Using Unverified HDD/SSD on a Synology 2025 NAS – A COMPLETE STEP BY STEP WALKTHROUGH

Use Whatever Hard Drives or SSDs on Your Synology NAS (2025 Guide)

Note – there is a YouTube tutorial version of this guide HERE on the NASCompares YouTube Channel

Synology’s 2025 generation of NAS systems, such as the DS925+ and other Plus series models, introduced a more restrictive approach to drive compatibility. Unlike previous generations, these devices enforce a compatibility check that blocks or limits functionality when non-Synology hard drives or SSDs are used. As a result, users are unable to install DSM, create storage pools, or configure caching volumes using unverified drives. Even drives that work in earlier Synology models are now flagged as unsupported, resulting in persistent alerts or outright refusal to function. This guide provides a complete walkthrough for users who want to bypass those restrictions and enable full usage of third-party SATA and NVMe drives, including for pools, volumes, hot spares, and cache. It includes step-by-step instructions on how to install DSM with only unverified drives, how to remove system warnings, and how to automate the process for future updates or drive additions. The solutions here rely on trusted scripts developed by the Synology community and require minimal system modification, allowing users to regain control over their own hardware.

Special Thanks to Dave Russell

View 007revad's full-sized avatar

The ability to bypass Synology’s restrictive drive compatibility checks would not be possible without the extensive work of Dave Russell, widely known in the Synology community as 007revad. His GitHub project, Synology_HDD_db, is the basis for all the procedures outlined in this guide. The script he developed modifies DSM’s internal compatibility database, enabling full functionality for otherwise unsupported HDDs, SSDs, and NVMe drives. Dave has not only written and maintained this complex script, but also ensured that it works across different NAS models and DSM versions, including DSM 7.2 and newer. He continues to improve the tool in response to Synology firmware changes, regularly providing updates and extended options such as M.2 volume support and WDDA disablement. Users are strongly encouraged to consult the official GitHub repository, follow the provided documentation, and, where possible, support his ongoing work HERE, which remains freely available to the broader NAS community.

MASSIVE Disclaimer

Modifying your Synology NAS to allow the use of unverified drives is not officially supported by Synology. By applying the changes described in this guide, you will be altering system files and bypassing built-in compatibility checks within DSM. While these changes are reversible and have been widely tested, doing so may void your Synology warranty or affect your ability to receive technical support from the manufacturer, even in cases unrelated to storage. Additionally, although the script-based method described here is non-destructive and has proven safe for many users, there is always a minimal risk of issues following DSM updates or hardware changes. You should not proceed unless you have full backups of your data and are comfortable with SSH and terminal operations. This guide is intended for advanced users, system integrators, or home NAS enthusiasts who understand the risks and accept responsibility for operating outside of official Synology support channels.


How to Set Up a Synology NAS with No Drives Installed to Allow DSM Installation

Synology’s 2025 and later Plus-series NAS systems will not allow DSM installation if only unverified drives are present. However, it is possible to bypass this limitation and install DSM without using any Synology-branded or officially supported drives. The method involves enabling Telnet access and overriding the drive compatibility check during the DSM installation process.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  • Physically set up your NAS

    • Connect the NAS to your local network using Ethernet.

    • Ensure the device is powered on, even if no drives are installed or only unverified drives are present.

  • Attempt initial DSM setup

    • Use Synology Assistant or go to http://find.synology.com to locate your NAS.

    • Proceed through the DSM installation wizard. You will likely encounter an error indicating that the inserted drive(s) are unsupported.

  • Enable Telnet access

    • In a browser, navigate to:
      http://<NAS-IP>:5000/webman/start_telnet.cgi
      Replace <NAS-IP> with the actual IP address of your NAS.

  • Connect via Telnet

    • Open a Telnet client like PuTTY.

    • Enter your NAS IP address and connect via Telnet.

    • When prompted, use:

      • Username: root

      • Password: 101-0101 (default for this Telnet interface)

  • Bypass installation check

    • Enter the following command into the Telnet window:

      while true; do touch /tmp/installable_check_pass; sleep 1; done
    • This creates a temporary flag that bypasses the system’s compatibility verification loop.

  • Return to the DSM install page

    • Refresh the browser window where you began the DSM setup.

    • DSM will now allow installation to proceed, even on unverified drives.

  • Finish DSM setup

    • Complete the DSM installation.

    • Create your admin user account when prompted.

    • You can now access the full DSM interface.

Once DSM is installed, you can proceed to apply the permanent drive compatibility fixes, create storage pools, and remove warning banners—all covered in the next section.


 

How to Allow Unverified HDDs or SSDs to Be Used for Storage Pools, Volumes, and Caching (and Remove Warnings)

Once DSM is installed, unverified drives will still be blocked from creating storage pools, volumes, or caches. Even if the system boots, Storage Manager will display warnings or greyed-out options. To unlock full functionality, you must apply a community-developed script that updates DSM’s internal drive compatibility database. This section outlines how to download, apply, and validate that change.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  • Enable SSH on your NAS
    • In DSM, go to Control Panel > Terminal & SNMP > Terminal.
    • Enable SSH service and click Apply.

  • Prepare SSH access
    • Use PuTTY (or your preferred SSH client) to connect to your NAS.
    • Log in using your DSM administrator username and password (not root at this stage).
  • Create working directory
    • Once connected, elevate to root:
      sudo -i
      
    • Create the required folder:
      mkdir -m775 /opt
      cd /opt
      

  • Download the required scripts
    • Run the following commands to download the latest versions directly from Dave Russell’s GitHub:
      curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db/refs/heads/main/syno_hdd_db.sh"
      curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db/refs/heads/main/syno_hdd_vendor_ids.txt"
      chmod 750 /opt/syno_hdd_db.sh
      
  • Run the script
    • Execute the script to patch the drive database:
      /opt/syno_hdd_db.sh
      
    • The script will detect your NAS model, DSM version, and connected drives. It will then add those drives to the compatibility database and back up the original files.

  • Check Storage Manager
    • Return to DSM’s Storage Manager.
    • If changes are not immediately visible, reboot your NAS.
    • You should now be able to create storage pools, volumes, and SSD caches with unverified drives, without warning messages.
  • Optional: Disable compatibility warnings completely
    • To stop future drive alerts from DSM, you may also want to run:
      /usr/syno/bin/synosetkeyvalue /etc.defaults/synoinfo.conf support_disk_compatibility no
      

At this point, all third-party drives currently installed in the system will be fully usable and recognized as supported. The next section explains how to add additional unverified drives later and have them automatically accepted.


 

What to Do When Adding New HDDs or SSDs Later for Expansion, Replacement, or Hot Spares

After your initial setup and database modification, any newly added unverified drives will still appear as unsupported in DSM until they are explicitly added to the modified compatibility database. This section outlines how to safely introduce new drives for RAID expansion, hot spare assignment, or disk replacement without encountering blockages or warning messages.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  • Physically install the new drive(s)
    • Power down your NAS if required (for systems that don’t support hot-swapping).
    • Insert the new unverified HDDs or SSDs into available bays.
    • Power the NAS back on and log in to DSM.
  • Check Storage Manager
    • Go to Storage Manager > HDD/SSD.
    • Newly added drives will appear but will be marked as “Not supported” or “Unverified.”
    • They will not be usable for volume expansion or as hot spares until added to the compatibility list.
  • Reconnect via SSH
    • Use PuTTY or your SSH client to log into DSM with your admin credentials.
    • Elevate to root access:
      sudo -i
      
  • Navigate to the working directory
    • Assuming you previously created /opt and stored the script there:
      cd /opt
      
  • Run the update script again
    • This re-applies the database patch and includes newly inserted drives:
      ./syno_hdd_db.sh

  1. Verify drive status
    • Go back to Storage Manager.
    • Refresh the page or reboot the NAS if needed.
    • The newly added drives should now appear as compatible and can be used for expansion, drive replacement, or assigned as hot spares.

This process can be repeated anytime new unverified drives are introduced. However, to avoid having to manually re-run the script every time, the next section covers how to set up a scheduled task that automates this during every system boot.


