What Kind of Hard Drive Will Work in a Zmodo DVR?
The following video demonstrates how to install a Hard Drive into a Zmodo DVR or NVR:
Hard Drive Requirements:
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SATA II or SATA III interface
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Storage capacity of at least 250GB and no more than 2TB. See our Storage Calculator to determine exactly how much you need.
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Choose a hard drive with a physical size of 3.5". It may also be reffered to as a desktop sized hard drive.
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Choose a hard drive that spins at 5400RPMS, or "Intellipower" because these hard drives use less power and also produce less heat.
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Choose a hard drive that is rated as industrial/surveillance grade because a standard, PC grade hard drive will fail quickly in a DVR system.
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Use a hard drive with 16MB of cache or more.
There are three hard drives that meet all of the requirements and recommendations and they are the Western Digital AV-GP line of hard drives and the Seagate Pipeline line of hard drives. There is also a newer hard drive that Western Digital manufactures solely for DVRs. This is the Western Digital Purple series.
Warnings:
- Stay away from using Western Digital Black or the Western Digital Blue hard drives, as well as the Seagate Barracuda hard drive. They have higher power requirements and create much more heat.
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Do not use a Solid State drive (SSD) in the DVR. The constant writing of the drive will wear the drive out much faster than a traditional hard drive.
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Do not use an external hard drive that hooks up through USB. The USB interface does not allow live recording.