Zyxel Network-Attached Storage [NAS] - Verified Hard Disk List for NAS Series

In this article, we will explain which disks are compatible with Zyxel NAS, whether you can transfer disks from one NAS model to another without data loss, the maximum size of internal and external disks for Zyxel NAS, and why the volume displayed in the web interface may be smaller than the actual disk size.

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End of Life (EOL/EoL) / End of Support (EOS/EoS)

Zyxel NAS shows a lower value than the manufacturer

The hard drive capacity appears smaller than claimed due to different definitions of storage units. File systems use binary units, while HDD manufacturers use decimal units.

Example: In a 10 TB HDD, one decimal terabyte equals 0.909 binary terabytes. Thus, 10 TB × 0.909 = 9.10 TB, which is the capacity indicated by the NAS system.

Replacing disks in Zyxel NAS without formatting

If you bought a new NAS and want to just plug in the old hard drives into the new one, you need to be very careful. The Zyxel NAS series uses software RAID to manage the files. We recommend plugging in hard drives only into the exact same model (e.g., NAS542 to NAS542). Moving from NAS542 to NAS326 will not work!

Furthermore, the NAS may see the RAID as degraded, so you will need to repair it. All shares that were available on the old NAS will either be disabled or simply not available.

We always recommend creating a backup of the files on an external hard drive before attempting any transfers.

Maximum External HDD Volume Size

The maximum size for an external disk is 8TB in NAS520, NAS540, and NAS542. 

List of Compatible Disks

Most 3.5” SATA hard drives are compatible with our NAS series. The following drives have been tested and verified by Zyxel.