Our DVR started beeping in the middle of the night a few days ago so i shut it down and checked it the next day.
It says there is no harf drive detected, but there was one installed and it was working fine.
So i pulled the hard drive, plugged it into my desktop computer, reformatted it with Fat32, checked the disk and the computer says its working fine.
The hard drive is a 2 TB Seagate HDD.
I reinstall it again in the DVR and it still doesn't recognize it.
I tried it with a spare 1 TB drive and same thing, works fine in a PC, Amvrest DVR doesnt recognize it.
I unplugged the cables and reseated them. No change.
Am i missing a step? Or did our DVR just die?
8 Channel HCVR won't recognize hard drive
Re: 8 Channel HCVR won't recognize hard drive
Sadly without seeing the DVR it would be hard to know if the system failed.. What I do know is that Amcrest has some machines that the HDD will work with and some that they won't. Amcrest is most times very forgiving on what Drive they can use in my 7204 some time ago I installed a WD Desktop Green HDD in and it worked without an issue where I tried a few other systems I owned and the HDD failed to work..
Please note depending on the HDD and the system that it is going into and really going into a PC most times you can take a failed 7200 security HDD install it in a 5400 computer aka Sata 2 system without really noticing much of the issues within the drive depending on what and where it has failed... Remember a Security system with a Security 7200 even a Security 5400 HDD is doing major duty running 24/7 and while some devices has what is called HDD Sleeping within the recorders many of them don't But yes if there is a Machine and you setup for Motion only and that Machine has a large enough memory with the option of HDD sleeping it can sleep.. However most don't offer this tech and so the HDD is spinning at great speeds all day and all night and writing and rewriting info. This HDD can fail only because there are to many Error counts within a time or there is to many of something within its use and rather then having a Critical failure when you need the drive the most it will fail. Little over 2 years ago one of my Security HDD failed in one of my systems. IT failed however the system kind of kept going. Then the Ch1 Failed, This was when I removed the HDD and Ch1 returned and with that is why when things start to fail one of the first test is Remove the HDD from the system.. I installed this onto one of my Computers, While it was an older computer only a Sata II system but the HDD came up I formatted it I was able to have it work on my old 2012 Gaming computer. So I thought ok I can use it on my 2014 gaming computer as a Backup Drive, had used it on the other computer that stays on day/night and worked. So I installed in there and it was Sata III system so I Format it and before it would even finish the format the HDD again failed.. This time not sure why or what but it failed in a way that now my other computer will no longer work with it either.. Opps..
Personally I would never try a used HDD most times people will sale a failed HDD with the intent of the buyer using it in a system that they won't know it has failed or long enough that they will think or be told it failed because they DL a Virus or some other issue as a way to not replace or refund HDD used for Recorders are bad for the Critical data that will be put on it...
Some other things to try. Seeing you already tried to Reseat the cables and that failed you could try 2 things 1 You need to try a new Power supply for the Recorder... Most recorders only work on 10 or 15 watts without a HDD installed and 30 to 48 watts with it installed. So this might truly be a case of a bad PSU.. IF your device is a 2amp I am going to guess it might be a 3 or even a 4. I know that I have a 8ch Dahua that is a 4amp aka 48 watts and have a 16ch TVI unit that is only 3.33amps.. Both of them are Dual HDD machines so if your is a 1 hdd machine it might only need 2.. Anyway if your cameras are on a 2amp power supply for the testing install your HDD, remove the Power from the cameras and install it on the DVR only and see if that works. IF it is a dual HDD unit if you have not tried maybe try the other HDD port for data see if it works.. Just checked one of my 8ch Dahua Dual HDD units and it works on both Data ports 1 HDD so maybe if one was bad maybe other isn't... That is my Troubleshooting idea for testing this.. If Camera PSU is same amps as the Recorder PSU try to use the camera PSU on the Recorder if it works with the HDD then its bad PSU...