 

How to Set Up a Scheduled Task to Re-Apply the Fix on Every Reboot

Synology DSM updates or certain system operations can overwrite or reset the internal compatibility database, especially after version upgrades or service restarts. To ensure that unverified drives remain recognized and fully functional even after a reboot, you can configure a scheduled task that automatically re-applies the compatibility script at every startup.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  • Log in to DSM and open Task Scheduler
    • Go to Control Panel > Task Scheduler.
    • Click Create > Triggered Task > User-defined script.
  • Configure the general settings
    • Task Name: Name it something descriptive like Drive Compatibility Patch.
    • User: Select root from the dropdown (this is essential for full system access).
    • Event: Select Boot-up so the script runs every time the NAS starts.
    • Leave Enabled checked.

  • Set the script action
    • Click on the Task Settings tab.
    • In the User-defined script box, enter the following command:
      mkdir -m775 /opt
      cd /opt || (echo "Failed to CD to /opt"; exit 1)
      curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db/refs/heads/main/syno_hdd_db.sh"
      curl -O "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db/refs/heads/main/syno_hdd_vendor_ids.txt"
      chmod 750 /opt/syno_hdd_db.sh
      /opt/syno_hdd_db.sh -e
      
    • This ensures the script is always downloaded fresh and applied with the -e flag for compatibility with scheduled tasks and email output (if enabled).
  • Optional email notifications
    • Still under Task Settings, you can enable email alerts to be notified if the script fails or terminates abnormally.
  • Save and test
    • Click OK to save the task.
    • You can manually run the task to confirm it executes correctly.
    • Reboot the NAS to ensure the script is applied at boot and unverified drives remain fully usable.

This scheduled task ensures long-term reliability and reduces the need for manual intervention whenever DSM is restarted, updated, or new drives are introduced.


Synology’s decision to restrict drive compatibility in its 2025 and later NAS models has complicated matters for users who prefer flexibility in their storage choices. However, through a combination of Telnet access, SSH scripting, and community-built tools like Dave Russell’s syno_hdd_db.sh, it is entirely possible to restore full drive functionality—even when using completely unverified SATA or NVMe devices. By following the steps outlined in this guide, users can install DSM on unverified drives, create storage pools, use SSDs for caching, and expand or modify their RAID configurations without limitations. Setting up an automated scheduled task further ensures these capabilities persist through reboots and DSM updates. While Synology may eventually broaden official support, this method provides a reliable and reversible way to maintain full control over your hardware today.


Should You Buy the Synology DS925+ NAS?

In practical terms, the DS925+ is the stronger out-of-the-box choice, especially for users who value simplicity, improved default performance, and do not anticipate needing higher-than-2.5GbE networking down the line. However, the long-term value proposition becomes murkier when you factor in the DS923+’s PCIe expansion, broader drive compatibility, and the potential price drops that will follow its ageing status in Synology’s lineup. In short, the DS925+ is the better NAS on day one—more powerful, faster, and quieter. But if you’re planning for day 1,000, it’s worth pausing to consider whether the expandability and media flexibility of the DS923+ may be a better fit for your storage and networking needs over the next five to seven years.

Synology DS925+ NAS

Synology DS923+ NAS

Check Amazon in Your Region for the Synology DS925+ NAS

Check B&H for the Synology DS925+ NAS

Check Amazon in Your Region for the Synology DS923+ NAS

Check B&H for the Synology DS923+ NAS


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      344 thoughts on “Using Unverified HDD/SSD on a Synology 2025 NAS – A COMPLETE STEP BY STEP WALKTHROUGH

      1. There are so many butt-hurt comments here against Synology. Grow up people.
        They make great hardware and the absolute best and easiest to use OS, their branded HDD’s are completely competitive on price and performance.
        So why all the tears.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      2. You don’t have to go through all these processes. You can run a script directly on the nas. It works fine, have done it myself already. Am using Ironwolf Pro drives.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      3. Looks like the cat and mouse game is about to start. Well, Let’s hope Synology decides not to play this game but rather just uses this only as a method to deny support rather than trying to “brick” the devices that put this script on.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      4. This video should be just a 3 minutes short video putting HDDs inside the NAS, not a full scale 17 minutes video with complicated operations. What the hell, Synology.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      5. The whole point of buying a synology NAS is their support and it ‘just works’. Not anymore… Great job on the script, but without support and just working out of the box I may as well build my own NAS next time I need one.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      6. Dude … the next time you do this and refer to Putty script code without detailing verbally, everything you are writing … make that little black screen as large as possible. Im on a 27 inch monitor and its almost illegible, especially the dark coloured text.

        I dont need a 2025 version of Synology hardware, but if I did, I would not be able to replicate what you did there, just not clear enough.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      7. Synology will likely only add other brands once not doing it financially hurts them.. right now they are making extra money from their own branded drives… if it costs them financially by people just not buying their products at all, then they will add the established brands to it. All they really have to do in order to satisfy their customers is to say that other brands are at your own risk and unlock them… but no, then they wouldn’t sell any Synology hard drives.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      8. A win win for Synology. They still get to sell you the hardware but save money on refusing to support you. This doesn’t change the facts of the uninspiring ’25 releases from a performance perspective, they are still using old chipsets and slow Ethernet ports compared to the competition.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      9. So when they push out an update and you get a message your NAS is no longer available and you can’t access any of your precious data you’ll have to pray that Synology will actually help you recover everything when you are using unauthorized drives and you’ve hacked and “patched” your NAS. Something tells me they won’t and I don’t expect NASCompares or Dave Russell will either. The only way this may be viable is if you disable all DSM updates and block the NAS to use an internal network only. Even with your disclaimer I can’t see this as viable for all but the smallest internal network.

        Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Either buy Synology drives and cough up the extra or else if you want to use any drive then choose a different brand of NAS. I am totally against Synology’s push to lock out other drives but getting back at them with this to enjoy a Nelson Muntz “Ha Ha” moment is fraught with potential risk.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      10. This is a great band-aid for people who bought this model without knowing about Synology’s betrayal. I would never recommend this model so somebody with the caveat that they would have to use this script and hope that Synology doesn’t break it. I’ll say it again: IF I CAN’T USE THE DRIVES I CHOOSE IN THE NAS THAT I BOUGHT, DO I REALLY OWN THE PRODUCT?

        Kudos to Dave though. I can see he has got the spirit from his github PFP.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      11. I got a bad feeling that a company this dedicated to enshitification will wreck people’s storage pools and then blame the victim with a line like “well you shouldn’t have made me mad”. I foresee them continuing to lose market share and competitors continuing to improve as they gain more market share.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      12. I’m not jumping through hoops to use their system. So if/when the Synology fails, what hoops would I have to jump through to retrieve the data? Synology can go pound sand.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      13. Yeah, pass, to easy to inject nefarious code into that get repository, and then YOU install it. Skip that and avoid Synology NAS. Then you don’t have to jail brake your NAS OS. Why risk it? Pass.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      14. this is exactly why I won’t be buying synology ever again. there always seems to be a hack (same for windows 11), but I don’t want to have to hack my base system. so, no more synology, no more microsoft. simple as that.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      15. Great video and I appreciate all the effort and analysis to get this out there, well done by all. Perhaps the title of this video could be ‘ I give you fire…’ ☺☺ I am certain to make a hash of it… Cheers mate, thank you.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      16. How far are we willing to keep buying Synology products? I’m so done with them and I wish more people realize that they paid for freaking NAS. Unless I’m getting one for free, I’ll never do this and be irreaponsible to my beloved data.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      17. I enjoy a challenge, the cat and mouse game as do theirs in finding “work arrounds”, but I dont want to trust all my data to a company that can push out an update and potentially disable my drives. Some things I will do the hack thing with, others things are too valuable to risk it and I shouldn’t need to take on that risk. I appreciate you showing and sharing the work around and giving credit to the author as well.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      18. ⚠ You miss the point. *Why should we trust Synology at all? It makes ZERO sense to buy Synology!* ⚠ (And so we don’t need a workaround or hack) ????
        ???? *Synology has adopted a strategy based on greed.*
        ???? *Synology lies to its customers,* because for decades, state-of-the-art disks worked PERFECTLY.
        ???? *Synology switched off standard apps overnight* – despite millions of users.
        ⁉ *So why trust the greedy company Synology, which lies to us?*
        ⚠ *That’s why I’m betting that Synology will soon make its backup solution very expensive.* Then even a cheap disk will be useless.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      19. The fact that they chose the least reliable hard drive vendor is just mind-blowing. I was planning to replace my very old Synology NAS with Hitachi drives that I specifically bought for their reliability, but now I have no option.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      20. Our network is using 3 Synology Nas machines, the oldest is 11 years old and was due to be replaced this year with a 2025 model. Synology have just ruled themselves out of the running with the “Synology only” current policy and waiting for alternative storage to be added to the approved list and risking that a future DCM won’t screw things up, we’ll now migrate to another brand.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      21. I’d like to invite you for a live interview on my channel so we can discuss our very differing viewpoints on this process and how much easier it really is than what you showed. I assure you, this is a genuine invite and I wish to engage in a friendly debate.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      22. I won’t buy any more products from a company that requires me to “hack” their stuff to make it work properly. UGreen must be happy these days. As their productpages says nowadays, “works with 3rd party drives” 😀
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      23. I’ve been using this to fix my NVMe’s so I could use them in a DS423+. I’ve just moved to a ugreen DXP 4800+ and tbh I won’t miss Synology, but I get other people are into the ecosystem. Question: why do people still use putty? ssh has been in Windows for a while now – since Windows 10 1803 (May 2018) apparently.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      24. I was on the hunt for a NAS for my company but won´t even look at Synology because of this. The list of conpanies i won´t buy from keep getting longer. Apple, Nvidia,, Samsung are examples of companies that has damaged whole markets. They had a lot of help from stupid customers but tthat don´t make them any better. Synology know they have a big bite of the market and think they can get away with showing their insatiable greed, With enough stupid customers they will get away with it, just like the other companies on my list.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      25. i will probably not buy another synology nas
        but just a quick question: is there any nas that has something that does exactly what synology backup for business does?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      26. I replaced my Synology 918+ and 418+ with two UGREEN DXP4800 Plus. I love the UGOS. It does everything I need. I never looked back.

