Defragging CCTV Drives, Do I really have to?

[mateck8888 0]

Hello:

 

Just wondering what peoples opinion was of defragging DVR drives. I didn't think it needed to be done at all, but I have been having some export crashes on one of my AVer 6480exp. in the field. I looked at the drive and noticed that total fragmentation was 99%, and with 49% file fragmentation. I asked Aver Tech support what they thought of this, and this was the answer:

 

Hi Matt,

 

Due to the nature of the dvr constantly writing to the HDD and over-writing files over and over your fragmentation of the HDD will be high. We normally suggest doing a monthly clean-up of the drive to keep it fresh if you are worried about the HDD failing or not responding.

 

Regards,

Customer Care

AVerMedia USA

 

I find this hard to believe. I have a Geovision system that has been running for 3 years with no problems. It has the same 99%/49% defrag situation, and works fine. Further, you can't even defrag a drive when it has only 1% free space on it, which is typical with CCTV drives. And to have to do this once a month? Is Aver serious?

 

Has anyone found defragging necessary on NTSF drives in DVR systems?

 

Thanks,

Matt

[survtech 0]

That depends on the method used to write the data to disk and will vary from system to system. Some systems may have to be defragged occasionally for optimum performance. Other systems are less prone to fragmentation and will not require defragging as often. Still other systems (like the Pelco Endura and NICE alpha silver) use a method of storing data called a "ringbuffer" and never require defragging. YMMV.

[mateck8888 0]

Thanks for the response. I just thought it strange that my Geovision has been up for years with 99% fragmented drives, and now Aver wants me to defrag a drive that's been in use only a couple of months! (which is not possible on a CCTV drive with only 1% space free).

[tweak'e 0]

how many stand alone DVR's even have the ability to defrag ???

 

for pc DVR the only part that would really need defragging is the OS drive.

i would say that the data part is fairly continuous anyway. DVR writes from start to finish then back to start of the drive again. its not like a pc that writes in different places due different files in use.

[rory 0]

dont bother. If you can once every so often delete everything (format, but you loose all video) and then no defrag needed but i would not even hurt my head over it. As mentioned one could defrag the OS drive but then set the page file to a fixed size max and min and it wont get that fragmented anyway. Log files and database updates etc can cause some minor stuff as well as recyclebin but anytime you work on that stuff just do a quick cleanup - I always install 2 programs on my DVRs, CleanUp! and CCleaner - and I run them whenever I am called to do something, most times there is nothing really to clean up though, as the System is not used for anything but a DVR and its also heavily tweaked. My DVRs are super tweaked as I learned from working with slow SSD netbooks.

[mateck8888 0]

dont bother. If you can once every so often delete everything (format, but you loose all video) and then no defrag needed but i would not even hurt my head over it. .

 

Yes, I agree, especially since I have had a Geovision running in the field for three years not and it has 99% file fragmentation, and runs flawlessly!