with all Windows operating systems, including Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and 7. Here are some noteworthy features for your consideration:

▶You have the flexibility to choose between a complete disk clone or selecting specific partitions for the ghost imaging process.
▶In various situations, the target disk may not match the storage capacity of the source disk, and that's perfectly acceptable. AOMEI Backupper, by default, copies only the sectors that are actively in use, allowing you to clone a larger HDD to a smaller SSD and vice versa.
▶Regarding image backup, this software provides versatile options, including File Backup, Partition Backup, System Backup, and Disk Backup. It can also backup SSDs and HDDs, it’s extremely excellent Samsung T7 SSD backup software as well.

Here is the full guide to clone your Synology drive from source to target. Before you start, please download this software and install it on your PC.

Step 1. Please connect the two Synology disks to your Windows PC. Launch this software and go to Clone > Disk Clone.

✍Note: The Standard edition only supports cloning non-system disks. If you want to clone a disk containing OS, please upgrade to higher editions such as AOMEI Backupper Professional.

Step 2. Then choose the source hard drive you want to clone and hit Next. And then specify the target hard drive and choose Next to continue.

Step 3. Then confirm by choosing Start Clone to copy the hard disk.

►Tip: In order to make full use of the bigger disk space, please click Edit Partitions > Add unused space to all partitions. (This feature is available in the advanced edition)

Conclusion

Upgrading Synology hard drives to larger capacity will definitely give you more convenience in managing your data. Please be careful before you start the upgrade process. What’s more, if you need to transfer important data from the source to the target, please consider the disk clone feature offered by AOMEI Backupper.

This software can execute excellent Ghost Copia hard drive skills that let you experience seemingly unchanged hard drives with new one surprisingly.