Synology DS925+ Hard Drive: HAT3300, HAT5300 or a Third-Party NAS Drive

Synology DS925+ hard drive prices on Amazon.co.uk

The table below holds 3.5-inch SATA NAS drives from Synology's own HAT range and from five maker lines: Seagate IronWolf and IronWolf Pro, WD Red Plus and Red Pro, and Toshiba N300. Every price is in pounds inc VAT, and the rows are the cheapest per terabyte, up to 24 of them. It holds 24 listings right now. The lowest figure is £31.50/TB, from Seagate IronWolf Pro 6 TB (used) at £189.00.

New and used offers share the table, and each row prints its condition. The Recording column shows CMR or SMR only where a maker document names that exact part number. A blank there means we hold no such document; it is not a sign that the drive is SMR. CMR written into an Amazon title is the seller's claim. The sort is by price per terabyte rather than total price, so the top row is not always the cheapest drive to buy outright. If you plan to fill all four bays, find the capacity you want first and compare within it.

Synology HAT3300 and HAT5300 drives for the DS925+

Synology's DS925+ data sheet lists two of its own 3.5-inch SATA hard drive series as accessories: HAT5300, its Enterprise Series, and HAT3300, its Plus Series. Those are the hard drives the data sheet names for this model. They appear in the main table beside the third-party drives, and the table below shows them on their own.

It holds 6 listings for Synology drives right now. The specifications of each series are on our Synology HAT3300 and Synology HAT5300 pages.

Can a Synology DS925+ use a non-Synology hard drive?

Yes, under DSM 7.3. Synology's drive policy page says that with DSM 7.3 the 2025 DiskStation Plus models offer more flexibility for installing third-party hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs when creating storage pools. Synology still recommends drives from its compatibility list for performance and reliability, but says users keep the flexibility to install other drives at their own discretion.

Synology's support article on drive status covers three labels Storage Manager can show: “Incompatible”, “Unverified” and “Unrecognized”. It defines “Unverified” as a drive that has not been verified as compatible with your Synology storage system. A drive with any of those statuses is not listed on the Synology Products Compatibility List, and the article says using it could affect system stability and result in data loss, and that Synology Technical Support may only provide limited assistance.

The bays themselves are 3.5-inch SATA. Whether a given drive is on Synology's list on the day you buy is a check for Synology's own compatibility search. Our English DS925+ page records the list as we read it.

That leaves three routes. A Synology HAT drive is one the DS925+ data sheet names. A third-party drive on Synology's compatibility list is listed. Any other SATA NAS drive is one DSM 7.3 gives you the flexibility to install at your own discretion; if Storage Manager then shows it as “Incompatible”, “Unverified” or “Unrecognized”, the support position above applies.

DS925+ drive bays and M.2 slots

A hard drive goes only in one of the four bays, and the data sheet marks hot swappable drives as supported. The two M.2 slots take NVMe SSDs in the 2280 size, and a footnote says the hot swappable drive feature is not supported there, so plan any change in those slots for when the unit is off. The DSM 7.3 flexibility described above covers 2.5-inch SATA SSDs in the drive bays as well as hard drives. This page prices hard drives only.

How big a hard drive for a DS925+: the volume limit

The size figure on the data sheet is about volumes: a single volume can reach 108 TB, or 200 TB with 32 GB of memory installed. With four bays, what matters is how much of four drives your RAID layout leaves usable in one volume. The calculator below works that out for any drive size. If the usable figure for one volume comes to more than 108 TB, the data sheet's 32 GB memory condition applies.

Which hard drive for a Synology DS925+

If full Synology support matters most, pick from the HAT rows or from drives on Synology's compatibility list for the model. If price per terabyte matters more, the maker lines in the main table are open to you under DSM 7.3, and you accept that if Storage Manager flags the drive, Synology's help may be limited. Either way, match the part number on the listing to the maker's data sheet before you buy, and check the condition printed on the row.

Our pages on Seagate IronWolf, IronWolf Pro, WD Red Plus, WD Red Pro and Toshiba N300 cover each maker line in the table, and cheap NAS drives ranks NAS drives by price per terabyte.