Questions about DVRs and Hard drive sizes, types

[Joeinamillion 0]

Can a DVR that says it supports a hard drive up to say 1TB use a 2TB hard drive? And can a DVR that says it supports a hard drive up to 3TB use a 4TB or greater size?

 

I know that 2TB is the limit on older devices. But if a DVR was designed when 1TB hard drives were the maximum size is there any reason the DVR might not be able to use something larger? Same with systems that say 3TB max, or 4TB max (Hard drives go up to at least 6TB now).

 

The next question I have is regards to the type of hard drive. I think Western Digital makes a bunch of different styles [Green - Eco friendly, Blue - everyday computers, Black - performance, Red - NAS and Purple - Surveillance ] class hard drives. I think that is the price scale in order. Does it matter greatly if you use one over the other in a DVR or NVR. I know the **claims**, but has anyone actually used these and noticed a difference?

 

**Claims** for the WD Purple are no lost FPS, and drive that will last running 24/7/365.

 

My guess is that a Green drive will work, but will fail sooner than others, a blue is okay for lesser FPS, lower res, or/and few cameras. Black would be okay overall. Red, no clue. Purple, if it's as they say, should do it all.

 

This question is a no brainner, but I'll ask anyway: Is it okay to mix Hard drive sizes, brands, and types? Unless you are making a RAID set up, why might it matter?

[secplus 0]

From personal experience, I have had many issues with a lot of hard drives especially on DAHUA's DVR's. Purple Surveillance drives from Western Digital have been a godsend, no issues whatsoever using these drives.

[Karmadhi 0]

purple is better, it's gonna last longer and it's more reliable.

 

green is gonna get burned soon. let me tell you why: green is made for computers and computers need a lot of bandwidth. so green is made to handle that huge traffic going back and forth. now the dvr/nvr uses low bandwidth. using a green hdd means the hard drive is gonna spin uselessly handling a low bandwidth. that's gonna consume the hdd and it's gonna fail soon. on the other hand purple is made to handle dvr's low bandwidth and doesn't need to work/spin uselessly.

 

a normal computer hdd is gonna fail in 1-2 years (most of them, there are exceptions of course). till now a purple hdd never failed on me.

 

also another recommendation: if you wanna use a normal hdd for your surveillance go for the seagate ones, they are more reliable then wd green (from my experience).

[Don Stephens 0]

No one seems to want to mention compatibility. Your DVR, regardless of who it might be from, is going to have a compatibility list that you need to select a hard drive from. Using an incompatible drive, whether it be brand/model/capacity based, can cause a whole mess of unpredictable issues.

 

That being said, I'll never use another Seagate drive again no matter what they work with after watching them fail 30% of the time through 2013 and 2014. Since we've started using the WD Purple drives (about 4 month ago) we haven't had a problem yet.

[secplus 0]

No one seems to want to mention compatibility. Your DVR, regardless of who it might be from, is going to have a compatibility list that you need to select a hard drive from. Using an incompatible drive, whether it be brand/model/capacity based, can cause a whole mess of unpredictable issues.

 

That being said, I'll never use another Seagate drive again no matter what they work with after watching them fail 30% of the time through 2013 and 2014. Since we've started using the WD Purple drives (about 4 month ago) we haven't had a problem yet.

 

 

Exactly, do you have any idea how many service calls I get for HD Issues with DVR's that have been installed less than a year? There were times when I switched DVR's for the customer just to make them feel better about the product because of hard drive issues. Not to mention the money loss for warranty service calls!!!!

[Joeinamillion 0]

Thanks folks for your responses about using the correct hard drive. It's good to know it that the Western Digital Purple drives are not just sales hype. I just looked into the prices of those drives and a 3TB one costs < 1% more compared to a WD Green drive. I just read purple drives also come in an 'IntelliSeek technology' model, to save power, reduce heat, and prolong life, likely what's needed in larger systems.

 

As for WD over Seagate; Let's remember WD, and HGST, are both owned by Seagate now.

 

Thanks Secplus for responding about compatibility. I only asked about size, but there are other things to consider also. WD only mentions connection types (SATA I/II, PATA, EIDE, converters, etc) with regards compatibility. Speed, heat, etc. are other things. With regards to compatibility, I am still considering a NVR by AvertX, or possibly HikVision. AvertX states their NVRs use WD Purple drives (some pre-installed).