Upgrade NAS HD's

[Enquiries]

Hi team, thanks for previous advice. You are the best. I have a QNAP T664 with 6 x 6TB HDD's in raid 5 config. I still have my previous T653D unit which does not have any HDD's installed. I would like to increase my storage capacity by upgrading the size of my HDD's while retaining all of my current data. I was thinking of using 10 or 12TB drives. My questions is how to go about this? Can I replace one drive at a time and let the system rebuild the drive before moving onto the next drive, until all six are replaced? Or do I load up my T653D with the new drives and then copy all of the data from the T664. Once the data has been copied I would need to move the drives from the T653D and place them into the T664. I hope this makes sense. Your advice would be most welcome before I commence this task.

Regards - Mark from Australia.

[ed]

Yes, what you’ve described makes perfect sense, and both options are valid depending on your goals. Here’s how I’d break it down:

Option 1: One-by-one Drive Swap in Your TS-664 (RAID 5)
• This is the safer and simpler route if you’re aiming to expand capacity without migrating systems.
• You can:
1. Replace one drive at a time with a larger one (10TB or 12TB),
2. Allow the system to fully rebuild the RAID before replacing the next,
3. Once all six drives are swapped and the last rebuild completes, go into Storage & Snapshots Manager > Manage > Expand Capacity to expand the RAID volume to use the full space.
• This process can take several days depending on the size of the drives and usage, so patience is key.
• Important: All drives must be larger than the original 6TB ones, and the system must support capacity expansion (which the TS-664 does). Also, make sure your firmware is up to date before starting.

Option 2: Fresh Setup on the TS-653D and Data Migration
• This is a good choice if you want a clean RAID build, or don’t want to stress the current array with multiple rebuilds.
• You’d:
1. Install the new drives into the TS-653D, create a new RAID 5 volume.
2. Copy over the data from the TS-664 to the TS-653D via network (Rsync, File Station, or Hybrid Backup).
3. Once verified, you could either:
• Keep both NAS units active, or
• Shut down the TS-653D, move the new drives into the TS-664, and import the volume (QNAP supports migrating RAID groups across systems of the same model family, but it’s not always guaranteed — especially across slightly different models like TS-x64 to TS-x53D).
• If your goal is to end up with everything on the TS-664 long-term, Option 1 is generally smoother.

TL;DR:
• Want the easiest path with all settings and apps preserved? Go with Option 1 (swap drives one by one).
• Want a clean system and are comfortable with manual migration? Option 2 is fine, just be cautious with moving volumes between different NAS models.