File Storage Help Required

Hi Guys,

For a long time I have had this issue with file storage but I cannot rectify it.

I all new files and alerts go to my SSD which is my C drive. Then after a period they go to my WD Purple which is W drive.

I am trying to alter my storage setting but I am stuck in a loop and have been for months in fact near 2 years. I have tried all I can think of both within the BI app and with renaming my PC file storage.

But everything I do comes up with the fault "Files must be discreet and not sub folders of one another"

As far as I can work out, I have it setup in an acceptable way, albeit done badly which is why I want to tweak it.

When setting up, I followed a quite in-depth youtube video which the guy had many helpful BI videos in a series and at first it seemed to work.

Now I cannot edit anything, that means I cannot alter the duration they are kept on C: drive, storage capacity or the folder they are stored in without the error message. Please can anyone help by telling me if there is anything obviously wrong in the below settings?

You're overcomplicating the whole thing.

First, do not write video files to your SSD, C:/, drive. SSD drive life is based on write operations and video is constantly writing to it. This can dramatically shorten the lifespan of the drive.

write everything to your "W:/', drive. There is nothing gained by moving from "NEW" to "STORED" other than adding to the load on your CPU. Write everything to the "NEW" folder and leave it there. Set the folder based on space and not on time. BI will happily handle the space being used without a problem, but be sure to leave about 10% as unallocated to BI so there is a little room as the sizes change before the oldest files get deleted.

If you feel up to it, you can reformat the "W:/" drive using 4096 for a block size to further improve efficiency for writing video files.

You will her this echoed by many others here on the forum.....There is usually no need to move files from one drive to another.
Set your storage for New to the W drive and do not concern yourself about moving anything to Stored. In most cases it uses resources and shortens drive life with no real advantage to you the user in terms of keeping footage.
Do not store video on a SSD.
I am in the midst of a BI PC rebuild and have had to remind myself that just because I have filled the space in the case with 5 drives (compared to the 3 in the previous PC) there is no reason for me to be moving files between drives. I currently have all my cameras storing footage on a single drive and will be splitting them so that 1/2 go to drive 1 and 1/2 go to drive 2 (both internal spinning drives). My boot drive is a SSD and that is where the OS, Blue Iris, alerts and database are saved.

Select Delete instead of "Move to folder"

I notice your New Folder is pointing to C:\ Blue Iris\New try clicking that box with 3 dots [...] and surf to the W:\ Blue Iris\ New. possibly rename NEW to New1. if it sends up the crazy error msg.
then in "status Icon" (upper left) you'll want to go in and locate and click on Repair database.
then in each camera settings you'll have to go in and under the record tab, and verify that the camera is recording the W:\ Blue Iris\New folder.
when all the camera are recording to W:\Blue Iris\New repair database again

sebastiantombs said:

If you feel up to it, you can reformat the "W:/" drive using 4096 for a block size to further improve efficiency for writing video files.

Click to expand...

Should I Quick Format or full format?
ps: It already appears to be 4096.

Edcfish said:

Do not store video on a SSD.

Click to expand...

OK will do but aren't Alerts video? Just point them to WD Drive too?

Edcfish said:

My boot drive is a SSD and that is where the OS, Blue Iris, alerts and database are saved.

Click to expand...

I think this may be where I made a mistake, I pointed alerts to my SSD too, but aren't alerts video?
I have just pointed everything to either New, Alerts or Stored and all on W drive for now, is that all I need in reality?

Flintstone61 said:

I notice your New Folder is pointing to C:\ Blue Iris\New try clicking that box with 3 dots [...] and surf to the W:\ Blue Iris\ New. possibly rename NEW to New1. if it sends up the crazy error msg.

Click to expand...

It did give crazy error message.

Flintstone61 said:

then in "status Icon" (upper left) you'll want to go in and locate and click on Repair database.

Click to expand...

TY, I did a DB Restore and pointed everything to WD and crazy error has gone.

Thank you all so much

yes new alerts stored all pointed to w

In fact, now I can store to files I choose again, don't I just need Alerts and New?

What is difference between New and Stored?

we basic users dont bother with Stored.

Flintstone61 said:

we basic users dont bother with Stored.

Click to expand...

It's cool, I have it in my head now.

Thank you again for your help

y w

Typically Windows formats with 1024 block size unless you select a different block size. Given the size of video files 4096 is a better choice.

If you're recording 24/7 ALERTS are nothing more than pointers in the database and are not discrete files.

I use STORED for temporary storage of incidents I want to archive. I export them periodically and move them onto a different drive, DVD or USB stick,, then delete them from STORED.

sebastiantombs said:

If you're recording 24/7 ALERTS are nothing more than pointers in the database and are not discrete files.

Click to expand...

I am recording 24/7 with a break every hour.

Yes I see your point with alerts just being pointers.

I just need to reconfigure the whole triggers and alerts now, I feel my system is not optimised.

The database is C:\BlueIris\db not in the base blueiris folder.

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My Standard allocation post.

