How to replace a single-bay NAS disc

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Moderators: I wasn’t sure this was the right forum to ask this on. Please switch if that’s necessary.

I have a single-bay NAS (Synology DS120j) with one 1 tb disc. It’s become necessary to substitute it with a higher capacity drive, but I’m not sure how to conserve the present settings, info, etc. in order to transfer them to the new disc. I’ve read that you can backup to a usb drive or even (with the necessary hd cover) use the old disc to put back the information by inserting it into the NAS usb port. However, I have no idea of just how to accomplish this. Can anyone help out? Thank you in advance!

P:S: Keep in mind that I am a (very) old lady who does her best but needs explicit instructions!

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Synology Drive Migration

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thank you very much, RetiredGeek, for responding to my question.

I had already looked into this explanation, but it has to do with migrating from one NAS to another. I imagine it could also be valid for migrating from one disc to another on a 2-bay NAS, but mine only holds one single disc. I must remove it and then add the new one, so I can’t follow that site’s instructions.

As mentioned, I believe my only option is either 1) to backup the old disc to a usb drive, remove the old disc, add the new one and transfer all the content from the usb drive to it, or else 2) to put the new disc in a compatible case, attach it to the NAS via the usb port, copy all existing content on the old disc to it, remove the old disc and then (after removing the case from it) put in the new disc.

However, I am sure there are more complete instructions in order to insure that I don’t lose important information in the process.

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I would do it this way.

Backup the configuration.
Take screen shots of the disk configuration from Storage Manager.
Backup the files to a USB connected external drive on the NAS. Use “USB Copy” from the main menu.
Shut down the NAS and swap the disks.
Restore the configuration.
Check that the new disk is configured correctly. I don’t know whether you will need to create a new volume in Storage Manager.
Restore the files from the external drive.

cheers, Paul

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metutee

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Thank you so much, Paul.

I guess this is the only way to do an exchange, unless I just put the fresh disc in and install everything from scratch. In the second post you indicated, the guy did have more slots in the NAS, even though each disc was a separate configuration. So he was able to work around the problem with more options.

It is mentioned, however, that Synology gives no help for this specific situation, even though they do sell a single-bay NAS. I’m sure their multi-bay products are much more common and important, but a serious company shouldn’t simply neglect their other, albeit smaller, clients. I have the user manual for the DS 120j, but there is nothing useful regarding methods for a comprehensive substitution of the disc in that pamphlet, either.

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This reddit post has a claimed solution.
https://www.reddit.com/r/synology/comments/crim0q/moving_to_new_bigger_disk_but_how/

cheers, Paul

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If you don’t have a sufficiently large external disk you may be able to put the old NAS disk in a machine and copy the files directly to the NAS – it is ext4 format.
The easiest access from Windows seems to be with Linux Reader freeware.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks again, Paul. I’ll be checking this out, including the Linux Reader. I do have a couple of external discs that could hold this, but I’m using them for backups right now. In any event, my new disc won’t be arriving for several days, so there’s time to read up and prepare. Much appreciate your help!

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Apparently, this is now resolved. The old 1tb disc can be backed up onto an external disc simply through the Synology Hyper Backup app. After connecting the external disc to my NAS, I reformatted it in ext4 and it finally appeared as a destination for backup. It will probably take several hours but it should work out fine. I was advised by a person on the Synology support section who very kindly helped out. When the backup is over, I can substitute the old disc for the new one and, after doing some installation maneuvers, transfer the backed up information using the Hyper Backup app again. Hopefully, it will all work out in the end.

My thanks again to Paul and RetiredGeek for their suggestions!

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