        Also bought a UniFi Dream Router 7 to replace a Synology RT6600AX router.
        Now I’m completely out of the Synology ecosystem. I now feel I’ve been catapulted into the 21st century. ????
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      27. Users with the technical skills to run these screipts – could easily use an alternative NAS brand.
        Synology has shot itself in the foot by deliberately reducing useability ????
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      28. wow still shrilling for the use of the anti consumer crap company synology. Who banned people from facebook and twitter for speaking the truth. This is the company you’re still supporting. I lost all respect for this company. The only correct and proper answer is a complete and total boycott of greedy scummy crappy company called synology.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      29. Don’t know if some Reddit users mess up Dave script method but since the dsm
        Update this week , many have critical errors on their storage pool with some Ironwolf or Wd drives.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      30. I listened to the whole disclaimer.
        Makes one think that if Synology sees what their customers are having to do, if smart, they would then open up other vendors. Also perhaps, this is a marketing genius stroke because of all the free publicity.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      31. What about security concerns? Who’s going to assure me that Dave won’t run something nefarious with that script? Or, maybe this script is legit now but down the line “Dave” changes his mind and put some crypto locker in that script that will auto download and execute at the first reboot. Ran somewhere anyone?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      32. Dave’s scripts are amazing.
        I wouldn’t count on certified 3rd party drives any time soon. While the question is if there is now a distinction between their recently announced strategic partner Toshiba and other OEMs, a recent reply from Synology – after asking if they had provided 3rd party vendors with the respective tools for verification – stated that they are “working towards providing tools and mechanisms”, which to me sounds like _nothing_ is in the hands of vendors yet.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      33. When you need to hack a device / OS to use it, it’s not the right device for you.
        Honestly, buy their drives or buy something else. It is never a good Idea to run a “hacked” system.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      34. Taking a script _directly_ from a 3rd party GitHub repository _each time_ a device boots up is *very insecure* . First of all, this leaves you up to the mercy of the owner of that repository (and that their intents do not become malicious one day), and secondly, it can also happen that their repository is compromised by hackers. If any of those 2 happen — voila! — everyone utilizing this “convenience” has now potentially installed a backdoor into their system, or ransomware, or whatever.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      35. ⚠Is it possible to manually upgrade an older model such as DS3615xs with DSM 7.1.1 to the newer DSM 7.2.2, e.g. by installing DSM from another similar NAS station?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      36. We all need to “message” synology (preferably the idiots in upper management) that this hijacking of HDD aspect is haulting any returning purchases due to this. They have to be told the truth of how F’d up this is. What a shame . . . .I will miss this company.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      37. The entire point of Synology device is simple setup and easy of use. If you have to find a work around for something as simple as using a hdd, then just use Xpeneology or literally anything else.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      38. Gee after watching the full video and seeing how the scripts have to be run again for new drives, I’m beginning to think that I should just avoid Synology NAS all together now. Was going to buy pre-2025 models for future upgrades, but now I’m thinking its going to get harder and harder to use my own drives in the newer versions of NAS post 2025 models. Time to move on for me I think.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      39. Interesting, yet I am absolutely sure I would never entrust any production level data to a system that was setup through such a back door. The risk for Synology implementing nasty changes is just too high.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      40. Few here would need such a script because not many here would’ve purchased a 25+ model. I also feel that even with this script, most here wouldn’t opt for the 25 series when there are 21/22/23 and 24 series models available without any HDD lock-ins. besides, the 25+ range offer little by way of upgrades, instead removing options or being essentially the same bar the 2.5Gb E.

        I believe no one should buy the 25+ series despite this script “fixing” the key issue. It sends the wrong message to Synology if sales of their new range go largely unaffected as a result of user script bypasses, bypasses that Synology could use to refuse all and any support on modified units regardless if the issue relates to HDD’s or not.

        Why reward Synology by working around their issues and adding to sales of the 25+ range?
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      41. You really do not want this on your NAS. I want a NAS to be 100% reliable. Synology was 100% reliable also with 3rd party disks, which makes their new policy marketing BS. A 25 model with this tinkering, is for sure not 100% reliable. It will become a cat and mouse game where synology finds a counter solution after wich the community finds a cure and so on and so on. Was about to update my synology model in 2025, now waiting one more year to see what will happen. Option A: synology will allow 3rd party drives again, and I might be sticking to Synology. Option B: see how Ugreens OS is developping and if that goes well, I am joining the Ugreen fan club.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      42. Tsk, tsk…soon you’ll be making a video on how people can install DSM as a VM in Proxmox. No Christmas card from Synology for you 😛
        I wonder if Synology has a way of tracking this hard drive script usage through telemetry. If I were Synology I’d be interested in knowing how many customers want to go this route rather than buying Synology branded drives. Not necessarily to block the script from running, but getting some customer insight.
        REPLY ON YOUTUBE

