What drives work in the Synology DS1525+?

The Synology DS1525+ is a five-bay NAS. It takes five 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SATA drives and has two M.2 2280 NVMe slots, and it can expand further with Synology expansion units.

Drive-compatibility policy for this model

The DS1525+ is a 2025 DiskStation Plus model. It initially required Synology-listed drives for new storage pools, but DSM 7.3 (October 2025) restored unlisted hard drives and 2.5-inch SATA SSDs on these DiskStation Plus units. M.2 NVMe still requires a Synology-listed drive. (The stricter list-lock that remains is on RackStation Plus and enterprise-series models, not this DiskStation.) Check your exact drive on Synology's per-model compatibility list.

Recommended CMR picks

• General / home: WD Red Plus or IronWolf.
• Five-bay RAID 6 / SHR-2: WD Red Pro or IronWolf Pro — a five-drive array of large disks benefits from double parity and a higher workload rating.
• Bulk value: Seagate Exos or Toshiba N300.

What to avoid

• SMR drives — a five-bay array means longer rebuilds where SMR is most damaging.
• Desktop drives — not rated for continuous multi-bay operation.

With five bays and large drives, lean toward SHR-2 or RAID 6. The table lists in-stock CMR drives by price per terabyte.