No hard drive or hard disk found
This applies to recorders that were pre-installed with internal hard drives (HDD) and worked before. The following are signs that the hard drive is no longer detected in your DVR / NVR:
A. The HDD LED is off.
B. The HDD status (Menu > Device > HDD) is blank, meaning No. 1 is empty.
C. You may have experienced an outage or changed the power adapter.
A. & B. If you changed the hard drive recently
Bear in mind that only certain types of hard drives are compatible with CCTV security systems.
- We recommend using a surveillance-rated hard drive of the same size dimensions and storage capacity as your recorder's hard drive, such as the Western Digital Purple™, Seagate Skyhawk™, or Toshiba Surveillance range of drives. If you wish to know the maximum capacity and size compatible with your DVR or NVR, you can request a Chat for "hard drive" and follow the prompts.
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Solid State Drives (SSD) for DVRs are NOT ideal for continuous recording, operation in high temperature setting, and large disk space. A DVR's intention is reliability not speed. SSDs are very fast, but it will wear out eventually when writing happens frequently. Using an SSD is at your discretion.
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Desktop hard drives are not recommended as their low speed can cause playback skipping and errors. They are not optimized to support 24/7 read-and-write access.
Please visit Installing an additional Internal Hard Drive (HDD) for 16-channel Recorders for an example of how to change the hard drive of your recorder.
A. & C. If you experienced an outage recently
The power adapter for your recorder was designed to protect the DVR or NVR in the event of a surge or power outage as adapters can be replaced easily unlike the whole recorder. Chances are the power adapter may be providing insufficient power for full recorder function (which includes the hard drive).
- Ensure you are using a power adapter with the correct output rating for your recorder. See What power adapter should I use? for your DVR, NVR or NVW.
- In the event of an outage, unplug all connections at the back except the TV, mouse and power adapter. This is to check whether the hard drive will be detected and whether the power adapter is still providing some power.
- Change the power adapter to a known working one that has the same output rating as in step 1.
- For DVRs, see Swap DVR Power Adapters for Boot Issues.
- For NVRs, there are no spare power adapters.
If the hard drive is detected after unplugging the cameras, chances are the power adapter is providing insufficient power and requires replacement.
If you are already using a compatible hard drive and a known working compatible power adapter, chances are the hard drive needs to be replaced. Please check What hard drives can I use with my DVR or NVR?