Synology reconsiders disk restrictions on upcoming NAS models

The about-face

Since the October 8 release of DSM 7.3, the entry has been used. Here’s the full section of the company’s DSM 7.3 announcement:

As part of its mission, Synology is committed to providing reliable, high-performance storage systems. This commitment has led to a rigorous standardized testing and validation process for hardware and software components, and has been an integral part of Synology’s development approach for many years. Synology storage drives and components validated through the third-party program undergo uniform testing processes to ensure they are capable of providing the highest levels of reliability with DSM.

Synology is currently working closely with third-party drive manufacturers to accelerate testing and verification of additional storage drives, and will announce further updates as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the 25 model year DiskStation Plus, Value, and J series running DSM 7.3 will support installation and creation of storage pools of unvalidated third-party drives. This provides users with greater flexibility as Synology continues to expand the range of officially verified drives that meet long-term reliability standards.

The result is that the validated drive requirements are removed from Model Year 2025 Plus, Value, and J series NAS devices. (Well, mostly removed: the press release states that pooling and caching on M.2 drives “still requires drives on the HCL (hardware compatibility list).”)

We asked Synology whether the requirements would also be lifted compared to previous generation Synology products – and the answer to that question appears to be a “no”.

“This change only affects ’25 series models: DS725+, DS225+, DS425+, DS925+, DS1525+, DS1825+. xs+ series models, such as the DS3622xs+, are considered a professional/enterprise model and will remain subject to the current HCL policy for our industries,” Synology explained.

Updated with comments from Synology.