Phased approach to upgrading DS224+ NAS

Synology
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Hello all,

Well I guess I did one of the 6 newbie mistakes that SpaceRex talked about in one of his videos by under estimating my storage needs in my first foray into setting up and using a NAS. Back in Oct 2024, after much heads scratching, I purchased a Synology DS224+ and two 6TB Synology HAT3300-6T drives. I set it up using SHR, thinking that 6TB would hold me for a while until I got my feet wet. Everything is working great but I’ve been watching the remaining free space dwindle away at a steady pace since I originally ported over all my files from the mish-mash of external USB drives I had and the stuff I actually brought over from OneDrive. Add to that, I’ve started shooting more photos with a new Canon R5 45Mpix digital camera which really adds to the mix. Figured I would be in line for an upgrade soon but didn’t realize HOW SOON!

Fast forward to today and I decided I need to do the upgrade and plan to use what I hope will be a painless process. I aim to replace the current two 6TB drives with a pair of 16TB Synology drives (basically a cost issue) to provide more storage for now. Later this year, when I recover from income taxes (com’on tax-free SoSec :slight_smile: and a good sale comes along, I plan to upgrade the NAS chassis itself to a 4 bay (or larger if the situation presents itself) plus any additional drive(s) as needed.

Doing it in this phased approach, hopefully I will get myself into a condition that I will be able to add more drives up to the bay limit (and larger if needed). So in doing it this way, I have a couple of questions I would like to present to the forum for feedback.

First concerning the upgrade of the current drives, when doing the swap out, do I need to power the NAS down when I swap out the drives or can I hot swap them? I understand the process of replacing a single drive at a time and let the system repair itself, but I’m not sure about the hot swap issue. Any other ‘gotchas’ to watch for?

Secondly, when it comes time to upgrade the NAS chassis, will I be able to just move the soon-to-be-current 16TB drives over to the new NAS chassis or will I have to rebuild the whole system again? Ultimately, my target is a set of at least 4 (or more as needed) 16 TB drives in the SHR configuration. I am looking at the DS923+ as it has expandability built in by using the 5 bay add-on.

FYI - I use HyperBackup with a 16TB external Seagate Expansion Drive device. If I have to rebuild the system, would I be to just restore from the latest BU or could I connect the 2 NAS’s to the same network and copy the files over from the DS224+ to the new NAS?

Thanks for taking a look to keep me on both rails. I have a degree in Electronic Engineering and worked in the computer field for 40 years, mainly in systems engineering for the DoD and dabbling with networks and storage system but never did any NAS related stuff until now so this is all virgin territory for me.

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It’s all in the fine manual " Replace a Drive to Expand Storage Pool Capacity"

Be sure that your off-NAS backup is up-to-date before proceeding.

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Thanks got the pointer however it still leaves me without the info on hot swapping. I looked through the limited docs I can find and unless my old eyes have finally crapped out, I don’t see anything on it. I’ll have another go thru the docs to see. I was just hoping someone had done this with the DS224+ and could give me yeah or nay and where it might be located in the docs. Usually I’m self sufficient for doing my own research (bad habit from years of engineering work) but I be darned if I see it.

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  1. If you want to save $$ then don’t buy Synology brand drives. Any NAS drive will do, such as Seagate Iron Wolf or Western Digital Red
  2. Check that your USB connected backup is all good
  3. Do NOT need to power off theNAS to replace a drive. Just pull one out. It will continue spinning, so wait until the rotational vibrations stop, then replace the drive in the caddy and insert.
  4. After inserting the new drive go through the Repair process, You MUST wait until it is completely finished!!!
  5. Check that your USB connected backup is all good
  6. Now proceed to swap the other drive and wait for the repair process to finish
  7. Restart the NAS
  8. When you get your 4 bay NAS, shut down the 2 bay one and when completely shut down move the 2 drives int the first 2 slots of the new one and power ON
  9. Follow the instruction
  10. Later you can add a 3rd drive and just insert without power off and follow the instructions.

Bear in mind that these steps take a LONG TIME! Could be days! You can still use the NAS while it is doing it’s thing, but make sure that the steps are completed fully, before attempting to go to the next one!

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Thanks for the info. Been reading up more and had found some of this but good to get it first hand. Looking forward to getting a bit more room as I have some more photos to move over from my work drive on the photo processing workstation. I download the camera to a large DAS and do my editing on them. Once completed, package them up and move them to the NAS. Been holding off on moving latest batch as didn’t want to copy them over just haven’t copy them again during the upgrade.

