ceasley

It *is* possible but definitely not ideal because you will sacrifice all the space on your drive. I had to do this because my system would not boot from USB 100% of the time (sometimes the drive wasn't detected until after POST). I've been running in this configuration for a few weeks with no issues. You will need a USB adapter for your hard drive (I'm using this one and it works great: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812161005) YOU WILL LOSE ALL THE DATA ON THE DRIVE WITH THIS METHOD! 1.) Connect the hard drive you want to use to boot Synology from to the USB adapter, then to your computer. 2.) Prepare the drive with Win32DiskImager just as you would a thumbdrive. 3.) Put the newly-prepared disk into your Synology server, and boot it up! (use a SATA or IDE connection...USB is no longer required at this point)