How to Set Up a NAS for the First Time: Initial Configuration Walkthrough for Beginners

Setting up a NAS for the first time feels intimidating until you actually do it. The hardware is straightforward, the software wizards do most of the heavy lifting, and within an hour or two you can have a fully functional file server sitting on your network. This walkthrough covers everything from pulling drives out of their boxes to scheduling automatic backups, written for someone who has never touched a NAS before.

Before You Start: What You Need

Before anything powers on, gather these items:

The NAS unit itself. A 2-bay device is the right starting point for most households. The Synology DiskStation DS220j runs a quad-core 1.4GHz RTD1296 CPU with 512MB DDR4 memory, which is enough to handle file sharing, photo backup, and light media serving simultaneously without breaking a sweat. It ships without drives, so you supply those separately.

NAS-rated hard drives. Consumer desktop drives are not built for the always-on, vibration-heavy environment inside a NAS enclosure. The Seagate IronWolf 8TB runs at 7200 RPM with a 256MB cache, carries a 1,000,000-hour MTBF rating, and is specifically rated for up to 8-bay NAS use. For a 2-bay setup running RAID 1, two of these gives you 8TB of usable storage with full redundancy.

Everything else you need:

• A Cat5e or Cat6 ethernet cable to connect the NAS to your router
• A computer or tablet on the same network to run the setup wizard
• A power outlet and the included power adapter
• An anti-static wrist strap, or at minimum, a habit of touching a grounded metal surface before handling drives

Do not skip the ethernet cable in favor of Wi-Fi. The DS220j has a single 1GbE LAN port, and a wired connection keeps initial setup clean and fast.

Physical Drive Installation: SATA Trays, Seating, and Anti-Static Basics

The DS220j uses tool-free 3.5-inch drive trays for most standard drives. Here is the process:

1. Unplug the NAS and remove both drive trays by pressing the release latch on each bay door and sliding them out.
2. Before touching any drive, discharge static electricity by touching an unpainted metal surface, like the chassis of a desktop PC or a metal table leg.
3. Place each IronWolf drive onto its corresponding tray. The screw holes on the tray sides will line up with the holes on the drive’s underside and sides. Secure the drive with the included screws, typically four per tray.
4. Slide each loaded tray firmly back into its bay until it clicks. You should feel it seat against the SATA connector at the back of the bay.
5. Connect the ethernet cable to the LAN port on the rear, connect power, then press the power button.

The startup process takes about 90 seconds. You will hear the drives spin up and the status LED will shift from orange to green when the system is ready.

First Boot: Finding Your NAS on the Network and Running the Setup Wizard

Synology makes this part easy. From any browser on the same network, navigate to find.synology.com. The Synology Web Assistant will detect your NAS automatically and display it with its model name and local IP address.

Click Connect, and you will land on the DiskStation Manager (DSM) installation screen. DSM is Synology’s operating system, and this is where it gets written to the drives.

Walk through the wizard:

• Accept the license agreement and click Install Now. DSM installs in about 10 minutes.
• The NAS will reboot automatically. Return to find.synology.com and reconnect.
• Create your admin account. Use a strong password here, something you do not use anywhere else.
• Give the NAS a device name that will make sense on your network, something like “HomeNAS” or “FamilyStorage.”
• Skip the Synology Account registration for now if you want, though you will need it later for remote access and cloud backup features.

Once the wizard finishes, you land on the DSM desktop, which looks like a simplified version of a regular operating system interface.

Storage Pool and Volume Creation: RAID 1 vs Basic Explained Simply

DSM does not automatically use both drives as one storage space. You have to create a Storage Pool and then a Volume on top of it.

Open Storage Manager from the main menu. Click Storage Pool, then Create.

You will be asked to choose a RAID type. For beginners with two drives, the choice comes down to two options:

RAID 1: Both drives mirror each other. If one drive fails completely, your data survives on the second drive. Usable capacity equals one drive’s size, so two 8TB drives give you 8TB of usable space. This is the right choice for anyone storing irreplaceable files like family photos or work documents.

Basic: Each drive is treated independently, giving you two separate 8TB volumes. No redundancy, no protection against drive failure. Only consider this if you have a strict backup strategy already in place elsewhere.

