Surveillance Hard Drives

A surveillance hard drive is engineered for a workload no desktop drive is designed to handle: writing continuously, from several cameras at once, for years without stopping.

Three things make them different.

Continuous write rating. These drives are rated for 24/7 operation and a far higher annual workload than a desktop drive, which is specified around a machine that is switched off overnight. Using a desktop drive in a recorder is a genuine cause of early failure.

Firmware tuned for video. Surveillance firmware prioritises writing a smooth stream over retrying a difficult sector, because a dropped frame matters less than a stalled recording. Desktop firmware does the opposite.

Vibration tolerance. In a multi-bay recorder every drive vibrates and affects its neighbours; these include compensation for that.

Size the capacity around channels, resolution and retention — more cameras, higher resolution and longer retention all multiply the space needed.

The range covers Seagate SkyHawk and Western Digital Purple. See also NVRs.