As I assume most of you are aware

I most certainly was not! After some searching, I found an article about Synology’s new restrictions on which hard drives can be used in Synology’s NASs.

A few important notes:

1. This is a completely bullshit decision on Synology’s part. Unacceptable, and a total overreach.
2. This only applies to new DiskStation/RackStation models, so if you already have yours, you should be fine — as far as I can tell.
3. The internet has responded with a “hack” already: github.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db?utm_source=sy…

A prediction: This is a scream test. Within a month, Synology will walk this back. They’ll make some excuse about it taking time to test other hard drive brands for compatibility. They’ll claim that they never intended to prevent you from using whatever hard drives you want, that they just needed to make 100% sure everything was perfect first, and that they always had your best interests at heart.

This will all be a lie, of course. The real plan is to measure how loud their biggest customers scream about this change. And then, maybe a year or two from now, they’ll quietly update a user agreement or a warranty document to reduce coverage for NASs that use third-party hard drives. Maybe they’ll add some extra “safety features” to DSM for third-party hard drives (of course with the intention of keeping you safe) that will cause a “minor” performance hit.

I’m sure that if you subscribe to DSM Premium for a reasonable monthly fee, all of your problems will be solved.