Please note depending on the HDD and the system that it is going into and really going into a PC most times you can take a failed 7200 security HDD install it in a 5400 computer aka Sata 2 system without really noticing much of the issues within the drive depending on what and where it has failed... Remember a Security system with a Security 7200 even a Security 5400 HDD is doing major duty running 24/7 and while some devices has what is called HDD Sleeping within the recorders many of them don't But yes if there is a Machine and you setup for Motion only and that Machine has a large enough memory with the option of HDD sleeping it can sleep.. However most don't offer this tech and so the HDD is spinning at great speeds all day and all night and writing and rewriting info. This HDD can fail only because there are to many Error counts within a time or there is to many of something within its use and rather then having a Critical failure when you need the drive the most it will fail. Little over 2 years ago one of my Security HDD failed in one of my systems. IT failed however the system kind of kept going. Then the Ch1 Failed, This was when I removed the HDD and Ch1 returned and with that is why when things start to fail one of the first test is Remove the HDD from the system.. I installed this onto one of my Computers, While it was an older computer only a Sata II system but the HDD came up I formatted it I was able to have it work on my old 2012 Gaming computer. So I thought ok I can use it on my 2014 gaming computer as a Backup Drive, had used it on the other computer that stays on day/night and worked. So I installed in there and it was Sata III system so I Format it and before it would even finish the format the HDD again failed.. This time not sure why or what but it failed in a way that now my other computer will no longer work with it either.. Opps..
Personally I would never try a used HDD most times people will sale a failed HDD with the intent of the buyer using it in a system that they won't know it has failed or long enough that they will think or be told it failed because they DL a Virus or some other issue as a way to not replace or refund HDD used for Recorders are bad for the Critical data that will be put on it...
Some other things to try. Seeing you already tried to Reseat the cables and that failed you could try 2 things 1 You need to try a new Power supply for the Recorder... Most recorders only work on 10 or 15 watts without a HDD installed and 30 to 48 watts with it installed. So this might truly be a case of a bad PSU.. IF your device is a 2amp I am going to guess it might be a 3 or even a 4. I know that I have a 8ch Dahua that is a 4amp aka 48 watts and have a 16ch TVI unit that is only 3.33amps.. Both of them are Dual HDD machines so if your is a 1 hdd machine it might only need 2.. Anyway if your cameras are on a 2amp power supply for the testing install your HDD, remove the Power from the cameras and install it on the DVR only and see if that works. IF it is a dual HDD unit if you have not tried maybe try the other HDD port for data see if it works.. Just checked one of my 8ch Dahua Dual HDD units and it works on both Data ports 1 HDD so maybe if one was bad maybe other isn't... That is my Troubleshooting idea for testing this.. If Camera PSU is same amps as the Recorder PSU try to use the camera PSU on the Recorder if it works with the HDD then its bad PSU...
Be Safe.
Re: 8 Channel HCVR won't recognize hard drive
Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply!
As usually happens with me I was so frustrated I kept searching, and found another post about a bad power supply.
I remember I had a problem once because after moving the DVR to a new location I got the power cords mixed up and plugged in a camera power supply and it caused all kinds of problems.
So today I dug out an old PC power supply also rated at 12V and 2amps and voila, it worked!
So I think at some point either from a power surge, or just old age, the power supply died. I will pick up a new one and try to find one with a bit more than 2 AMPS just to be safe.
I hope this helps someone else, the idea to unplug all the cameras and use a power supply was genius.
As usually happens with me I was so frustrated I kept searching, and found another post about a bad power supply.
I remember I had a problem once because after moving the DVR to a new location I got the power cords mixed up and plugged in a camera power supply and it caused all kinds of problems.
So today I dug out an old PC power supply also rated at 12V and 2amps and voila, it worked!
So I think at some point either from a power surge, or just old age, the power supply died. I will pick up a new one and try to find one with a bit more than 2 AMPS just to be safe.
I hope this helps someone else, the idea to unplug all the cameras and use a power supply was genius.
Re: 8 Channel HCVR won't recognize hard drive
Yeah sadly sometimes the Power supplies can go bad at times it can be because of the hardware they are made with either being Sub Par or just not good.. About 4 or 5 years ago not going to say much about it but I did have a power supply that I bought from a Over Seas company and bought it Direct to save some time and money. I had it for less then a year when the thing just stopped I have some power supplies from 10 years ago still working thinking I bought from a Legit company to find out it wasn't and the power supply while looking Legit wasn't. Took the thing apart to find 3 of the large 6 Caps had died. Taking it apart removing the bad components I thought this one don't feel like the others so I took it apart and found that they were used, Masked to look real and even the inner housing of the Caps were not the same yet they were marked the same on the outside. Also damage of the caps was covered up by wax I had never seen this before.. I have been toying with Electronics for over 40 years now and that was a first for me..
Glad you found the issue and yeah because of being Security system recorder I would buy a good supply between 2 to 5amps but really 2 amps should be enough however a good 2 to 5amp 12v supplies are about same prices most time anyway.. Quality and good air flow
Glad you found the issue and yeah because of being Security system recorder I would buy a good supply between 2 to 5amps but really 2 amps should be enough however a good 2 to 5amp 12v supplies are about same prices most time anyway.. Quality and good air flow
Be Safe.