Swapping SSDs for HDDs in DS218+

[Enquiries]

Hi, Love your videos! Thanks for your attitude and approach and knowledge that you share with us.

I am wondering if you can help me with a little problem:

I have bought 2 x 2TB WD Reds to replace 2 x 4TB WD Reds on a DS218+ (DSM 6.2), 10Gb of Ram but don't know what process to undertake to swap them over.

Currently the 2 x 4TBs are in a Synology SHR Raid in one storage pool.

Thanks in advance for your help, I can't seem to find any info anywhere to help me undertake this process.

Many Thanks

James

[ed]

Thanks for your kind words about the videos! I’m really glad you find them helpful.

Regarding your question, if you’re looking to replace 2TB drives with 4TB drives, the process is pretty easy. In the DSM admin panel, there's an option to replace a drive, and you can do it one at a time. DSM will automatically rebuild the RAID, so you won’t have to worry about losing data. Here’s a quick step-by-step for that:

Open DSM and log in to your Synology NAS.
Go to Storage Manager.
Click on Volume and select the volume that includes your current drives.
Choose Manage > Repair > Replace Drive.
Select the drive you want to replace, and then follow the prompts to swap the drive.
However, if you’re going from 4TB drives to 2TB drives, it’s a different story. Unfortunately, DSM doesn't allow you to shrink a storage pool, so you’ll need to delete the existing storage pool entirely and set up a new one with your 2TB drives. Just remember that this will wipe all data on those drives, so backing everything up first is crucial. Here’s how to do that:

Backup Your Data: Make sure to back up all important data to another storage device or the cloud.
Open DSM and log in.
Go to Storage Manager.
Select the existing storage pool, click on Actions, and choose Delete.
Confirm the deletion, which will erase all data in the pool.
Once the pool is deleted, click on Create to set up a new storage pool.
Follow the wizard to select your 2TB drives and configure your new SHR RAID.