For a first NAS setup, RAID 1 is the correct answer. Select it, choose both drives, and let the system build the array. Full synchronization can take several hours for large drives, but the volume becomes available immediately for use even while syncing completes.

After the Storage Pool finishes initializing, click Volume, then Create. Assign all available space to a single volume unless you have a specific reason to partition it. Format as Btrfs rather than ext4 since Btrfs supports snapshots, which adds another layer of data protection.

For a deeper look at why RAID alone is not a complete backup strategy, read NAS Backup Strategy: Beyond RAID and NAS Deduplication vs RAID Redundancy Strategy.

Creating Network Shares and Mapping a Drive on Windows and macOS

A shared folder is what makes your NAS accessible as a network drive. Open Control Panel, then Shared Folder, and click Create.

Name the folder something descriptive, like “Documents” or “Media.” Leave the default permissions for now, which give your admin account full read/write access. Enable the Recycle Bin option so accidental deletions are recoverable.

On Windows:

1. Open File Explorer and click “This PC.”
2. Click “Map network drive” from the Computer tab.
3. Choose a drive letter and enter the path: \\[NAS-IP-address]\[FolderName] or \\HomeNAS\Documents
4. Check “Reconnect at sign-in” so the mapping persists after reboots.
5. Enter your NAS admin credentials when prompted.

The shared folder now appears as a lettered drive in File Explorer, just like a local hard drive.

On macOS:

1. Open Finder and press Cmd+K to open “Connect to Server.”
2. Enter smb://[NAS-IP-address] and click Connect.
3. Choose the shared folder you want to mount and enter your NAS credentials.
4. To make it persistent, go to System Settings, General, Login Items, and add the mounted share.

Setting Up Automatic Backup from a PC or Phone

The point of a NAS is not just storage, it is automatic, hands-off backup. Synology gives you two solid tools for this.

For Windows and Mac PCs: Install Synology Drive Client on each computer. During setup, point it at a folder on your computer (like your Documents or Desktop folder) and a destination folder on the NAS. Set it to continuous sync or scheduled sync at whatever interval makes sense. Synology Drive Client also supports versioning, keeping up to 32 previous versions of each file, which protects against accidental overwrites.

For phones: Install Synology Photos on iOS or Android. Enable automatic upload in the app settings and point it at your NAS IP address. Every photo and video taken on the phone will back up to the NAS automatically when connected to your home Wi-Fi. This is one of the most practical features for families where multiple people are generating photos constantly across multiple devices.

For adding an off-site cloud backup layer to protect against physical loss or theft, the guide at Synology NAS Backup with Backblaze B2 walks through connecting DSM directly to Backblaze B2.

Three Settings to Change Immediately After Setup for Security

A NAS sitting on your home network with default settings is a security liability. Change these three things before you do anything else.

1. Disable the default admin account. DSM creates a built-in “admin” account that attackers specifically target. Go to Control Panel, User and Group, and disable the default admin account entirely. You created a separate admin account during setup, and that is the one you should be using.

2. Enable two-factor authentication. Go to your user account settings and turn on 2FA. Synology supports authenticator apps like Google Authenticator or Authy. This matters most if you plan to enable remote access to the NAS from outside your home network.

3. Change the default HTTP and HTTPS ports. The default ports (5000 for HTTP, 5001 for HTTPS) are well-known and regularly scanned by automated bots. Under Control Panel, Login Portal, DSM Settings, change these to something in the higher range, like 8820 and 8821. This is basic obscurity rather than true security, but it eliminates a significant volume of automated login attempts.

While you are in the security settings, also enable Auto Block under Security, which automatically blocks IP addresses after a set number of failed login attempts. Five failed attempts triggering a 24-hour block is a reasonable starting threshold.

Getting a NAS up and running is genuinely achievable in an afternoon. The hardware clicks together without tools, the DSM wizard handles the OS installation, and the hardest decision you make is choosing RAID 1 over Basic, which is not actually that hard. The setup described here, two IronWolf drives in a DS220j running RAID 1 with automatic PC and phone backup enabled, gives a household a reliable, private storage layer that does not depend on any subscription service to function.