      43. Ideally, Synology would accept this or say they won’t support the unverified drives but allow you to use them anyway. But whenever its a matter of revenues being disrupted, I think we can expect they’ll take actions to try and stop this from working. Expect something extremely anti-consumer such as the verified hdd list being encrypted and only modifiable with some synology master key
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      44. Too risky, Synology will, for sure, overwrite the config file at some point, then you’ll find your NAS won’t start, so no ssh to get back in to change the config back. The whole point is to have rock solid file storage. Do a test, change it, create a pool and volume. Then change the config file and reboot. It sounds like Dave has an answer for everything, which is good, but I’d do that test above, if Dave hasn’t already. I have TrueNas on a separate drive on a TerraMaster – all data is on other drives. I could rebuild the OS drive and re-import the pools and config. If you had a mirrored pair isn’t the Synology OS, and your data, on that same mirrored pair? Will that cause an issue with recovery?
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      45. DSM and its Apps like Snapshot Replication, Cloudsync and mainly Active Backup is the only selling point of Synology in competition with ZimaOS, Ugreen or TrueNAS. I still do not believe them but they are ways ahead in this customised Apps /no, docker apps do not count here/.
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      46. What’s the point in using all those workarounds when it comes to companies that put up barriers with their products like Synology does at the moment or Microsoft does with Windows 11? Wouldn’t it make more sense to look at solutions to completely get away from companies like that?
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      47. Seen this a bit late, I ordered a 425+ along with two more IronWolfs to expand / update my system to a 4 bay. A very common scenario as you mentioned. Sending the 425 back. I don’t need that hassle. Thanks for doing the tests and to confirm at the moment and possibly in the future, my £600 worth of IronWolfs will be unusable in a Synology system.
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      48. wow, you just saved me $2500au on an upgrade, was close to a checkout on 1825+ now looking at other options, and selling my ds920. good luck synology recovering this mess, you have really screwed over a community that has supported you for decades!!!
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      49. This is shocking. Specifically the scenario of RAID recovery being prevented almost feels like a form of ransomware. I am staying well away from Synology when purchasing a new NAS.
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      50. what Synology does is bullshit. I used a Synology NAS with WD Red drives for 10 years with no problem. It’s stupid they are locking the system only for synology drives. I’m looking to upgrade my NAS but will not be Synology simply for this reason, even if their HDDs were cheap, it’s a matter of principle, a locked system is a company that you want to stay away from
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      51. Since they removed every WD and Seagate drive from the compatibility list of 1621+, I wouldn’t get my hopes up for any non-Syno branded disk to appear in any new compatibility list. It seems they’ve simply decided SMB is not profitably enough, and they will be sure to burn all bridges on their way out.
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      52. yeah this is so lame. I was just planning buy a synology 1525+ to replace my WD EX4100. And what I was supposed to do with all the drives I already have? Plus, there is no synology drives selling here in Brazil. Crazy people. Guess I will search for another brand.
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      53. We need more videos for other NAS options and stop giving attention to Synology. Synology is dead to me. I will rather go back to dialup that buying another Synology device.
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      54. These are machines intended for business use. The only way to provide guaranteed performance and service levels is with certified configurations. The Plus drives are not significantly more expensive than similar products and Synology warrant their performance in Synology equipment. This situation is common for many manufacturers in the business and enterprise space, Cisco equipment only works with Cisco spares etc. Synology make equipment suitable for home users where you can plug in any kind of drive you have lying around and it will work just fine. Is it really the end of the world or just a whole bunch of pearl clutching?
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      55. I bought my Synology NAS earlier this year. Seemed like one of the better options. I regret doing so now, and I certainly won’t be buying another, for business or home.
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      56. This looks like the beginning of the end for Adobe Premiere, ever since DaVinci Resolve appeared, offering everything that Adobe thought had no replacement—as if they were God-given tools to mess with users who faithfully pay. They thought they were irreplaceable and could endlessly push the boundaries of what users were willing to accept.
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      57. Unfortunately, I didn’t see this video or other information 3 weeks ago when I bought an older Synology NAS with 2 older WD 3TB disks. Until then, I only did offline backups + OneDrive or Google drive. I started the device, set it up, started backups. Then I upgraded to DSM 7.1.x. and gradually the problems started, suspicions of course fell on the older disks first. OK, 60 thousand hours, they’ve done it, but reallocated sectors = 0? I bought a new Seagate 6TB, moved everything to it, it worked for 3 days (!), and then disc warning… So I started looking, the problem is not the disk, but Synology’s policy. I downgraded to DSM 6.2.4 (also very complicated), lost 14 days, fortunately all disks work, I just bought too much capacity for about 2TB :-). Thanks for the loss of illusions, Synology.
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      58. I just replaced en old Baracude that died with a new Exos drive, I got a warning, but then it could continue with any extra warnings or “at risk” or anything like that. I’m fine with that initial warning, and I can actually think that is good, but what this video showed, that you cannot expand or repair? H**l no. Have Synology gotten a case of megalomania?
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      59. Okay, Synology, you say it’s for reliability, so why don’t you certify enterprise-level drives? There are only a few models (WD Gold, Ultrastar, Exos). Or are those drives bad and you’re moving drives long-term? Remember, you have millions of customers with “non-Synology” drives, and if your plan is for them all to migrate to new equipment with your drives, that’s not going to happen.
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      60. Thanks for the testing. SYNOLOGY … WTF?! I have been on Synology for 20 years. My last Synology NAS failed a couple of months back (disks still OK) and I was waiting for the new units. Now I CANNOT RELIABLY USE MY EXISTING WD RED DRIVES WITH MY (SHR) SYNOLOGY VOLUME … it looks like I can migrate my disks and volume but will not be able to safely maintain a RAID … this is NOT OK SYNOLOGY. What the hell do you think I’m supposed to do?!?! A very very unhappy long-term customer here.

        I had already ordered a DS1825+ when I found out … and then cancelled the order immediately. I’m not one to complain but this ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH.
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      61. synology’s hard drivers are nothing but re-branded main stream hard drivers(some one can chime in here and name the brand). I wonder if it would be possible to just buy the name brand price at their price, flash the synology firmware onto that hard-drive and install it in the NAS and see what happens.
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      62. Can a Synology storage pool be migrated to another manufacturer’s NAS enclosure?

        When it’s time to replace my enclosure, can I just buy another, and move my drives over?
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      63. Do any existing Syno customers like the vendor’s new policy ? Surely a majority are on-board, but how do they reason away the single-source storage media limitation? “Single-source” is usually a risk to be avoided. You don’t usually want your own business to be dependent on a single vendor, and certainly not on a vendor who’s experiencing backlash and boycott from other customers.
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      64. Obviously they are after money here. That is understandable, and perhaps even fair (given that you get a lot of software for free with the purchase of a NAS). From here, they should add 2 more options for the user (in addition to “buy only our drives”):

        1. Allow the users to purchase a “license” to add any drive they want. The license should be reasonably priced (no +$100 or more per drive nonsense).
        2. Work with the manufacturers of other drives and have them pay the money to Synology behind the scenes. (This would be similar to how Google pays Reddit to be able to index their website.)

        There is an implicit 3rd option too – considerably raise the prices for Synology NAS, or even sell software licenses separately. I doubt these choices will be popular among consumers either.
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      65. I wonder if rebuilding or expanding the RAID on the migrated disks would be possible after disabling the scan as per the instructions:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKS1lSaXJN8
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      66. The scenario about not being able to repair a migrated raid with the same exact model of (previously verified but now unverified) drive is incredibly customer-hostile for a NAS provider. I am sorry, but there is no reasoning that makes that ok, in my opinion, and you might as well have stopped the testing there as it is a full-stop deal breaker.
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      67. What the hell… somebody needs to make Synology visible on the EU commission’s radar perhaps to remind them what happened to Apple and their “closed ecosystem”!

        With the help of chatGPT… 😀

        Dear Synology Team,

        I am writing to formally express my outrage and disappointment regarding your recent decision to restrict functionality for non-Synology hard drives on your newer NAS devices.

        As the owner of multiple Synology NAS units, I find it utterly unacceptable that your policy now breaks support for any system using drives not on your proprietary “verified” list. Most critically, this move prevents the repair or rebuilding of RAID/storage pools containing previously functioning third-party drives. This not only violates basic consumer trust but actively sabotages working systems with no technical justification beyond vendor lock-in.

        Let me be clear: you are coercing your customers into using your overpriced, vendor-locked drives through what can only be described as software-level sabotage. This is not about “compatibility” — this is about cornering the market and eliminating competition through artificial restrictions.

        As of today, I am already in contact with:

        The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP)
        Consumer rights organizations within the EU
        Multiple technology journalists and media outlets across Europe, some of whom are already covering your anti-consumer practices
        The European Union has made its position abundantly clear with recent enforcement against Apple, requiring them to open their ecosystem under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). I believe Synology’s actions fall into the same anti-competitive category — and I fully intend to see this investigated and enforced at the EU level.

        I am proceeding with:

        Immediate termination of use of all Synology NAS devices under my control
        Formal regulatory complaints to EU authorities regarding anti-competitive conduct
        Public exposure of these practices through European tech media and consumer watchdog channels
        Legal review of consumer rights violations and planned obsolescence tactics under EU law
        This is your opportunity to correct course before regulators intervene. I demand:

        A formal statement from Synology addressing this issue
        Immediate rollback of policies that block functionality for non-Synology drives
        Guaranteed future support for open and interoperable drive usage
        I expect a response, and I expect transparency. This issue will not go away quietly.

        Sincerely,
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      68. I left a comment here yesterday with the solution/workaround. Seems it was deleted?? Is @NASCompares in Synologys pocket?

