Dual Hard Drives with DVR

[rory 0]

Okay I got 2x 120GB Hard Drives, I am partitioning the first 10GB for windows, and the rest for Video, then the 2nd drive just 1 partition. Question is ... how do I make the DVR Server see the 2nd and 3rd Partitions as 1 partition/drive?

 

Do you use like Partition magic or something else... anything free and quick ..?

 

By the way its Windows XP.

 

thanks

Rory

[loop 0]

Why would you need the server to see both as one?

You can usually add more than one partition to save the video to.

[rory 0]

No the ones i have used allow you to select 1 drive to save the video to. Though maybe Im missing something?

 

Rory

[CCTVINSTALLER 0]

Not too sure rory, with geovision we add the partitions to the video storage settings so when the 1st partition's full it'll jump on ot the second and once that is full, it starts recycling back from partition 1. We can add as many as we want. What dvr card are you using?

[rory 0]

this is for the eclipse DVR card (Digiflower).. i havent checked that part yet ... thought it was done in windows ... will check that out thanks..

 

Rory

[sjmaye 0]

Okay I got 2x 120GB Hard Drives, I am partitioning the first 10GB for windows, and the rest for Video, then the 2nd drive just 1 partition. Question is ... how do I make the DVR Server see the 2nd and 3rd Partitions as 1 partition/drive?Rory

 

I had the same problem. The two drives were configured with RAID 0. This saw both drives as a single 240GB drive(in your case) for video storage. I could not figure out how to partition this so I installed a third cheap 40GB drive for Windows OS.

 

That being said there is a point during Windows OS installation that you can add or delete partitions (I think). It is at the point it is asking you what drive partition you want Windows to be installed in to.

[rory 0]

Nah .. I got the 10GB for windows, and the 2 other partitions, all set up, just need to be able to set the DVR to record to the 2nd and the 3rd partition, not just one which is default. I still have some other issus I have to fix first, like video drivers, etc, then ill try what CCTV Installer mentioned above, though Im pretty sure this card doesnt do that. Gotta find out the Mobo in the AM so I can download the other drivers (they didnt send anything - eclipseCCTV), right now im just relaxin for a change and watching TV (5am) Im sooo sunburned right now ... to0 darn hot .. got the AC piping but yah know ..

 

I did all the partitioning in XP set up by the way, got fat32 for windowz, except I had to use NTFS for the other drives as I formatted them within windows XP.

 

Rory

[scottj 0]

I believe windows XP will allow for what is called drive spanning. You can create "spanned" volumes with multiple partitions or actual physical drives.

 

 

scottj

[loop 0]

Digiflower has the option to add multiple partitions to dvr's storage.

Drive spanning is not recommended for this matter, although possible on XP.

[rory 0]

I have the Eclipse Card, which is supposed to be a Digiflower card. I dont see it on Digiflowers web site but it looks like them .. it is blue, its 240fps record ... cant get it to work on windows XP though ..any ideas why? At least it loads the drivers fine, and the software is the same software from eclipse for their other 120fps card, and it works on XP when that card is installed, But just with this card in, the program just wont open, wont even give an error message ..

[loop 0]

yeah, it's probably an older version of the card.

you'll need older driver and application.

 

check your PM.

[Thomas 0]

DO NOT SPAN NON-RAIDED DRIVES.

 

Drive spanning as done by Windows is a very good way of having to make a service call. Rory, the simple (not really) is install the drives, install windows to the raid (using the driver disks) and then partition the drive the way you want it.

[rory 0]

Its not RAID drives, just IDE .. they are both 120GB .. could be SATA not sure, it came built ..

[Thomas 0]

Raid is something you do for drives Rory, not a type.

 

Redunant Array of Inexpensive Disks. Basicly it does what you want, makes many disks into one (or one disk to the PC). From there you could partion it as you wanted.

[rory 0]

Right, but still need some other hardware right ..?

 

guess I was thinking SCSI ..

[rory 0]

Okay, found it here, thanks, seems this is what we need ..

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=5

 

After all this though they are only going to use 1 drive and use the other in another PC DVR

 

Still good to know for the future .. see ive never had the $$ to have more than 1 drive to be able to use this feature

 

Rory

[Thomas 0]

Wait till you can really play with RAID. 3.2 TB in redunancy. Ponder how long that will store video.

[rory 0]

yeah, can imagine. I have a Kalatel DVR with 1TB and it does approx 6 months on time lapse . ..

 

This is also interesting ... dont know if it comes in to play with DVRs or not ..

 

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1477&page=5

 

"Mounting drives as folders

 

One rather interesting option available with the disk manager is the ability to mount individual partitions as directories in another volume. For example, if you had a computer with a 20GB disk formatted into a single partition and volume (drive c:), you could purchase a second drive, partition and format it from disk manager and then instead of giving it its own drive letter, add it to your c: drive as a directory.

 

Any files added to that directory would of course be stored in the new HD. This can come in extremely handy, as certain applications (databases come to mind) can grow extremely large, but may not support storing data on a separate drive.

 

As far as Windows is concerned, a drive mounted as a directory is just a directory, so no extra drive letters are involved. This can also cut down on storage confusion for the average user, and it's easy to do, though it can only be done with NTFS formatted partitions. Also, the boot partition cannot be used this way, though other partitions can be added to the boot partition.

 

Also note that shuffling the partition around in this way has no effect on the data stored in it. You can move an NTFS partition from directory to directory, then give it back a drive letter if you choose, while maintaining complete access to the data inside. No reboot is necessary.

 

One other note: If you have installed software on a partition you plan to mount as a directory, it is best to uninstall and reinstall it, since the move may stop the software from working correctly. Windows will warn you about this... "

[CSScarlos 0]

Let me tell you what you need to do.

You can buy a adaptec raid card about $75.00 for a raid 0. That will tell Windows you have one hard drive of 10GB and the rest will be assigned D: for example.

That is a hardware RAID. Win XP Pro with a ASUS motherboard allows you to setup a software RAID 0 but i don't know what the result will be in your video files. I've experienced some breakdowns in the video files.