The Change RAID Type option cannot be selected even though you have inserted a new drive into your Synology NAS.

Check the following:

Make sure the inserted drive is healthy

Go to Storage Manager > HDD/SSD to check the status of the inserted drive.

• If the drive is in Warning or Critical status, replace it with a healthy drive.
• If the drive is processing one or multiple operations (e.g., performing Secure Erase), wait for the operations to complete.
• If the drive is in Cannot be detected by Controller status (only available on SA3200D), check the LED indicators according to the LED Indicator Table in the Hardware Installation Guide.

Make sure the inserted drive meets the drive requirements

• Drive size requirements: The new drive must be larger than or equal to the smallest drive in the storage pool.
• Drive type requirements:
  • A storage pool must be comprised of drives of the same type. The following drives cannot be mixed: SATA and SAS drives, SSDs and HDDs, or 4K native and non-4K native drives.
  • Only certain Synology NAS models support using M.2 SSDs to create storage pools.

You can go to Storage Manager > HDD/SSD to check the drive size and type. If the drive size or type does not meet the requirements, replace it with a drive that does.

Make sure there is a sufficient number of available drives

Your Synology NAS needs to have a sufficient number of available drives to change a storage pool to the target RAID type. For example:

• One additional drive is needed to change a RAID 1 storage pool consisting of two drives to RAID 5.
  • You can also use the Change RAID Type feature to add mirror drives to a RAID 1 storage pool.¹
• Three additional drives are needed to change an SHR-1 storage pool consisting of one drive to SHR-2.

For more information, refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 and DSM 6.2, respectively.

Make sure the RAID type of your storage pool supports changing RAID types

Only Basic, RAID 1, RAID 5, and SHR-1 storage pools support changing RAID types.² If your storage pool does not support changing RAID types, the workaround is as follows:

1. Back up all your data. (Tutorial)
2. Go to Storage Manager > Storage (for DSM 7.0) or Storage Manager > Storage Pool (for DSM 6.2) and select the storage pool you want to remove.
3. Click Remove.³
4. Create a new storage pool. Refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 or DSM 6.2, respectively.
5. Create one or more new volumes. Refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 or DSM 6.2, respectively.
6. Restore the backed-up data to the newly created storage pool and volume. (Tutorial)

Make sure the status of the storage pool you intend to change is healthy

Go to Storage Manager > Storage (for DSM 7.0) or Storage Manager > Storage Pool (for DSM 6.2) to check the storage pool status.

• If the storage pool (or volume) is processing one or multiple operations, wait for the operations to complete.
• If the storage pool (or volume) has degraded, refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 and DSM 6.2, respectively.
• If the storage pool (or volume) has crashed, refer to this article.

Make sure your system is not in a high-availability cluster

Synology High Availability does not support changing RAID types. If your system is in a high-availability cluster, the workaround is as follows:

Scenario 1: The RAID type of your storage pool supports changing RAID types

1. Back up all your data. (Tutorial)
2. Go to Synology High Availability to remove the high-availability cluster.
3. Proceed to change the RAID type of your storage pool. For detailed steps, refer to the respective help articles for DSM 7.0 and DSM 6.2.
4. Create a new high-availability cluster. For more information, refer to this article.

Scenario 2: The RAID type of your storage pool does not support changing RAID types

1. Back up all your data. (Tutorial)
2. Go to Synology High Availability to remove the high-availability cluster.
3. Go to Storage Manager > Storage (for DSM 7.0) or Storage Manager > Storage Pool (for DSM 6.2) and select the storage pool you want to remove.
4. Click Remove.³
5. Create a new storage pool. Refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 or DSM 6.2, respectively.
6. Create one or more new volumes. Refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 or DSM 6.2, respectively.
7. Restore the backed-up data to the newly created storage pool and volume. (Tutorial)
8. Create a new high-availability cluster. For more information, refer to this article.

Make sure to check your RAID Group settings⁴

The following RAID Group settings prevents a storage pool from change RAID types:

• The storage pool supports only a single volume and contains 24 drives in its array.
• The storage pool supports multiple volumes, has one RAID Group, and has reached the maximum number of drives configured for an array: 6, 12, 16, 20, or 24.
• The storage pool supports multiple volumes and has more than two RAID Groups.

If your RAID Group settings match the above, the workaround is as follows:

1. Back up all your data. (Tutorial)
2. Go to Storage Manager > Storage (for DSM 7.0) or Storage Manager > Storage Pool (for DSM 6.2) and select the storage pool you want to remove.
3. Click Remove.³
4. Create a new storage pool. Refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 or DSM 6.2, respectively.
5. Create one or more new volumes. Refer to the help articles for DSM 7.0 or DSM 6.2, respectively.
6. Restore the backed-up data to the newly created storage pool and volume. (Tutorial)