        There is a GitHub script you can run that updates the Synology HDD database on your machine so it sees your ‘illegal’ drives as legit.
        Just search for syno_HDD_db
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      69. Hi. Great stuff from you! As always.
        Thank you very much.
        Also will you test RAM modules? If there is the same compatibility rules as for HDD? Will 3rd party work?
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      70. Bought last year’s four-bay system for home use to replace my Drobo which . . . you know. I don’t imagine I’ll ever need another, and if I do, there’s eBay. I feel fortunate I got in before this nonsense arose.
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      71. Does this only affect the new diskstations or do they also plan to add this restrictions to older ones? Just in case, can you flash your DS to switch to another os? ????
        I swear if they sneakily add this to a future “security” update, I will lose my shit ???? figuratively and literally lol
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      72. Imagine buying a car and they won’t let you put on 3rd part tires, windshield wipers, or oil filters

        Oh and their branded ones cost more, are harder to find, & aren’t any better than other options
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      73. Synology are totally a** … I already felt that after the Intel CPU disaster with the DS415+ models, where the devices started dying after only 1,5-2 years!
        The issue was caused by the Intel Atom C2538 CPU, which had a well-known hardware flaw (LPC clock degradation) that led to system crashes and total failure. Synology knew about this problem – they fixed it at newer revisions – yet they denied everything and offered no real support.
        Over 150 users on Amazon reported the same issue after around two years of use, but Synology never acknowledged it publicly. Instead of offering a fix or any goodwill gesture, they lied to their customer and just sent me a link to a new NAS model. No replacement, no discount, no technical solution – just silence.
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      74. You are way to considrate with Synology.
        The recomendation should be: Do NOT buy Synology 25 series until a lot more 3rd party drives are certified.
        In my own consulting business I will be buying a QNAP with a view to learning it, and changing my clients over to it, unless Synology quickly changes policy.
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      75. Synology has been my go to for me and my customers, the last gen is the last synology I use, going forward I’m going to use ugreen instead, what a greedy company synology has become.
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      76. The motivation for Synology to limit drives: Greed
        The reason for the aggressive warning and preventing even basic repair features to work: Greed
        The basis for claiming only verified drives can be used: literally: Nonexistent (no, synology, one firmware issue a decade ago does not count)

        We will see if collapsing sales numbers will get one of the synology managers to stop sniffing their own farts long enough to stop this self destructive crapshow.
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      77. well this information set me back big… was thinking to go from my 2 bay DS220+ to a 8 bay with the capassaty to add 2 mor 5 bay cabinets . i can get synology drives in my contry but the price on them is not even close to a regular one and i am thinking a bout the future… 8+5+5 drive in 4 Tb is a desent storage but i was thinking to have the 8 in a raid 0 and one of the other 2 as a cold storage in a raid 5 with the last as a backup in a raid 5. so the activ raid will have about 29 Tb the cold storage about 14.5 Tb and that indecating that i need to have atlest 33,5 Tb in the backup. and in that case i need to get 5 10Tb drives for the backup. and that will cost me 3 times what the SD-unit cost itself… that´s not possible… not with my income so i am thinking to check other comparnyis solutions or build me my own PC-server/nas/router so everything is in the same setup… it will probely be more of a hassle but i thing that´s the bast solution… maybe this is not for this but i have sean mor and mor comparnyis is doing stuff to F with peapol… sory for the rambeling and anny miss spelling … have dyslexia
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      78. Man, imagine if Apple made a NAS, this would be about what you’d get. Un-freaking-acceptable. Be it commercial or consumer, people use these as a way to preserve and secure their data and the tests here confirm that Synology cannot be trusted with that data.

        I also do not trust that they are taking any haste in whitelisting additional drives. Why would they? Whitelisted drives are exclusively Synology branded, which will carry a markup. It isn’t like WD and Seagate are gonna give them a portion of their sales should some of their drives get whitelisted.

        In fact, the idea of a whitelist/blacklist for this kind of device is offensive. Trust your damn users, please!! I cannot believe that there is an issue widespread enough coming from WD and Seagate(who are almost certainly the producers of the vast majority of the drives that end up in these enclosures) that this kind of lockdown is necessary. If it was an issue, you’d hear it from them or their customers, but near as I can tell, its crickets.

        As someone in your guest discussion video said, the best option was to either let them all work, or don’t even allow migration and lock it down airtight. At least with the latter, you go in knowing the situation and know to buy additional drives as cold spares.
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      79. This basically kills off the feasibility of upgrading from an old model if currently using third party drives.

        A) It means that even if a third party drive is under warranty, a replacement would be rendered useless.
        B) If you have to replace a third party drive, you’ll end up with an array with different brands, which is something Synology seems to be against now, after years of it being one of their great selling points.

        I hope my six year old DS418Play lasts a good long time. I had been planning on upgrading, but its eventual replacement will not be Synology unless they undo these ridiculous changes.

        I’m having a hard time figuring out Synology’s logic here, but It’s my guess that they predict not being able to stop the loss of SOHO customers to the likes of UGREEN and won’t reduce their prices to counter that, so have decided to drop that sector and gouge the corporate realm.
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      80. Synology will achieve its goal of fewer support calls with this strategy. When no one buys the product they won’t call for support. I will never upgrade to one of these new NAS.
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      81. Wow, still making excuses for this scumbag company. There is zero reason for them not to have other drivers verified before releasing. They are the worst anti consumer pile of crap company. At this point, there is nothing that Synology can do to get back as customer. I do not know what brand NAS my replacement for my DS1815+ will be but regardless what anti consumer pile of crap Synology those it will not be a Synology drive. They have proved that they will screw over the customer. That coming from some that had a Synology router. Has deployed Synology NAS at work. Has recommended Synology as a company for years. I cannot believe you’re still making excuses for this pile of crap company. There is zero reason to release a new NAS and not test any driver but their own before launch, other than to milk the customer for as much cash as possible.
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      82. Appreciate the work. Was already convinced I was leaving but now I have new concerns about what to do if an older Synology dies and the drives need to go into a newer unit. That’s data loss territory! Exactly what your NAS vendor should NOT EVER be baking in. Screw ‘em. Bye.
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      83. Good bye Synology. I’ve used your products both personally and professionally in my own personal business, I’ve deployed them to TONS of customer sites, and I use them currently in my daily profession in Public Safety. After your recent anti-consumer policies and unsupported 3rd party hardware I am going to migrate ALL of my products and services to pfSense and TrueNAS and my own hardware.

        R.I.P. Synology. It’s been real, it’s been fun, but a HUGE mistake on your part and it’s going to cost you thousands of customers most likely more.
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      84. They seem to have bigger agenda with this. They want us home and SOHO users to be mad and leave ship so they can stop making home NAS boxes and focus solely on the enterprise market.
        After 15 years I’m fed up with their policy and moving away to Qnap and QuTS Hero.
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      85. Thank you for such an in-depth overview of the scenarios, very useful indeed. As a reseller of Synology devices this was disappointing news, I have been selling Synology NAS’s for years and are my go-to NAS, for now I will not be recommending the newer models and stick with the older series which do support 3rd party drives, while they are still available. Hopefully Synology will work with the 3rd parties such as WD and Seagate to make their products certified in the future. Otherwise there are other NAS vendors that their customers will move to and their sales and reputation will undoubtedly suffer.
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      86. Synology warns users that Kingston, Samsung, WD, Seagate, and SK Hynix are at risk. This is a direct confrontation between Synology’s own brand value and the above storage device manufacturers.
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      87. Here’s a disturbing thought…. Blocking non-validated drives is based on a ‘whitelist’ of ‘validated’ drives. That automatically means that somewhere on the NAS there’s a file that contains that list. What if that file gets corrupted? What if some Synology employee makes a booboo and puts a typo in there? What if there’s a ‘soon to be ex-Synology employee with a grudge’ who does that on purpose? And those corrupt files slip through QA? Things like that happen, and no matter how hard Synology is going to say it won’t I know it can, and probably will happen at some point. That might render your NAS unusable, or at ‘best’ cause you to have all these non validated drive issues with drives that might be perfectly validated and otherwise good. Artificial blocking in such ways is a recipe for disaster.