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Which DAS do you use? I have a Promise Pegasus 6 with 6x 4TB drives connected via TB (Thunderbolt), but recently added a TB connected dual NVME enclosure and put in 2x 4TB M.2 NVM2 sticks. I’ve moved my photos to that and use Carbon Copy Cloner to then back it up to my NAS.

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My “DAS” probably isn’t what would be called such normally, but I refer to like that. Its just a 10TB Seagate EXPANSION Drive, nothing like what you’ve got. I use it on my photo processing PC so it help speed up access times since I only have 1 GB Ethernet.

1 Like
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I know this is off topic, I am just interested…
Do you have any of your photos on the web for public viewing? What software do you use for your post production workflow.

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No, sorry but don’t have any photos posted online. Right now I am transitioning from Lightroom to DxO PhotoLab 8 and PureRAW 4. I couldn’t accept Adobe’s T&C’s on top of their prices. Was out of the game for a while (life issues) and when I got back in found my old Photoshop/Lightroom software was defunct so I started using the new LrC subscription service. Then came the new terms and I decided it was costing too much so I picked up DxO during their last Blk Friday sales. Still learning it but I like it.

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Cool. I kissed off Adobe when it became subscription only, too. Using DXO Pureraw 4 occasionally, but mostly ON1. All the best…

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Thanks. The first 16TB upgrade disk is about half way done. Got about 4.5 hours to go on repair. So far smooth sailing. Went with Sinologist drives as they were about same price as Seagate IWs. I’m not too much of a ‘rebel’ to try and buck the system and besides, I want all the support I can get from Synology if the ca-ca hits the rotary oscillator. Thanks again for the guidance.

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I’m assuming you bought your 224 new, which means you are or may still be under warranty. Whether you are or not https://www.synology.com/en-us > Support > Knowledge Center is a great resource. Here you will see this article: Replace a drive. Scroll down to the sections entitled Replace a Drive to Expand Storage Pool Capacity. Under the subsection, “To replace a drive” you will see detailed instructions. To follow these instructions the NAS has to be powered ON.

It can be a bit disconcerting to do this, especially for a new-ish user, but it does work very cleanly. Understand, it will take more time than you expect. Be patient.

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Yes I did purchase the DS224 new from Amazon with the pair of Synology 6TB drives. Everything is still working great. The two 6TB drives were really replaced on Saturday last with two Synology HAT3310-16 16 TB drives. Upgrade went smooth taking about 9-10 hours in all. Thanks to everyone who replied with guidance and hints on how to be successful.

The next phase will be sometime later in the year when I swap out the DS224+ for a 4 (or larger) bay unit. In planning what to target as the replacement, for now I’ve been looking at the DS923+ and the DS1522+. That may change as I see how fast the current configuration grows and what is available when I decide to pull the trigger. For now everything is working as I expect it to do so I am a happy camper!

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Are you doing a regular clean up of your recycle bin? That’s where all my space was going! Check Rex’s how to set up clean up recycle bin! You’ll probably not have to get new drives…

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Yes I did. After I moved everything over and did a little reorg, cleaned up and haven’t deleted anything else. It’s pretty stable now. Running good and the faster drive (7200 vs 5400 rpm) is definitely noticeable. Thanks for the input.

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Oh I needed larger drives. After cleanup, was still at 69% full only after 5 months. Once I get a larger NAS chassis, plan on selling the Ds224+ and two 6TBs.

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Grab a 20 TB pair. That NAS has much life in it.

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I looked for 20 TB drives with Synology but all they had were the 16 TB. I wanted to stick with the Synology brand since I wanted to maintain the Synology warranty but without any issues and I had a chance to get them through Amazon using some saved up reward points so I got them for a good deal. thanks for the input.

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If you’re seriously looking at a 4- or 5- or more bay unit and the DS923+ is in your candidate mix… skip it. Just go the the new DS925+, or the 15. The 925 looks to be a much better device than the 922.

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Hadn’t heard of the DS-925+. Looked it up at Synology.com. Need to check it out further. Based on initial look-see, only thing I saw that would benefit me is the updated processor. I don’t use 10GbE or 2GbE (least not yet for 2GbE) and Synology says it still won’t allow using the 2 SSD slots for a storage pool. So the cost difference would be the deciding factor I think. But thanks for the heads up.