Unbranded 4ch "DVR HARD DISK FAIL"

[cruelty 0]

Hi have bought a 4ch DVR and when setup and recording it stops and displays "HARD DISK FAIL" I then formatted the hard disk from the DVR itself, to no avail. anyone any ideas? Would the hard disk be faulty or does it need formatted to fat 32 etc? Any help appreciated

[dopalgangr 1]

Did it come with the hard disk or did you put it in yourself? Is it IDE or SATA? Is the hard disk old or brand new? Was the disk already formatted in a pc?

 

Gotta answer those first for me to make an accurate statement. If its IDE make sure the jumper is set to Master (sometimes depending on the make of the drive it will say Master no slave present, sometimes Master is not jumpers at all)

 

If the drive is older or used you can goto the drive manufactures website and download their diagnostic software. You will have to hook the drive up to a pc in order to run the software though.

[cruelty 0]

cheers for the reply have disk set to master and DVR is picking it up as master

 

It came with hard disk (Sea Gate) 250GB IDE. Started up unit and got the "HARD DISK FAIL" and tried everything. Then as i thought it needed formatted i have connect the disk to a pc and formatted it to fat32, recorder and hard disk has never been out of box from new in 1 1/2 years.

[dopalgangr 1]

Download this http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatools-win&vgnextoid=552bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

 

Hook the drive back up to the pc and run those diags on it, then tell me the results

[scorpion 0]

Does your DVR require the hard drive to be formatted to Fat 32?

 

I was only asking because the particular DVR that I use is installed clean right out of the hard drive anti static bag with out any format.

 

I was just curious.

[dopalgangr 1]

Does your DVR require the hard drive to be formatted to Fat 32?

 

I was only asking because the particular DVR that I use is installed clean right out of the hard drive anti static bag with out any format.

 

I was just curious.

 

That was going to be my second course of action if the diag software passes the disk

 

Cruelty, if it passes then perform a low level format (should be one of the options in the software), that procedure will restore a functional drive (that is, one that does not have mechanical problems) to the condition it was in when received from the factory. This means no partitons or file structure.

 

Hope this helps, by the way do you have a link to the DVR manual or manufacture website?

[scorpion 0]

Do you have a pdf that you can point me to that does a walk through about resetting a hard drive to factory default?

 

If you have one brand, then that is good, but if know of various vendors then this would be great!

 

Thanks!

[dopalgangr 1]

Do you have a pdf that you can point me to that does a walk through about resetting a hard drive to factory default?

 

If you have one brand, then that is good, but if know of various vendors then this would be great!

 

Thanks!

 

I dont have a pdf handy but its actually quite simple. All you do is download the utility from the manufactures website and run that option. Each hard disk manufacture is different so you should only use the utility from the maker of the hard disk. Here are some links to the different utilities from the different manufactures:

 

Seagate: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatools-win-eula&vgnextoid=d0d51d4dad651110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD

 

Western Digital: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=611&sid=3&lang=en

 

Maxtor: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=MaxBlast_5&vgnextoid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

[rory 0]

Plug the hard drive into your desktop computer - power down the PC first ofcourse. In windows right click Mycomputer and Manage, goto Disk Management, select that hard disk, should be something like Disk1 or higher. Make sure it is the correct one. Right click in the section on the right and select delete partition. power down the computer.

 

put it back in your DVR.

 

If the hard disk is bad, where you have to use a zero fill scan, then that can take hours and your labour will cost more then the cost of a new hard drive. Food for thought.

[rory 0]

Hi have bought a 4ch DVR and when setup and recording it stops and displays "HARD DISK FAIL" I then formatted the hard disk from the DVR itself, to no avail. anyone any ideas? Would the hard disk be faulty or does it need formatted to fat 32 etc? Any help appreciated

The majority of stand alone embedded DVRs need a clean partition meaning no FAT file system or any other kind. If its been used before just delete the partition. They use their own file system and will create it when you plug it in. When you format you are creating a file system. Also sometimes partition tables can get corrupt and you can fix those easily as long as the physical hardware is not damaged. Most of this can be done right inside Windows XP. Sometimes you need third party software but instead of installing something most times I will just run a program called Drive SnapShot from the USB drive and that gives you some additional low level power. But ofcourse all DVRs cant be different.

[survtech 0]

Do you have a pdf that you can point me to that does a walk through about resetting a hard drive to factory default?

 

If you have one brand, then that is good, but if know of various vendors then this would be great!

 

Thanks!

You might try SpinRite (http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm).

[dopalgangr 1]

I have Spinrite and have never had it work on any of the 20 or so drives that I have run it on (as far as fixing a drive).

[RickA 0]

Try using UBCD on the harddrives, with ultimate boot disk you have a few options to work with.