        Mind you, I totally understand validation of hardware for vendors of NASes, and such. I have absolutely NO problem with them doing that. They have to keep their support costs under control (or charge the customers with the difference, which will make them much more expensive, etc). But this is just a stupid implementation of this policy.
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      88. Thank God I didn’t get into synology when I decided to acquire my first NAS. All these companies seem to go down this route, when they got you into their walled garden, they start blackmailing you for more and more money, because line must go up
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      89. When I first discovered the NAS Compares channel over a year ago my thought was once I’d made my NAS purchase I’d not have a need for the channel anymore. I was wrong! Thanks for keeping us in the know.
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      90. I was wondering if that script that adds your drives to the “compatible list” works on the ’25 units, and if that’d be a way around the migrated pool and a drive failure/adding same disk test?
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      91. If Synology will not let me use my own WD Data Center drives then I will have to ditch Synology! I will not be locked into their product hemisphere!
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      92. Yikes!! Whoever pushed and shoved this decision through at Synology is probably doing a lot of “short selling” (or buying some major “put options”) in anticipation of the Synology stock tanking and taking a nose dive in price. Not so crazy, actually, Brilliant! Although, Really bad for the corporation. Oh yeah, and the consumer. Or at least what’s left of them. Major opportunities for other NAS competitors. And NASCompares.
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      93. Synology would like to thank you for being a loyal customer for years. So now when your Nas dies, you can purchase a new updated Synology NAS and all your hard drives all over again. You are welcome, its the least Synology can do to show you how important you are to them.
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      94. What you can do…
        Give a wide berth to a company that insults the customers who have been loyal to it for years and have brought it sales.
        Anyone who pulls this kind of crap has no future in the market.
        One could surmise that the swings of the decision makers were a little close to the nearest wall.
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      95. Thank you for the clear and thoughtful coverage of this important topic. I guess my old Drobo 5N will have to keep going for a little while longer while I consider other options.
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      96. Not being able to recovery from a degraded array with a like drive should make 100% of people looking to upgrade completely stay away from these systems. The other scenarios people can grumble about but this on is a dick move.
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      97. Wow. This really sucks. We need an open source software that does SHR. Drobo’s had something similar and I went to Synology because they also allowed mis-matched drive sizes in a NAS form. Unraid and Hexos does not do a variation of SHR which is sad.
        I hope my 10 year old synologies last another 10 years!
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      98. Thanks for putting this video up. This is so disappointing by synology.. I researched and bought on in 2019 and wow happy with it. Will definitely find a new company somewhere else/
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      99. The 2025 Synology series is unfortunately Dead to Me. I have a DS423+ (Plex user here) and there is zero reason to ‘upgrade’ to the 2025 models regardless given the HW specs. This is a pity as the DSM 7.2 version I’m on (before they removed Video Station) looks to be the version I’ll be staying on as long as I can (baring some significant security issue).
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      100. I’ve been a loyal Synology user, and this is my third unit, but it will also be my last. It feels like Synology has forgotten who their core customers are. Casual users generally don’t care about NAS, while power users, who set everything up for their families, care a lot about flexibility and choice. Forcing users to buy only their drives is where I draw the line. I’ve always used IronWolf drives and have been completely satisfied with them. I’m not going to switch just to comply with Synology’s new restrictions.
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      101. Stability is great. But let me choose. If you want to verify drives which guarantees me a certain level of stability, great. It’s my device though so if I want to put in different drives and don’t give a shit about your verification, then I should be able to.
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      102. We’ve had an eight unit Synology NAS in our office for several years and have been waiting on the release of the 2025 model to upgrade this. The company’s decisionn to force users to buy their rebranded drives has sent me looking to their competitors.
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      103. LOL. @Synology, get over yourselves. You’re not even close to enterprise class devices, stop LARPing. I was looking at replacing my fleet of aging Netgear ReadyNAS 4, 6 and 8 bay enclosures and @Synology you WERE on the list. Now, you’re #1 on the “Hard no” list, as I don’t/can’t trust you, even if you roll back this greedy decision.
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      104. They should’ve just raised the price instead of lock it. They want to fight HDD prices falling locking you in and tap into HDD sales. I was looking for a 10 bay and due to lock in I’m passing. I need to be able to move old RAID designed drives over not buy 10 new ones. This also forces you to buy bigger drives up front. I will not be buying one of their products. I have 86TB and will be growing 24TB a year. So who is this product for?
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      105. I have worked the industry an I can understand the idea behind Synology’s decision to ban drives that are not on the HCT list. I can understand, but I don’t think they did it the right way. The right way would be to expressly state that if you are using drives that are not on the HCT list Synology will not accept any warranty claims in case of disk failure, array failure or data corruption.

        The reason I say this is because I have built a lot of storage servers and run into disk compatibility problems. In one case WD shipped over 200 drives so we could swap out the drives that failed in the servers a customer bought. Thing is these drives were actually on the compatibility list, but then using an older firmware. Once the firmware was upgraded the disks were no longer compatible. In another case I had to sit at a customer and update the firmware of about 100 drives as the R6 arrays had failed. This customer had all error mail messages sent to an employee who never looked at them. Had he even just looked at the servers once he got an email he would have seen the error LED on the failed drives and the array failures could have been prevented. As it was the drives failed, the arrays were degraded, the standby drives were used to rebuild the array and another drive failed and the second standby replaced it only for two more drives to fail and the arrays were dead. This is when they called about the problem. Seagate and the controller manufacturer went through the logs from the controllers and Seagate provided a new firmware that solved the failures. These are things you don’t have to deal with if the drives are tested, certified and the drives you buy has the correct firmware. And to get the kind of service we got from drive manufacturers it helps if you are talking about several hundred drives at a time. It’s harder to get prompt service if you are a end user and have four or eight drives that cause a problem.
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      106. I’m so upset with this, literally bought an upgrade to my old unit 10days ago, while I was searching for new drivers I discovered this news about the drivers, I really don’t like this idea of no freedom, so I will be returning the unit for refund and i will search other company , they don’t deserve my data
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      107. What about older non-Synology drives?!
        I have an old DS414 that I’d love to replace but was waiting for 2.5Gb network. Now I’m just a home user, I don’t have a big budget, so if I replaced my NAS, I would want to use my existing old (but working perfectly) drives, preferably with a clean install after backing up the data. I’ve no idea if these old drives are on any recent compatibility list even if Synology were to open up the allowed list a bit.

        And these NAS units aren’t cheap, there’s no way I can afford a new NAS and 4 new drives all in one go, and then what happens to my existing perfectly working drives?

        I just can’t see how I can buy a new Synology NAS now.
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      108. While it’s unofficial fixes, i would really appreciate it if you could test some of the HDD compatibility scripts (hacks), which replaces/expands the file which contains the compatibility list on the Synology NAS and whether or not it works.

        Just Google “Synology_HDD_db”

        EDIT: In fact, they just released a guide an hour ago to even get the new Synology NAS’es to allow you to install DSM with unverified HDDs.
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      109. There are already scripts created that can add any disks to the Synology approved list or allow DSM to be installed on new disks. It remains to be seen if Synology will make changes to block them but for now, unverified disks can be used very easily.
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      110. There is no incompatibility with ‘unverified’ drives but aggravated obsession for customers money. Synology wants to make money out of thin air. Because most of Synology hardware was overpriced outdated trash 5 years ago and surprisingly it is now. But from now on company decided to do a quantum leap into degeneration and bankruptcy by enforcing usage of outdated and overpriced Toshiba drives relabeled. This would mostly hit home users, creators and some small businesses

        Whatever this company did it won’t revert the accumulated negative effect. So it’s time to say “bye-bye overpriced trash”!
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      111. Have anyone tested copying first blocks of unverified, but working disk (from DS923+) to new, but unverified disk? Something like “dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1” ?
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      112. What does a verified disk mean? Every 20 year old computer needs drivers and the thing will work, with all types of memory media. So they just don’t want the drivers to load for stable operation. petty????
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      113. Curious if when a drive fails, if you can shutdown the DS925+, pull the good drive out, clone it to the replacement disk to get the synology partitions on it, place the original good drive back in and boot, then when running add in the cloned replacement disk to see if it will allow raid repair. Might have a similar situation as when replugging in the hot pulled disk.
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      114. All those years of getting r&ped up the wallet and telling ourselves we’re ok with mediocre hardware because THeiR sOFTwaRe is SO aaWSome…well 1)it’s not, I’ve used all their own apps now, many don’t really work. and 2)this is what our premium dollars have paid for, a deliberate sabotage at the software level creating artificial problems…that’s right artificial problems put there by Synology.
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      115. That is really a shame, hope they do add 3rd party to the compatibility list. Actually the Synology drives are not compatible in a lower version of DSM like 6.x while the 3rd party are, so overall they are the least compatible drives on the market! What concerns me also is if the Synology drives are compatible on other brand NAS’s ? So you can save your investment if you want to switch.
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      116. I am a migrating buyer

