Formatting a HD in a DVR box

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Rod Bishop

Member
I've got a Zmodo DVR security system that had a 1TB HD, until the HD failed last night. I replaced the 1tb drive with a new 80g HD, the largest and only HD I could find in a day.

The DVR started to Format the new drive as soon as I turned on the box, but that was almost 8 hours ago, and it still says in the HD Menu, "Formatting."
I can hear a slight tick or click coming from the HD, but I've never had to wait 8 hours for a HD to format in a PC.
It sound like it's formatting but 8 hours seems too long.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Well, if its an 80gb drive, its most likely 10 years old and the ticking means its bad and you need to buy a new drive.
 
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Rod Bishop

Member
I finally found a little information from the DVR maker. They said the DVR will only take certain brands and model of hard drives, and the DVR will not format or accept a hard drive less than 100g.

They never answered my email plea for help, but I did find a little note on their forum and the drives. I'll be ordering a 160g next week, and the certain make and model they require.
 
ssal

ssal

Active Member
They don't make 160gb drive anymore, unless you're buying it used.
The difference between a 500gb and 1tb is only a few bucks, both under $60 from BestBuy.
 
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Rod Bishop

Member
I found a nearly new 250gb hard drive and the dvr system couldn't complete the format after 24 hours of sitting there saying "Formatting" and them picked up a 500gb Pipeline HDD and the Zmodo DVR it does the same, it just sits there and says "Formatting." This time I left it for 48 hours formatting the 500g and it never finished.
I put both the 250g and the 500g drives and install them into two PC based system and they both formatted perfectly and I installed windows on both, so the drives are fine.

The Zmodo says formatting but it must be trying to format instead. I replaced the data and the power cables twice just to make sure there was not a problem there. Each drive installed in the Zmodo, and all three were seen by the Zmoso with a proper ID and value of size.

Any ideas?
 
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