External Devices

Go to Control Panel > External Devices > External Devices to view a list of external storage devices connected to your DiskStation.

External Drives

By connecting an external drive to the system, you will be able to share its drive capacity through a system-created shared folder named usbshare[number] (for USB drives, if applicable) or satashare[number] (for eSATA drives, if applicable). The shared folder will be removed automatically when the external drive is ejected from the system.

DiskStation recognizes the following formats: Btrfs, ext3, ext4, FAT32, exFAT, HFS, HFS Plus, and NTFS. Any unrecognized external drive will have to be formatted first before being used on the system.

Note:

  1. Some models support HFS/HFS Plus with read-only.
  2. Journal is not supported on HFS/HFS Plus.
  3. You will need to install exFAT Access from Package Center to enable DiskStation to support exFAT. For a list of Synology product models which support exFAT format, please refer to this page.
  4. Make sure you eject the external drive before unplugging it.
  5. Btrfs is available on specific models only. To check if your model supports Btrfs, please refer to this article.

To access disc images:

Synology NAS supports mounting virtual drives to access the contents of disc images on external devices with File Station. To learn how to mount virtual drives, please refer to this article.

Note:

To format the drive:

Click Format and follow the wizard. You can format your external drives to ext4 and FAT32 with DiskStation.

Note:

  1. Make sure to back up your data before formatting the external drive. All data will be deleted during the procedure and cannot be restored.
  2. To format the external drive to ext3 or ext4 format, the drive capacity must be larger than 1 GB.
  3. When the drive is formatted as ext3 or ext4 format, it is only recognized by DiskStation. If you would like to read data directly from your external drive with a PC and Mac, choose FAT32 format.

To perform S.M.A.R.T. Test:

Drive S.M.A.R.T. Test examines and reports the status of your hard drives, providing early warning of imminent drive failure. We recommend changing your drive if any errors are detected.
To perform S.M.A.R.T. Test, simply click the S.M.A.R.T. Test button and follow the wizard.
To check the test results, simply click S.M.A.R.T. Info.

Note:

Limitations

Drive formatting is not available in the following situations:

Troubleshooting

  1. Failed to format the external drive. Why?
    • Check if the external drive is properly inserted.
    • Check if the external drive is write-protected. If yes, remove it before formatting.
  2. The file system of the external drive is shown as Not Supported, or the system does not create the usbshare[number] or satashare[number] shared folder for the external drive. What should I do?
    • The current system recognizes Btrfs, ext3, ext4, FAT32, HFS, HFS Plus, and NTFS formats. Any external drive not formatted to the types above will not be recognized and the status will be shown as Not Supported.
  3. I cannot access the usbshare[number] or satashare[number] shared folder. What should I do?
    • This might result from a problem in the file system on your external drive. To fix it, please connect the external drive to a PC and perform a file system check.
  4. Can my external drive with ext3 or ext4 format be connected to my PC and Mac and accessed directly?
    • No, ext3 or ext4 is only recognized by the DiskStation. If you would like to read data directly from your external drive with a PC and Mac, choose FAT32 format.
  5. Why do I see a folder named "lost+found" in my external drive?
    • This is a system default folder that is created automatically when using ext3/ext4 file system. It is normal to see the folder on your external drive. Although administrators have the right to access and manage the content within, it is strongly recommended to not tamper with the folder.

Note:

To set default permissions for all external devices:

You can set default permissions by clicking Settings > Default Permissions and specifying which users or groups can access, view, or modify external devices and their contents. When an external device is connected to your DiskStation, the permissions you specified will be assigned to that external device automatically.

In the permissions window, do the following to set default permissions:

  1. Select one of the following from the drop-down menu:
  2. Tick or untick checkboxes to customize external devices' access permissions for each user or group: