Hey NAS enthusiasts and data collectors! Did you notice the drama surrounding the new Synology NAS models of the 25 Series Plus?
It was an uproar that kept the community in suspense for months. In short: Synology has given us a Hard disk compulsion imposed. But the good news is: There is one U-turn!
What happened? The lock-in shock
In the spring of 2025, the news struck like a bomb: With the new Plus models (from the 25 series) Synology wanted to push a hard bar. The new policy foresaw that in these devices you would only Certified hard drives could be used – and in practice these were at first almost exclusively the own Synology drives!
The consequences were far-reaching:
- No new installation more with ‘foreign HDDs’ from manufacturers such as Seagate (IronWolf), Toshiba (MG-X / N300) or Western Digital (WD Red).
- Important functions such as the BTRFS file system, snapshots and deduplication were blocked on non-certified disks.
- You couldn't have simply migrated your already purchased, perfectly functioning drives to a new NAS or used them for new storage pools.
Synology justified this step with the desire to higher system stability and More reliable support through the use of internally tested hardware. Sounds reasonable at first, doesn't it?
The community response: A loud protest
The community saw it differently. The tenor was clear: This is a classic ‘Vendor Lock-in’, which deprives us of the freedom of choice and gives Synology the opportunity to increase the prices of its branded hard drives (which are often only relabeled disks from Toshiba and Co.) arbitrarily.
- Massive criticism in forums and social media (keyword: Customer protests). Many openly threatened it. Switch to competition (Hello QNAP ⁇ ).
- Concern for the Reusability Old, expensively bought drives were big.
- Many loyal Synology users felt alienated The brand quickly lost goodwill.
Market forces should not be eliminated, and that is exactly what this coercion would have done!
The U-turn: The hard drive lock is falling!
After months of sustained headwinds and obvious Loss of customers (or at least the danger of such a) has led Synology.
The good news that came recently:
Synology has it. Hard disk manufacturer lock for those concerned Plus models (such as the DS925+, DS1525+, etc.) largely relaxed! This is a real U-turn!
What does this mean for you specifically?
- You can in your New Plus models (of the 25 series) now also again Third-party hard drives for the Creation of new storage pools use.
- Important functions such as BTRFS, snapshots and cache creation are accessible again, even if you do not use Synology's own disks.
Synology has thus complied with the massive pressure of users. It shows that our voices can be heard as customers and that as a company you should not be upset by such a large part of its loyal base.
If you want to know more about the initial restrictions and the resulting consequences for users, watch this video: UPDATE: Synology NAS 2025 - What you need to know about HDD compatibility. The video looks at Synology's original disk compatibility plans for the 2025 NAS models and explains what restrictions were foreseen.
TL:DR and Conclusion:
Freedom is back, at least for now. It's an important win for the NAS community and a signal to all manufacturers that we can't just dictate which components we use in our own hardware. So, take a deep breath, the Compatibility list Keep an eye on it, but Seagate and WD Stay on the record! ⁇
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