Anyone used a USB 3.0 connected external Drive for Video storage?

[nbstl68]

I purchased 2 x 4GB WD Purple drives for additional video storage. Turns out there are no more connections available in my PC to add them. (My setup has a small SSD and an 8TB Drive now but the 8TB is very close to full with just under 2 week's video history and I'd like to expand closer to holding 30 days.
So I am considering buying an external drive case which connects via USB 3.0.
I am using BI, so it appears I can set up cameras individually to move video to another drive after X days or X amount of space is used on the main drive.

Does anyone have experience with using this type of setup to move \ store their historical security cam video? I'd like to get an idea of any pros\cons before purchasing an external enclosure.

 

[wittaj]

I have tried and it couldn't keep up with the 24/7 demands. After about 20min it was choking. Even trying to offload after X days it was still ridiculously slow.

Do you have an optical drive in the computer? If so, unhook it and use its connection for another drive.

Some have claimed here that they can get a USB drive to work. Many here also have tried and it won't work. YMMV

 

[nbstl68]

I do have a DVD drive. Do those have the same power and SATA connectors to swap with a HD?
I'd prefer not to get rid of it as I do use it on occasion (rarely) to burn photo discs.

 

[Mike A.]

I ran that way for a while after my old server died and I had to use another machine temporarily until I could find a good replacement. I was expecting that it wouldn't work out all that well with constant video running to it but surprisingly it worked fine. Never had any troubles at all with quite a few cams writing or when viewing video. I suppose it depends too on the computer and drive and everything in between. Still wouldn't really want to recommend that. As soon as I could I popped the drive into the new server.

 

[wittaj]

I do have a DVD drive. Do those have the same power and SATA connectors to swap with a HD?
I'd prefer not to get rid of it as I do use it on occasion (rarely) to burn photo discs.

Mine did and that is what I do with my SFF computer. Figure I can always copy something to a flashdrive and then to another computer with a disc player if needed.

 

[TonyR]

I do have a DVD drive. Do those have the same power and SATA connectors to swap with a HD?

Yes, 5.25" DVD's do have same SATA data and power cables as a 3.5" HDD.

I'd prefer not to get rid of it as I do use it on occasion (rarely) to burn photo discs.

A, external USB 3.0 DVD burner works very well for those occasions. The slimline (laptop) types in an enclosure and carry bag are $31 on amazon ==>> here.

 

[Justin Blackburn]

I run an external 12Tb wd purple in a USB C enclosure. One bad thing is it has a momentary style power button on it so it doesn’t restart after a power outage. I set up a notification to let me know to restart it, and it fails over to local storage in the meantime. It’s still not ideal tho. One of these days I’m gonna upgrade to a 3-4 bay storage rack.

 

[Smilingreen]

I purchased 2 x 4GB WD Purple drives for additional video storage. Turns out there are no more connections available in my PC to add them. (My setup has a small SSD and an 8TB Drive now but the 8TB is very close to full with just under 2 week's video history and I'd like to expand closer to holding 30 days.
So I am considering buying an external drive case which connects via USB 3.0.
I am using BI, so it appears I can set up cameras individually to move video to another drive after X days or X amount of space is used on the main drive.

Does anyone have experience with using this type of setup to move \ store their historical security cam video? I'd like to get an idea of any pros\cons before purchasing an external enclosure.

Just to ask, do you have that much video footage that you need to keep? If you had a few segments you wanted to keep, I would offload those to another drive of some sort and then erase the drive or let it over write and start over. Just a thought. That is what i do.

 

[samplenhold]

do you have that much video footage that you need to keep?

I understand the desire to keep more than two weeks of video. I travel a lot and most trips are 4-5 weeks away from home. I generally check on my home cams daily, but depending on where I am, it can be painfully slow. So I really do not go over everything like I am at home. It would be nice to have enough storage to keep 4-5 weeks for working with after I get back. But right now my three 10TB purple drives hold about three weeks worth. I am maxed out on the number of drives I can have mounted internally. I have considered USB 3 and also eSATA external dives. But what @Justin Blackburn mentioned about not starting back up after power failure has been the reason I have not made that move.

 

[danlorenzo]

I have the Terramaster D4-300 USB DAS enclosure with two 8 TB and two 16 TB drives. It works fine, and has for over a year now. I have 12 cameras, and the drives are cascaded (I know this will cause a lot of drive writes), so writes fairly often. I have about 5 weeks of storage on my setup. The access from the DAS is not nearly as fast as local drives through BI, but it works fine. The write speed is about 80 - 120 MB/s according to Task Manager. It is done via a USB 3 port on my machine. I have also maxed out my internal drive slots with an 8 and 16 TB drive.

