You can easily move hard drives from one QNAP NAS to another for seamless system migration while retaining all existing data. But this usually works if you are moving from an old to a new model.

For example, users can migrate their QNAP NAS to another Turbo NAS model with all the data and configuration retained by simply installing all the hard drives of the original (source) NAS on the new (destination) NAS according to its original hard drive order and restart the NAS.

What it’s nice is that this procedure can also migrate between different platforms (for example from ARM to Intel). Due to different hardware design, the NAS will automatically check if a firmware update is required before system migration. After the migration has finished, all the settings and data will be kept and applied to the new NAS.

Before migrating, check the QNAP migration compatibility list.

There is also a matrix table availabe at this link, but could be outdated or may not include all the available models.

The NAS models which support system migration are listed below.

NAS models that do not support direct migration are listed in the below table.

For these NAS models, please first initialize the destination NAS and copy your data from the source NAS to the destination NAS.

The destination NAS should contain enough drive bays to house the hard drives of the source NAS.

Please note:

1. Before directly migrating to the destination NAS, please make sure both the source and destination NAS models are powered off first.
2. The destination NAS should contain enough drive bays to accommodate the hard drives from the source NAS.
3. It is recommended that the source NAS and destination NAS are both using the most-recent version of QTS.
4. Check the drive bay sizes of both the source NAS and destination NAS and ensure that your hard drives are compatible with the destination NAS.
5. After system migration, the following may occur:
   • Storage settings (including Qtier and SSD caching) may be changed.
   • Network and virtual switch settings (including Port Trunking, Virtual Switch, Thunderbolt, and USB QuickAccess) may be changed.
   • If the destination NAS has less RAM than the source NAS, some features and applications may not be supported (including Virtualization Station, Qsirch, and Snapshots).

However, the system settings of the source NAS cannot be imported to the destination NAS via “System Administration” > “Backup/Restore Settings”. Configure the NAS again if the settings were lost.

Safest procedure

It’s better add the disks and then power on the new system, or add the disks later? Usually adding the disks and then power-on the system works well.

But if not, you need a different procedure:

1. Boot up the NAS without HDD(s) installed. You will hear a short beep,  and after about 1~2 minutes, a long beep.
2. The system will use the embedded image to boot up.
3. Then run the Finder on your PC, it will help you to find the NAS on the network.
   TCP/ IP configuration: Obtain IP address settings automatically via DHCP
   If your network has no DHCP Server, the Turbo NAS will use the default IP 169.254.100.100.
4. Use the default ID (admin) and password (admin) to login if it asks.
5. Hot-plug the HDD(s) into the NAS.
6. Go through the import wizard

On some Qnap you have also an HDMI or VGA port, this could be really useful to check the start-up procedure

Andrea Mauro

Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.