        I planned to purchase a DS1825

        I’ve had (2) 20 TB Seagate EXOS drives sitting in my desk waiting for a new unit

        This was the final straw, I purchased a Terramaster F6-424 Max

        So far, I’m happy
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      117. This is so f*cking stupid I don’t even know where to start. For f*ck sake Synology, how can you be this turned away from reality?!
        This is ensh*tification at its finest really. I could’ve bought it if buying your drives would’ve unlocked something extra and it was 100% optional, but this.. I can’t believe than I’m from now on is going to suggest QNAP to people who want to buy a turnkey solution…
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      118. It is completely UNACCEPTABLE and DANGEROUS for Synology to block recovery of an array with non-Synology branded drives. That is a completely artificial restriction that they have chosen to implement and puts their customers’ data at risk. That is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE behavior from Synology!
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      119. I’ve got a dead DS1817+ and I’ve been waiting for 18 months to replace it; I’m fairly convinced that it’s the motherboard that has died. It has 8 * 8TB WD Reds in it. I want to transfer this pool to a new NAS. I’m hoping that I can move my current pool to a new DS1825+ then one by one replace my WD Reds with something like 16TB HAT3310s The cost will be prohibitive but I might be able to do this over an 18 month period… hopefully I will then be in a ‘safe’ position…
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      120. I’ve been thinking about this verification nonsense from Synology, and it occurred to me that it is a brand lock-in, nothing more. Think about it, for years Synology have had NAS certified drives from Seagate, Toshiba and WD on their compatibility list, a list that they have claimed has been validated thoroughly. If this is so, and those drives from Seagate, WD and Toshiba have been fully verified for years, what’s changed? Why are those drives suddenly unverified now?

        How can drives previously on Sinology’s much vaunted compatibility list be unverified? It makes no sense to me. I believe Synology are appeasing their user base by saying third-party drives are/will be verified in future without seriously wanting to do this. This exercise is being done to evaluate user pushback. If most users shrug, grumble a bit and accept this new situation, Synology may quietly forget about verifying thirdparty drives. If, however, the reaction from the Synology community is comprehensively negative, they will miraculously include the third-party drives they’ve always had on their compatibility list in short order.
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      121. This is a huge showstopper for me and many. I have 918+ running and will most likely be looking for a way out of Synology ecosystem if they stay on this path. The hard part is replacing some of the apps that I use, like Photos (Immich?) and Drive (Nextcloud is the closest but bloated) and Surveillance station (???). If you are not using these apps then getting out of Synology should be pretty simple.
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      122. Synology going this route of trying to lock in their overpriced rebadged Toshiba hard drives is a Rubicon that cannot be uncrossed. The trust is gone. Even if they claim they will loosen the restrictions on non-approved drives, why should I trust they won’t simply reverse course in a few years? It’s time to move on from Synology.
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      123. I wonder if there would be market for hacking WD drives to identify themselves as valid verified drives 🙂 Most likely the firmware change they have made to the drives is very minimal and could be quite easily replicated/emulated on other drives.
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      124. That rebuild thing is a big problem, you should always be able to rebuild a RAID if drive fails, dataloss is worse than possible unstable behaviour that might occur. And if that really is a big issue, then just allow rebuild but keep the RAID in slow degraded mode where it really cannot be used until you rebuild it with verified drive, but in the mean time all the data will be safe as the RAID has been rebuilt and there is parity data.
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      125. Pathetic. to let you migrate non-standard drives and hten not repair a failed RAID??? Regardless if they “fix that”, it shows you their brain-dead strategy–those were the requirements for developers!
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      126. Excellent presentation. Thank you. You are doing some really amazing reporting on this situation. I try to repurpose just about all of my drives, memory and whatnot as best I can when bringing in new home lab equipment. All my stuff is enterprise grade as I just dont buy “cheap stuff” for my lab. The thought that I could never any of it, not one bit, in a brand new premium NAS just makes want to vomit. It kind of reminds me what what MSFT is doing with TPM and what Broadcom has done with VMware. Of course Apple does this same crap with their computers, phones and everything else. I have really high hopes for the new Minisform NAS and their OS. Really hope the Minisform NAS OS can be virtualized under Proxmox either on their new NAS hardware or the MS-A2.
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      127. So synology is using Non-standard hard drives because all other drives than synology are not working normally.
        Do not explain me that… In my opinion all people should fill whole internet with simillar sentence in comments and reviews to force synology to explain themself more and that will show that they are just lying about true intentions
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      128. I wouldn’t normally comment on a YouTube video, but wow. I’ve been a Synology NAS customer for longer than I can remember. I currently own six units with a total of 32 drives across them. I heard about the drama, but I was waiting for some actual tests to see how bad things were. I would say this is disaster territory. I simply can’t trust Synology with my data going forward. It’s a real shame, I’ve loved the OS over the years, and I have boxes that have been powered on for something like 10 years non-stop. I have always recommended them as the go-to solution. Time to move on. Thank you for doing these tests, and for the great videos over the years. I look forward to finding out the best new options as they appear.
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      129. Just say it outright: Synology can’t be recommended anymore. This policy is idiotic and most of the disabled features have absolutely nothing to do with drive “compatibility”. If their software is so finicky, it’s shit software and you wouldn’t want to use it anyways. This is just a money grab, plain and simple, and coming at the worst of times where nearly every other manufacturers hardware is better than the Synology oldtimers.
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      130. They will hopefully learn their lesson soon or go bankrupt. I for myself will never use Synology ever again and do my datndest to not let them into the corps i work for.

        Damage is done ….
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      131. At first I thought I would just quit if they bs spec lock. Now I need to advise other against their bs scamming. Remember this ‘once they start bs any business practice, they will do it again and again. NEVER EVER TRUST OR GIVE IN TO THEIR LIARS’
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      132. Wow, looks like I may be looking at HexOS now and my own hardware solution or perhaps one that comes without an OS. I really do love Synology, but this huge change is a deal breaker for sure.
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      133. Many thanks for the video . To be absolutely clear . . . . another vote for UGREEN + TrueNAS
        Synology face sales loss from people/SME who start with a low end product and later upgrade to several higher end products.
        It would make sense if Synology modelled their likely sales loss based on these comments . . . do they care?
        Surely Synology must realise that a very small percentage of the population buy NAS units
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      134. Nope. I own Synology NAS devices at home and for my employer (Government – Police, Fire, EMS). I’m out. This is a deal breaker for me. I will not be buying any more Synology hardware while they are vendor locked on the drives. Hard drives all meet standards. We put them in RAID arrays to protect against those rare failures. Artificially raising the price is asinine. Get your head out of your asinine Synology!
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      135. …and don’t forget, what you might be able to do today will properly be turned off in a DSM update when they get aware of the loopholes found by the users ????
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      136. Their decision is so stupid that it would even make more sense to stop accepting sata drives and create a new Synology type of drives…
        They will regret it but probably it is already too late.
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      137. One of the most absurd thing about all this story is that the Synology drives I see listed on Amazon (at least here in Italy) are obviously either Seagate or HGST manufactured WD (that btw for some funny reason have the sticker flipped upside down compared to the OEM drives), so there is no reason for not allowing other drives of those brands to function inside the NAS.
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      138. Good information. My opinion is to stay away from Synology for now. Even if you pay more and purchase all compatible drives today, it does not mean they will be on the list for your next replacement system. Sadly, as a home user, I like the SHR. Does any other manufacturer allow mixing drives.
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      139. After exchanging emails with synology the official answer is “drives that do not meet the new compatibility policy WILL NOT WORK”. I can forward the email to you if you want or you can ask for details from them.