 

[looney2ns]

If you set up substreams correctly, you can still record continously and extend your recording times.
I'm getting 5 weeks, with 13 4mp cams, by using substreams on a 4tb WD Purple.

Sub Stream Guide

.substreamGuide td { border: 1px solid #000000; } .substreamGuide a { color: #0080ff; } .substreamGuide code.inline { margin: 0; background: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid #e0e0e0; border-radius: 0px; padding-top: 1px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 1px...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[Lawnboy1]

I haven't used one on my BI server because I have plenty on it, but I use one on my gaming/Plex pc. As a matter of fact, I've filled up two WD Red HDDs inside and the external one has about 2TBs of space left. I've ordered a 4 drive storage bay and a few more hard drives. Hopefully that'll last. That's about the extend of my problem with them.
You can also buy a USB 3.1 expansion device to add more ports. And with the 4bay drive I'd change out the noisy fan with a Noctua fan. They're usually 80MM and very quiet.

 

[Lawnboy1]

I read that you ran out of USB ports. You can buy USB expansion from Amazon. I use one on my SIM racing set up and I also use one on my gaming rig without issue.

 

[nbstl68]

I still have USB ports and I think they are also 3.0. The speed spec on USB 3.0 in theory is really fast but it sounds like some people still struggle with it taking a long time to move large video files.
Looks like I can get a 1 or 2 bay USB HD enclosure for ynder$50 bucks on Amazon, (quality? Who knows) so if connecting to the optical drive doesn't work, I guess I am leaning toward giving the external USB route a try vs selling the drives and finding another option. If I do that I think with BI I can split the camera backups 50\50 between the two.
Can you get a splitter to share the optical drive connections w 2 drives? Is that a thing? I have bay slots, just no extra connections.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Throw in a PCIE card with extra SATA ports on it. Of course you'll also need power for the internal drives doing it that way. An eight port SATA card is under $50 and works well.

 

[nbstl68]

Didn't realize a PCIE card could add SATA ports. But if it cannot provide power connections as well I guess it's a moot point. Inside my case I am pretty sure there are no additional SATA or power ports that I can identify on the MB.
So looks like my MB has 5 SATA connections but only 3 Power supply connections off the PSU. SDD, HD Optical.
If I can't split\share two of those, (not sure of PSU total wattage yet) then guess it is buy a new PSU or the USB external case for at least one of the two drives. ...or sell the 2 4TB purples. buy anothe 8TB and steal the optical connection.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Amazon.com

Use you Google Fu!

 

[Flintstone61]

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Power-Splitter-Adapter-PYO4SATA/dp/B0086OGN9E/ref=pd_day0fbt_img_1/145-3701617-0880456?pd_rd_w=AK1CR&pf_rd_p=bcb8482a-3db5-4b0b-9f15-b86e24acdb00&pf_rd_r=VX1FB2H47YJEA1D9YDZF&pd_rd_r=e3dca835-3c34-4bcc-bfc5-cbd8b04586d8&pd_rd_wg=bazzI&pd_rd_i=B0086OGN9E&psc=1

 

[NielK]

I purchased 2 x 4GB WD Purple drives for additional video storage. Turns out there are no more connections available in my PC to add them. (My setup has a small SSD and an 8TB Drive now but the 8TB is very close to full with just under 2 week's video history and I'd like to expand closer to holding 30 days.
So I am considering buying an external drive case which connects via USB 3.0.
I am using BI, so it appears I can set up cameras individually to move video to another drive after X days or X amount of space is used on the main drive.

Does anyone have experience with using this type of setup to move \ store their historical security cam video? I'd like to get an idea of any pros\cons before purchasing an external enclosure.

I am doing just that. My Blue Iris machine didn't have room for a third internal drive so I plugged in an external 3TB Seagate USB3 drive as an experiment.

• Internal SSD - boot disk
• Internal WD Purple 4TB disk - Blue Iris "New" folder
• External Seagate USB3 4TB disk - Blue Iris "Saved" folder

Every day, BI moves a few older recordings from the internal disk to the USB3 disk (if necessary, deleting the oldest recordings on the USB3 disk to make room).

It has been working reliably for over six months so I haven't got round to fitting extra SATA bays and adapters.

 

[eeeeesh]

Have you ever thought about having automatic/daily backups of your BlueIris and other computers? The kind you can restore from bare metal with the help of a USB drive? If so - I would suggest you get a Synology NAS to store your two WD Purple Drives and set some space for backups.

Synology has a pretty decent program that comes with most of their devices - Active Backup for Business. You can pick up a two bay on sale for around $220. You simply connect it to your network and create a shared folder for your Blue Iris files. I went from running a monster home server to a 6 bay Synology NAS and could not be happier. I was running Server 2012 and basically the Synology was doing

Good video to watch.