1) Do not use time (limit clip age)to determine when BI video files are moved or deleted, only use space. Using time wastes disk space.
2) If New and stored are on the same disk drive do not used stored, set the stored size to zero, set the new folder to delete, not move. All it does is waste CPU time and increase the number of disk writes. You can leave the stored folder on the drive just do not use it.
3) Never allocate over 90% of the total disk drive to BI.
4) if using continuous recording on the BI camera settings, record tab, set the combine and cut video to 1 hour or 3 GB. Really big files are difficult to transfer and read.
5) it is recommend to NOT store video on an SSD, multiple constant writes will kill an SSD.
6) Do not run the disk defragmenter on the video storage disk drives.
7) Do not run virus scanners on BI folders
8) an alternate way to allocate space on multiple drives is to assign different cameras to different drives, so there is no file movement between new and stored.
9) Never use an External USB drive for the NEW folder. Never use a network drive for the NEW folder. The New folder must be on an internal drive.


Advanced storage:
If you are using a complete disk for large video file storage (BVR) continuous recording, I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). This is a increase from the 4K default. This will reduce the physical number of disk write, decrease the disk fragmentation, speed up access.

Hint:
On the Blue iris status (lighting bolt graph) clip storage tab, if there is any red on the bars you have a allocation problem. If there is no Green, you have no free space, this is bad.
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Hey guys, reading this thread because I unfortunately set my BI computer up like his a few years ago and don't have the time or inclination to reformat and restart. I followed a YT vid back then to do the setup, now I'm stuck with it.

I have my stored clips going to NEW on my D: drive (500GB partition on the STORED drive) , then moved into STORED (2.92GB capacity) on the same physical drive that D is on, but partitioned as E:, then to AUX1 on another physical drive (3.63GB capacity)

How can I redo my storage locations but utilizing my current drives? I'm not sure how to make the best use of my drive space. I really don't want to reformat. I have 2x 4TB drives. My BI is working but I want to optimize things. How can I best use my 3 partitions (500GB, 2.92GB & 3.63GB)?

I have no red showing when I look at the Clip storage tab but they are all a good 90-95% blue with just a bit of green.

Thx

sebastiantombs said:

If you feel up to it, you can reformat the "W:/" drive using 4096 for a block size to further improve efficiency for writing video files.

Click to expand...

SouthernYankee said:

I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte). This is a increase from the 4K default. This will reduce the physical number of disk write, decrease the disk fragmentation, speed up access.

Click to expand...

Sorry guys I don't mean to cause trouble, but which should it be?

I have done a Quick Format to 4096, but don't mind doing anything whilst at this stage if I need to change it to a Full Format and 1024 I will. But should I?

Set the three drives with three BI folder. Set each folder to delete. Based upon the size of the drive and the size of the camera resolution, evenly distribute the cameras to the drives so that they all will be deleted at about the same time. DO NOT MOVE FILES BETWEEN DRIVES OR FOLDERS.

My Drive setting are for big cluster size for big continuous recorded files, where the disk is used only for BI video files.

SouthernYankee said:

My Drive setting are for big cluster size for big continuous recorded files, where the disk is used only for BI video files.

Click to expand...

Yes my W drive is solely for BI.

SouthernYankee said:

1) Do not use time (limit clip age)to determine when BI video files are moved or deleted, only use space. Using time wastes disk space.

Click to expand...

Done.

SouthernYankee said:

2) If New and stored are on the same disk drive do not used stored, set the stored size to zero, set the new folder to delete, not move. All it does is waste CPU time and increase the number of disk writes. You can leave the stored folder on the drive just do not use it.

Click to expand...

Done.

SouthernYankee said:

3) Never allocate over 90% of the total disk drive to BI.

Click to expand...

Done

SouthernYankee said:

4) if using continuous recording on the BI camera settings, record tab, set the combine and cut video to 1 hour or 3 GB. Really big files are difficult to transfer and read.

Click to expand...

Done (previously I had 4GB setting & 1 hour)

So considering my W: drive is only for BI, should I full format and 1024?

Or quick format?

SouthernYankee said:

2) If New and stored are on the same disk drive do not used stored, set the stored size to zero, set the new folder to delete, not move. All it does is waste CPU time and increase the number of disk writes. You can leave the stored folder on the drive just do not use it.

Click to expand...

And also if Alerts and Stored Alerts are also on same drive, the set Stored Alerts to zero and Alerts to delete at size x?

Agree with pretty much everything said here,, although Alerts can be safely on an SSD and it can help performance.
Modern SSD's can handle way more writes than the older ones.
But strongly agree, don't store Video on the SSD, performance probably won't be as good, they just are not designed for sustained sequential writes.
Especially as you have a purple drive, these are designed for constant writes. You should check your drive settings to make sure spindown\powerdown is NOT enabled or you will reduce the lifespan of the purple drives.
Agin the purple drives are designed to constantly spin. Bit like a spinning top, most wear happens when the spinning object slows down or ramps up, but when spinning there isn't a lot of stress on the drive.