        RIP Synology. It was a nice trip.
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      140. I’m not yet sure if I have to replace my current NAS with another one, but this crap rules out any chance for a Synology. They have begun the route down this path, and I don’t believe they will reverse it.
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      141. You could potentially try “initialize” the drive in the older nas to try to use it as replacement for degraded RAID.
        If you migrate the older box is usually kept as the backup so it may be kind of the workaround foe those who must upgrade.
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      142. Thanks for your detailed and scientific approach to NAS videos. I have been watching about 6 months. I don’t own a NAS yet, I like to do a LOT of research before purchases like that. I’m glad now I didn’t purchase a Synology system recently.
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      143. For a dominant NAS vendor like Synology, I can’t believe this product release was a marketing blunder. They’ve had plenty of time to verify 3rd party drives so the fact they have launched with a retricted compatibiity list speaks volumes for their mindset. Even if they add a few 3rd paty drives over the next few months, I think the writing is on the wall. Ultimately Synology will be a closed ecosystem and I’m certainly not going to validate their position with a purchase.
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      144. You do realize how Synology “works” with WD and Seagate. Just trying to squeeze money out of them for “verification”. Because their NAS disks are already absolutely compatible for the reason that no special compatibility is needed. They just need to meet industry standards.
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      145. I have a random crazy theory. I don’t know if it would work. Lets say you have four drives from an older system. You migrate them to a new NAS. They work! Now, one of those drives goes bad. You replace it with a new blank drive of the same model. The NAS rejects it. Just pull one of the working drives, put it in a system and do a sector by sector clone to the blank drive. The New NAS will recognize the new drive as being Synology and let you rebuild the system using it.
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      146. 2:08 this part of the video testing unverified drive information is good enough for me,because i prefer seagate brand. Currently own ds920+ with 4x8TB seagate,plan want to buy 5 bays but i guess i’ll pass.
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      147. Yeaaaaaaaa, that’ll be a big ol’ NOPE from me. “They’re looking into compatibility with WD & Seagate”!?! Well, Synology, the damage is DONE. Shoulda ‘looked into’ it prior to launch. Your company will never recover from this backlash.
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      148. So, I was going to update my 1817+ to a 25+ model. Not anymore. I have Seagate enterprise drives in it with several purchased spares (all on the compatibility list for that model). I can migrate but have to use Synology drives going forward for expansion/spares?! Um, no thanks. I’ll be going with a different brand. Why do companies get greedy and then stupid?
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      149. Consider me riled ????
        At this stage, I’d consider it a risk to migrate a storage pool from an older model.

        I would be tempted to say that they should only offer the Migration Assistant method to move data from an older model to the ds925+ having Synology branded disks. At least this way there would be no confusion about which scenarios my data is safe.
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      150. 12m – attempt to be balanced … it has only just been launched … they may add further drives down the line….

        Never buy something on a promise or assumption; buy on what it is now (especially at this price point)
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      151. So this isn’t an issue with an existing Synology + series of NASes? does that mean firmware/upgrade support of old devices is going away? Since ultimately this is a software lock it seems.
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      152. Was ready to upgrade later this year but at this point we are going to remove all Synology drives out of our business it’s a waste now being forced into certain hardware.
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      153. Thanks Robbie. Great video as always. I had ONE more thought, but I totally understand if you don’t revisit. If you have a migrated pool & volume, you remove a “bad” drive, and you install a “new” unverified drive… that you first setup as a “blank” single drive in a DS923+ or whatever… would THAT allow you to use the single unverified to repair? Using an older NAS to “prep” drives to use in the DS925+ doesn’t make much sense, but if it works… well, that’s something. Again, thanks for all you do, and have a great day!!!
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      154. Synology is dead to me. I replaced my 920+ and relegated it to a backup system until it dies and at work where we had 6 1820+ systems that we had already started migrating off of before this latest BS they announced. Outdated / limited hardware, removing features from software, and competitors catching up and surpassing them on the hardware side while options like TrueNAS, UNraid, and others are filling the gap on the software side without vendor lock in.

        The value proposition Synology once had been already trending down, with the new release it is gone.
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      155. Really hope Synology watching your videos and reading comments. I wanted to upgrade to a 925+, and wanted to buy another unit for my parents house.
        Now i wont, and i will switch to ugreen or qnap.
        Hope you make a good amount on your rebranded drives synology.
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      156. Synology is dead to me now. What folks should do — what I have done — is acquired a small Plus-series drive from the recent past that can run Active Backup for Business. Use that machine as an appliance for the sole purpose of network backup. Use larger devices from other vendors as the target of your backups and for all other purposes.
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      157. All of this wouldn’t be an issue if Synology drives were readily available in the sizes in we want for a reasonable price, similar to the existing WD/Seagate offerings. But if I need to wait a week and pay anywhere between 10-50% more for essentially the same thing, then that’s what makes me extremely annoyed at this situation.

        IF you have a Synology system, maybe they should offer existing users a discount or something to buy Synology drives. They need to offer some incentive at least. However who knows how long that will last. Maybe a year down the road once we are locked into our 925+, they can decide at any point to significantly increase the price of the drives or stop selling certain sizes that meet our existing budget. Who knows.

        There are too many unknowns here and for that reason, it’s obvious we need to look elsewhere.
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      158. If they planned the compatible list they would have at least some drives on it when announcing the units , they just wanted to wait if there would be a backlash. I skip synology for a while, will buy the unas and backup my old synology to that.
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      159. I bought a Synology NAS last year. As long as they do not mess with being able to do the basics I will continue to use it until I need to upgrade. But, when I need to upgrade based upon what is being reported by nearly all, Synology will not be part of my next purchase. I think they have made it very clear that DIY is not their focus going forward. If the other manufactures go the same way there is always TruNAS.
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      160. Dear Robbie, Thank you SOOOOO much. You’re the first to cover RAID FAILURE and REBUILD of Migrated systems [8:25 into your video: Test 8: RAID recovery fails with identical unverified HDD]. As soon as they announced they would allow MIGRATION, that INSTANTLY became the one CRITICAL QUESTION. You are the very first to answer. As a Mac and Synology consultant for 10+ years [and I PERSONALLY OWN 5 8 Bay Synology 18XX+ series servers]. This is the MOST IMPORTANT THING. And an ABSOLUTE DEAL BREAKER. Obviously NASs are about 2 things
        – PROTECTING your data from Drive Failure
        – Understanding that the drives in theses systems ABSOLUTELY [eventually] will fail
        – Allow ing you to RELACE Drives when they do fail.

        Since ALL my Synology servers [and ALL my clients] have AT LEAST 1 20 to 24 TB drive in EVERY unit they own, this is INFURIATING… and ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. Either Synology has to:
        – STOP ALLOWING MIGRATION
        – Allow Migration and Replacement with UNVERIFIED DRIVE
        – SHIP reasonable price “PLUS” [NOT Enterprise] 18, 20 and 24 TB drives.

        They HAVE to comply with the above, I NEVER get mad, I’m a 1984 Mac Consultant who smiles and laughs all the time. I’m a professional poet & beer vlogger.. I do NOT get angry.. almost NEVER. I am ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS and this thing you have discovered of NOT ALLOW FOR a RAID to be REPAIRED when a drive fails.

        Thanks for discovering this.

        – Eric ZORK Alan & Sweetie [ ????Professional????Poets & Bed ???? & Beer???? Vloggers ]
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      161. Well, if you’re a home user especially, why even try and deal with all the verified current and future compatibility issues that may come up? There are just too many other options available to keep jumping through the Synology hoops, and they are better and usually cheaper. For the home and small business user, look elsewhere, which is jus what Synology wants those users to do anyway.
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      162. all this because they don’t care about their core base and want to focus more on enterprise. when I don’t see why any enterprise would choose them over a JBOD + controller
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      163. when you got your glasses on your head, we know you been busy. Seriously though, thanks for reaching out on Reddit and confirming your strategy and taking on feedback for additional tests. All of this is incredible. And some of folks learned what BOSH means.
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      164. something important: the “unverified” status will override drives that have isues too, so if a disk is in critical status it will say “unverified” instead, very hard to actually know which drive it is, only indicator is the orange light, since the usual “disk critical” popup also didnt show for me.
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      165. Someone was obviously bored up at $ynology HQ and thought, “how do we get the new rigs out there but pay less for advertising”
        I bet you they switch back to how it was up to a point.
        Tenner says they do????

        But even without all that. Why would you go from a 920 or 923 with all the perks that come with them?????
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      166. I am happy to say that late last year (having got fed up of waiting for a newer version) I purchased a DS1522+ and migrated the 6tb drives from my aging DS1415. No problem . I added a 16tb Ironwolf & then have since replaced 2 of the drives with 16tb Ironwolf, all no problem. Had I hung on for a 5 bay 2025 model I’d clearly be stuck with no choice but Synology drives. I’ve always used Ironwolf or Toshiba NAS srives and never had an issue.
        The cyncic in me says that Synolgy want all my money not sust some of it ????
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      167. Instead of all this work, why you just don´t ask, you still trust Synology? That is the main issue because all of this can change at short notice dependent on theirs greediness mode.
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      168. You haven’t been able to mix HDD and SSD in a pool for a long time now. My guess is the unsupported SSD thing will change when the new slim model comes out.
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      169. Worth noting too that RAID recovery would be impossible if you’re migrating say 24TB drives of which Synology doesn’t have such higher capacities. I’d be very interested to see how they might reply to this
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