Adding hard drive to the AMDV7204M-4D DVR

[Brien]

https://amcrest.com/amcrest-amdv7204-4d ... white.html

This system came with a 1TD hard drive that barely saves a week worth of video. So I would like to expand the storage capacity.

Can I install a second hard drive in this DVR or is there only 1 hard drive bay?

If not and I have to replace the existing hard drive, do I need to format it or do any backup/prep when installing the new drive?

I recently added a second Western Digital Surveillance 4TB hard drive to my Lorex NVR at home and it required no updating once installed, it just started working.

I don't mind replace the 1TB with a 4 or 5TB drive I just don't want to loose all the settings I've taken months to dial in.

[Melvin]

Hello Brien,
You can replace the existing hard drive with a 4TB one. You can only use an additional external drive for back up though. You need to remove the existing one and replace it with the new one. You can format the new drive from HDD manage settings and it should be functional. Please find below a list of compatible drives with your device.

https://amcrest.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ar ... 0P-HD-CVI-

[Brien]

Mel, when I added a new Surveillance 4TB hard drive to my Lorex system I didn't need to format it. Are you sure I will need to format this one first? The reason I ask is I don't have an external case to connect it to the DVR to format it.

Also, are all the setting stored on an internal ROM or the drive itself? Obviously, I don't want to loose all the settings I've done.

[Brien]

Bump, is anyone from Amcrest going to answer my question?

[Melvin]

Hello Brien,
You can install the new HDD without any issues. The format option is there under the DVR settings if need be. Formatting the drive will not erase any settings as its saved on a different chip.

[Brien]

Thanks Mel. The install was a breeze.

For those who are interested, my 4-camera 720p system came with a 1TB hard drive, which saved a weeks worth of video. I bought a Western Digital Purple 6TB Surveillance Hard Disk Drive off Amazon for $233 and should now get around 6-weeks worth of storage. No additional configuration needed, just swapped out the drive and the DVR resumed as normal.