Will this take a pre-existing drive (with data)? Or does this box require a new format?
1185050
Recently I added a drive with data to mine. and I was able to restore the data, Back it up and format the drive for a new use. it worked well. I was using windows 7, I am not sure of the format I believe it was NTFS.
2077591
You can migrate the drives to a new unit but there are a few things that get lost. see this tutorial: http://www.synology.com/en-us/support/tutorials/484
1029923
Yes. It's blank. Usually installation of an OS (operating system like Windows, Linux, OSx) will format the drive. Different OS's may use different format parameters so the drive will work in many different computers and OS's.
1955085
It is formatted for NTFS Windows OS. Also, I have dropped it once when I was getting out of the car. The drive is totally unusable due to bad sectors after that.
1712413
If it is a compatible drive (check Synology's website) it will be erased and reformatted to EXT4.
2231214
I thnk it will and the setup should be quite easy. But my drive just stopped working after 1 year of flawless working; and hence all my precious data is at stake. so i wont suggest storing any precious data in this drive
489158
It should work. What do you mean not recognized? Can you not see the drive in Disk Utilities in order to format the drive?
364524
If your drive has an mSATA, then it's OK. You can also get a SATA to USB adapter to get the data out.
860026
You'll need to be more specific in order to get a valid answer, but here is an answer based on the info on your question: Maybe. If it's a standard SATA drive with no encryption then you should be able to get the info. Is something wrong with the new drive?
2077589
You can migrate the drives to a new unit but there are a few things that get lost. see this tutorial:http://www.synology.com/en-us/support/tutorials/484
1687481
I put in a drive with data on it and windows wouldn't recognize it unless I formatted it first. Works fine after formatting, but I had to backup all of my data before using the drive.
896161
You need to format the drive before use. So if you have some files on it, you will lose that. Beware!!!!!
1652669
Yes. You will need an enclosure, then connect via usb or thunderbolt, then format the drive Mac OS extended journaled or as need.
603727
Can't help with any specific advice as I am using my drive with a Mac, but I can't see why there would be a problem. If you received a drive pre-formatted for a Macintosh, then doubtless, you need to use a Windows program to reformat it. Good Luck!
1551812
Yes, it essentially turns the new drive into the old one. I did this on a Acer netbook and it worked fine after swapping to the cloned drive.
1678665
Not if it isn't retail. I usually buy oem drives, they just arrive in bulk. If you are loading any Windows version, it will format the drive.
999370
You will not be able to use the direct copy feature to do this as it requires the drives to be the same size. You can connect the device to a computer and copy the data to that first and then to the new drive.