Buy CMR drives, not SMR
NAS drives should use CMR (conventional magnetic recording). SMR drives can slow to a crawl when a RAID array rebuilds after a drive failure, which is exactly when you need them most. Every drive on this page is a CMR NAS drive: WD Red Plus and Red Pro, Seagate IronWolf and IronWolf Pro, and Toshiba N300. Avoid the older WD Red line without the Plus, which uses SMR.
Plus or Pro?
The standard NAS drives, WD Red Plus and Seagate IronWolf, carry three-year warranties and suit home NAS boxes with up to eight bays. The Pro models, WD Red Pro and IronWolf Pro, carry five-year warranties and are rated for larger systems and heavier workloads. For a two- or four-bay home NAS, the standard drives are the better value; buy Pro drives for bigger arrays or if the NAS runs heavy workloads around the clock.
Synology drive compatibility in 2026
Synology's 2025 Plus-series NAS models initially accepted only Synology-branded drives for new storage pools. DSM 7.3 reversed that, so third-party NAS hard drives such as WD Red and IronWolf work again, although Synology still recommends drives from its compatibility list and M.2 SSD storage pools still need listed drives. Older Synology models were not affected. Check the compatibility list for your exact model before buying.