Volume

You can use all the space of selected hard disks to create one volume, or create a volume on an existing Disk Group. Data protection in different levels may be provided according to the RAID type you choose when creating the volume. For RAID types supported by Synology DiskStation, please refer to General.

To create a volume:

  1. Click the Create button.
  2. Choose a creation mode.
  3. Follow the wizard to complete the process.

Note:

If you want to create a volume with a certain hard disk but it doesn't appear in the Volume Creation Wizard, please check the status of the hard disk in HDD Management tab.

To remove a volume:

  1. Select the volume you want to remove.
  2. Click the Remove button and follow the wizard to complete the process.

Note:

Data on the volume will be deleted after you remove the volume. Be careful when using this option.

To repair a volume:

When a volume is in Degraded status and the suggestion field in the Volume tab shows the link of Repair the system partition in blue, you can repair the volume simply by clicking the link. Then the volume status will be back to normal.

When the volume is in Degraded status but it is not due to system partition failure, you can repair it when the RAID type is one of the followings: SHR, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, RAID 6, and RAID 10. The data on the volume will be consistent after repairing. Please follow the steps below to repair your volume:

  1. Turn off your DiskStation. You can skip this step if your model supports hot-swapping.
  2. Remove the failing hard disk as indicated in Disk Info of the page and replace it with a new one.
  3. Click Manage.
  4. Select Repair.
  5. Follow the wizard to complete the process.

Note:

Changing the RAID Type of Volumes

You can change the RAID type of a volume if there are available hard disks on your DiskStation. Currently, the following types of RAID change are supported:

Please follow the steps below to change the RAID type of your volume:

  1. Select the volume you want to change.
  2. Click Manage.
  3. Select Change RAID type.
  4. Follow the wizard to complete the process.

Note:

Expanding the Size of Volume

For multiple volumes on RAID, you can expand the volume size simply by clicking Edit button when selecting the volume. For SHR volume and a single volume on RAID, you can expand their size by replacing existing hard disks with ones of larger size or by adding hard disks.

Note:

Expanding Volumes by Replacing Existing Disks

You can expand a volume by replacing existing hard disks with ones of larger size in the following RAID types: SHR, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, and RAID 6.

RAID 5 and RAID 6

When replacing hard disks of RAID 5 or RAID 6 volumes or Disk Groups, the smallest hard disk should always be replaced first. The storage capacity of RAID 5 volumes is (number of hard disks – 1) x (smallest hard disk size), and RAID 6 is (number of hard disks – 2) x (smallest hard disk size). Therefore, the smallest hard disk should always be replaced first in order to maximize hard disk usage.

For example, if your RAID 5 volume contains three hard disks that are 4 TB, 3 TB, and 2 TB respectively, the available capacity of your volume will be 4 TB. If you replace the 4 TB or 3 TB disks, the capacity of the volume will not change. To increase the capacity of your volume, the 2 TB hard disk must be replaced first.

SHR (Synology Hybrid RAID)

When replacing hard disks belonging to SHR volumes or Disk Groups, please note the following:

To replace disks:

  1. Turn off your DiskStation. You can skip this step if your model supports hot-swapping.
  2. Replace one hard disk with another of larger size.
  3. Turn on the DiskStation and repair the volume.
  4. Repeat step 1 to 3 until all hard disks are replaced with ones of larger size.
  5. The system will expand the volume automatically.

Note:

Expanding Volumes by Adding Disks

For SHR, JBOD, RAID 5, RAID 5+Spare, and RAID 6, the storage capacity of volumes can be expanded by adding more hard disks if there are empty hard drive bays in your DiskStation.

Minimum Hard Disk Size

Please see the guidelines below regarding the minimum size of new hard disks.

To add more hard disks:

  1. Select the volume you want to expand.
  2. Click Manage.
  3. Select the hard disks with which you want to expand the size of RAID.
  4. Follow the wizard to complete the process.

Note:

Data Scrubbing

Data scrubbing is a data maintenance function that inspects volumes or Disk Groups and repairs any detected data inconsistencies. This function can be used with volumes or Disk Groups that implement SHR (comprised of three or more disks), RAID 5, or RAID 6.

We recommend regularly performing data scrubbing in order to maintain data consistency and avoid losing any critical data in the event of disk failure.

To perform data scrubbing:

  1. Select the volume or Disk Group on which to perform data scrubbing.
  2. Click Manage
  3. Select Data scrubbing.

Note: