Adding an external Hard Drive to a Linux based DVR

[cvasara 0]

Good Afternoon: I have been selling and setting up SPECO DVRs over the past few years, and adding an external "My Book" one Tb hard drive, or two, has been relatively easy, and has worked quite well.

In the past year, I Have been ordering, selling, and installing a US-DVR-E216480, with a 500 Gb HardDrive, mainly because of the excellent 'real human' telephone support that they provide. What isn't provided, however, is 'in the field' addition of an external, low cost harddrive. I believe these DVRs have a Linux operating system, and I have yet to figure out how to add a low cost "MY Books' or similar Harddrive to them to increase the video storage capacity.

 

To add additional storage to an existing E216480 requires that the unit be returned to the supplier, and if ordered with two or three Tb when purchased new, can be expensive.

 

Is there a way to do that? A good step by step procedure would certainly be helpful.

 

Thank You

[Bean00 0]

What brand is it? Some DVRs simply do not support external storage.

[cvasara 0]

Good Evening, and thanks for your reply. It is a United Security Associates Group (USAG) stand alone DVR model # US-DVR-E216480. USAG is located in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

 

Thanks

[rory 0]

As long as the OS is not on the hard drive you should simply be able to replace the internal drive with a larger one.

[Bean00 0]

Good Evening, and thanks for your reply. It is a United Security Associates Group (USAG) stand alone DVR model # US-DVR-E216480. USAG is located in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

 

Thanks

Great! I am familar with that unit under a different name.

 

That model does support USB attached storage - so you should be able to do exactly what you did with the Speco unit.

 

And Rory is right, if you don't mind voiding your warranty you could always put in a new drive.

[cvasara 0]

Thanks for that information from you guys. I guess I thought all OS resided on the hard drive. If that isn't true, then where would it be, and how do i tell with this model where it is? I'm not overly concerned about the warranty issue with this particular USAG unit, as it is going to be in my office as a demo for others to see. I can worry about the warranty issue at a later date, should I sell this particular unit. That is what I did with the Speco that I had mentioned above.

Most customers (that I have) don't need 2 to 4 Tb of storage, as the units are checked every day, and viewed on the 'net' for any changes, but I wouldn't mind a storage time of 30 to 40 days, on 16 cameras recording virtual real time 24/7. Perhaps my thinking is not the norm, but to me, what doesn't happen is just as important as what does. (Police mentality, I guess.)

I guess I need to see where the OS resides on these units that I have put into service?

[Bean00 0]

The unit you have is known as a "linux embedded" unit. The OS is on a DOM(disk on module).

 

Should be SATA HDD, I'd stick with SEAGATE SV35.5 Drives.

[cvasara 0]

Thank You for your reply and help. Looking at the Seagate website and spec sheets, it appears that the largest HD is a 1Tb. I would think that there is room inside the unit for additional harddrives. I can open it to see what is there. I do have 3 1Tb My Books just sitting around, so I think the first thing to do is plug one or more in and see if the unit recognizes it.

Thanks Again.