Synology Backtracks On Its Third-party Drive Ban After Backlash - But There's A Catch

Synology / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Synology will again let third-party drives successful its NAS boxes.
• Users will request to upgrade to DSM 7.3 to region nan restriction.
• The regularisation remains successful spot for M.2 drives. 

NAS shaper Synology is trying to cure a headache it gave itself this year

Back successful April, nan company announced that it would artifact each but its ain Synology-branded HDDs and SSDs successful its 2025 statement of DiskStation Plus models, preventing owners from utilizing fantabulous drives specified arsenic nan WD Red, Red Plus, and Red Pro aliases Seagate IronWolf, drives that are cheaper and arguably amended than their Synology counterparts.

Also: The champion network-attached retention devices you tin buy

The drives affected are:

• 2-bay DiskStation DS225+ and DS725+ 
• 4-bay DiskStation DS425+ and DS925+ 
• 5-bay DiskStation DS1525+  
• 8-bay DiskStation DS1825+ 

There was a predictable backlash, and I heard from a number of group who were put disconnected buying a Synology system. I besides became somewhat hesitant to urge Synology NAS systems because of this change, contempt nan hardware being nan champion successful class.

Well, it seems that nan institution has mostly caved to unit -- I'll get to nan limitation soon -- and pinch nan release of DSM 7.3 it will "support installation and retention excavation creation pinch third-party drives." The institution says that it "is collaborating pinch thrust manufacturers to grow nan scope of certified retention media, delivering much reliable options."

Supported drives are listed connected nan company's website.

Owners who want to commencement making usage of third-party drives successful your 2025 DiskStation Plus will request to upgrade their NAS to DSM 7.3.

But location is simply a drawback that remains, 1 that Synology buried successful a footnote to nan announcement of nan change. And this is that while third-party HDDs and SSDs are now allowed, users who want to instal M.2 drives for either retention aliases caching will still person to bargain Synology-branded M.2 drives. 

Whether this is imperishable aliases if this limitation will beryllium lifted successful nan early remains to beryllium seen.