Type of Hard Drive for using PC-NVR

[ChiefIlliniwek5]

I am planning to use an older laptop as a dedicated NVR with the PC-NVR software and I was curious what type of hard drive would be best for this application? I currently have an SSD installed as it helped improve the speed of the computer, but I've read that SSDs are a terrible idea for surveillance recordings because of the read/write cycles shortening the lifespan of the SSD.

Does anyone have any expertise in this area that can help me out? Thanks.

[t84a]

You'd go broke trying to us a SSD. A laptop is probably a bad idea. You'll need several terabytes of storage. Also, an "old" PC probably doesn't have enough computing power. Are you thinking Blue Iris?

[longedge]

Not NVR I know but I record to my WD MyCloudMirror NAS which (after initial problems getting the NAS destination to work) is perfect. I can view the results from multiple devices attached to my network including my TV.

[ChiefIlliniwek5]

Not NVR I know but I record to my WD MyCloudMirror NAS which (after initial problems getting the NAS destination to work) is perfect. I can view the results from multiple devices attached to my network including my TV.

Longedge,

I too have a MyCloud NAS (My Cloud EX2) and I initially tried to use that as an NVR, but I could not get it to work; it sounds like I had the same issues you had. How did you get it to work?

I actually would prefer to NOT use my NAS as that means I can't use the mobile app to use live view, but I guess that's a trade off I may need to accept for the sake of having videos stored externally.

[markcm]

I use a Synology NAS which has cloud services included; if you have your files written to there you could view them remotely very easily although they wouldn't be managed quite the same if you were just accessing them as video files without a surveillance app.

I also have an Amcrest NVR4108 which was pretty inexpensive and I use the Amcrest View app on my phone, it works "ok" but it seems like I'm always fiddling with it due to some incompatibility or performance "feature". I use a WD purple HD in this.

I've actually recently paid the price and now use the built in surveillance software from the synology NAS. It's spendy to license more than the 2 included cameras but it works really well from anywhere. Synology is very well maintained software and support is very good, I was able to add my Amcrest cameras with a few clicks and it is very well integrated but again, licensing is $50/camera for anything beyond the 2 free licenses they provide. It seems like a lot but did I mention, it works really smoothly.

[longedge]

@ChiefIlliniwek5 - In the camera storage destination settings I found that after specifying "NAS" I had to first save and then go to the NAS option. In there I had entered the IP of the camera and the folder/share name of the share I wanted to save to on the NAS. The setting was accepted when I saved but I never got any recordings. After reading a post with some info by another forum member, I added " /nfs/ " in front of the folder name so the destination read "/nfs/foldername".

I also had to enable NFS (network file sharing) in the WD web interface.

Hope that helps.

[rlager]

Hello! I know this is an old thread but hopefully someone will see it and perhaps be able to answer. When you say you enter the save location as "/nfs/foldername" do you mean literally "nfs" and not the server name or something? I'm having problems getting the camera to save to my NAS, I've allowed the camera IP in the NFS settings for the share on the NAS, etc.

Thanks in advance!

[longedge]

I'm accessing the settings for my IP2M-841B via the web interface (Internet Explorer with plugin) and in the settings Settings/Storage/Destination/NAS tab I see 2 items that I can change 1 - "Server Address" and here I have "192.168.1.9" (which is the IP my NAS has got) and 2 - "Remote Directory" and here I have "/nfs/camera" the share on my NAS is called camera.

I found that before I could enable NAS I first had to set that as the destination in the Settings/Storage/Destination/Path tab. Until I had done that I couldn't enable NAS.

This applies to my setup of course which is with a WD MyCloudMirror NAS.

p.s. I changed back to recording to the SD card because I couldn't find a way to automatically overwrite/delete files and I didn't want the NAS filling up.

[Bilgediver]

I know I'm replying to an old thread.
I successfully set up my Synology NAS for FTP, and had each Camera I had with its own login information, and the Synology allowed me to set up User size constraints. Only issue I had was it would just stop recording. I'm also looking for other solutions, considering the Blue Iris

[longedge]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Your post has prompted me to have another go at saving to my NAS. I'm sure that the Synology devices are far more capable for this purpose than my WD MyCloudMirror but one of the downsides that I complained about originally has a very simple solution. I can limit the amount of space used on the NAS simply by setting my cameras to auto delete files after a suitable period (I've chosen 7 days).

I don't have any experience of Blue Iris but for quite a while now I've been recording to the MSD in each camera and also to PC-NVR (comes as an optional addition to Amcrest Surveillance Pro) on my computer which is on 24/7 anyway.