In this article, you will learn how to do the installation of the Synology Diskstation. In addition to a few explanation, I have added two videos from Synology. Note that installation of harddisks is different on the different Diskstations. I have explained the typical installation.

Tool-less installation

Synology offers mostly tool-less installation now. You need to remove a cover or maybe use a key to open cover above a hard disk tray in the front of the diskstation.

Then you have access to the hard disk trays and can flip a handle and pull out the tray. For 3.5″ hard disks, you install them with fastening panels from the sides of the drive tray as the picture below shows. The fastenings panels clip the hard disk fast to the tray.

For 2.5″ drives, you need to remove the fastening panels and store them in a safe place if you need them in the future. Then you place the add in the blue area as seen on the picture below and screw them fast. It’s important to put the hard disk in the right direction. With 2.5″ HDD, the installation will not be tool-less since you need to use a screwdriver.

After the hard disks are secured to the hard disk tray you push it in place and secure them with a handle. For extra protection, it’s usually some sort of cover in front of the hard disks.

Then it’s time to connect the power cable and ethernet cable(s).

This video from Synology shows a typical installation of a diskstation.

For hard disk, I recommend Wester Digital Red since they are made for NAS environment.Why and the different types of hard disks from Western Digital will be a topic in an another post.

First-time-boot and setup of Synology Disk Station Manager (DSM)

When the hard disks are installed it’s time to boot the Diskstation. You use a computer on the same network to connect to your Diskstation in the web browser. You can type one of the two sentences below:

• find.synology.com
• diskstation:5000

You then connect to the installed Synology Assistant on your Diskstation and it guides you through the installation step by step. You need to be connected to the internet for the installation as it wants to install the newest DSM and setup quickConnect.

I recommend you to see in the Control Panel after installation so you get everything as you like, especially regarding security. The video at the end shows the process regarding first-time boot and installation of the DSM. What I like about Synology Diskstation is it’s advanced but yet so easy to setup and maintain.

If something wrong happened during the installation you can later login to your diskstation with one of the two sentence described above. The login is Admin with a blank password if you have not come to the part you set password and user accounts.

So is this guide helping you or do you have some questions?