URGENT: HDD pinging at 100% constantly. Help please!

[Corvus85]

Hey all,

So this is another thing that I've been wrestling with for weeks, and each time I try something, I think I've fixed it, only for it to rear its ugly head several days later.

Today I tried to access some clips, but realized that it wasn't able to load any. Upon RDPing into my BI machine, I noticed the HDD usage was pinging at 100%.

I had to disconnect the PoE switch that the cameras were connected to and restart the machine in order to bring up the BI console, because the HDD was just revving its nut off and the system was unresponsive.

So I've got a 2TB HDD as a dedicated footage drive, and a PCIe3.0 M.2 SSD as a system drive.

Here's my clips and archiving settings:




Notice how I previously intended for footage to be moved onto my NAS as the HDD gets full, however I disabled this 2 weeks ago so I can pinpoint exactly where this problem is coming from.

And yet, here's what Explorer and BI status is showing me:




It seems like BI isn't auto-deleting clips like it should.
I thought by allocating 'new' just 1000GB that this will surely solve the problem, but it keeps saying it's overallocated? How is this even possible?

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EDIT: Disk allocation is now fixed, but 100% disk pinging is still happening. Read below:
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Ok so I noticed the UI3 was unresponsive today, and logged into the BI machine.

Disk usage is pinging at 100% again. Task Manager shows almost all of it going to Blue Iris. As soon as I end the process, disk usage falls to 0%.
There's definitely no hidden processes using it.

If I reboot, disk usage returns to normal, even though BI is open as a service - but as soon as I try and open the BI console, it shoots up to 100% again. It took at least 5 minutes to open, and then disk usage returned back to normal...

This will be fine until disk usage inexplicably shoots up to 100% and just stays there, forcing me to do a hard reset of the machine.

WTF is going on??

 

[IAmATeaf]

It’s probably due to there being either clip files or other files that BI does not manage. If for example you had BI running and the reinstalled it there would be clip files left over that it would see but not manage, when these are added to what you have allocated you end up with the drive being over allocated.

This can also happen if you decide to rename a cam, you might end up with orphaned clips.

Try a DB rebuild to see if it fixes the issue or try determining which files aren’t being managed by BI and then either move them or delete them.

 

[Corvus85]

I could swear I wiped the drive clean when I changed the allocation last time, but I guess I can try again :-\
There cannot possibly be any files not managed by BI. It's a dedicated drive.

Would it be ok if I changed 'new' to 1800GB and 'alerts' to 100GB? Any possible issues there?

 

[SouthernYankee]

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.
5) it is recommend to NOT store video on an SSD (the C: drive).
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.
10) for performance do not put more than about 10,000 files in a folder, the search and adding files will eat CPU and disk performance. Look at using a sub folder per camera (see &CAM in bi help)


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.

 

[Corvus85]

I recommend formatting the disk, with a windows cluster size of 1024K (1 Megabyte).

So I've just finished repairing the db, and this is what the graph shows:


So now it's acceptable, by the looks of it.

However, I haven't formatted my disk with those cluster sizes. What would the best procedure be? Format, then rebuild db?

 

[SouthernYankee]

It looks good.
Just leave it as it is. Reformatting the drive is not necessary. If it is working do not fix it.

Reformatting, Changing the cluster size, will improve the performance a little bit. It will reduce disk wear a little.

 

[Corvus85]

Ok so I noticed the UI3 was unresponsive today, and logged into the BI machine.

Disk usage is pinging at 100% again. Task Manager shows almost all of it going to Blue Iris. As soon as I end the process, disk usage falls to 0%.
There's definitely no hidden processes using it.

If I reboot, disk usage returns to normal, even though BI is open as a service - but as soon as I try and open the BI console, it shoots up to 100% again. It took at least 5 minutes to open, and then disk usage returned back to normal...

This will be fine until disk usage inexplicably shoots up to 100% and just stays there, forcing me to do a hard reset of the machine.

WTF is going on? Any ideas?

 

[Flintstone61]

Most newbies usually get told to not read/write the data to stored, while also doing writes of new recording. if the system is just strong enough to record, then shit can NAS writes. and just use a Humungous Surveilance drive like 12 TB.
You can't expect a 2.5" ( esp an SMR drive) to be high performing.

 

[Corvus85]

It's not writing anything to NAS, and hasn't been for weeks. Please read all the posts.

 

[Corvus85]

Update: Aaaand the BI machine just magically starts pinging the HDD at 100% again. I've literally touched nothing since I rebooted.



This is now an urgent matter. I'm due to fly overseas in 2 days for two weeks. I desperately need to fix this before I leave!

 

[wittaj]

Is it still the 2.5" HDD or did you get a surveillance rated HDD?

Are you sure that there isn't a virus or antimalware not running for that drive or a defrag trying to occur?

 

[Steve.L]

While I can't offer any real assistance, I can tell you that while my machine is humming along at 9-11% CPU usage (as reported by BI), my Task Manager also reports the "Power Usage" as Very High.

 

[Flintstone61]

Your experiment is failing. Use a real computer.

 

[Corvus85]

Is it still the 2.5" HDD or did you get a surveillance rated HDD?

Still the 2.5". I haven't had any chance to change it because it involves pretty heavy modification of my chassis. And also money. Also, CPU usage is still low.

Are you sure that there isn't a virus or antimalware not running for that drive or a defrag trying to occur?

100% sure. There is literally nothing else installed on this computer besides BI. Defrag is disabled. The drive is exempt from all virus and malware scans.

While I can't offer any real assistance, I can tell you that while my machine is humming along at 9-11% CPU usage (as reported by BI), my Task Manager also reports the "Power Usage" as Very High.

Thanks, but this isn't the problem.

Your experiment is failing. Use a real computer.

What 'experiment'? My computer is an Intel i5-11500 with 16GB RAM and 512GB PCIe3.0 M.2 SSD as a system drive.
Is this not 'real' enough for you? What are you even talking about?
Your comment was not helpful at all.

 

[IAmATeaf]

How is the disk that BI is saving recordings to connected? Is it via the PCs inboard SATA connector?

The smaller laptop drives do have higher latency.

Also how many cams and what res do you run them at?

 

[wittaj]

Post the latest clips storage image.

I cannot keep straight all you have done, but I thought you decided not to run substreams? If so, then a 2TB drive is filling up quickly and if you haven't left enough free board/head room, the HDD is in overdrive trying to figure out what to write over once full. Coupled that with a 2.5" non-surveillance drive you this is the problem you get.

Your 2TB drive shows actual available capacity at 1.81TB. Your allocation only shows 61GB of free space (free board/head room), which is not enough for the HDD to overwrite. It should be at least 10% of the actual available HDD space. So if you are not using substream, there is simply not enough space for the HDD to work properly.

This can further be compounded if your clips and combine function is too large and it is then making it more difficult for Windows to find the free space.

100GB for alerts is large. I only use 1GB and I have months of images.

For kicks and grins change NEW to 1500GB and Alerts to 1GB and see if that calms it down.

And change clip and combine in each camera to 1 hour.

 

[Corvus85]

How is the disk that BI is saving recordings to connected? Is it via the PCs inboard SATA connector?

Yep.

The smaller laptop drives do have higher latency.

I know it's not ideal, but I have read plenty of posts from people who have managed to use them successfully on smaller setups.

Also how many cams and what res do you run them at?

7 cams.
6 at 4MP.
1 at 5MP.

All substream continuous+mainstream alerts.

99% of the time, it's recording substream

 

[wittaj]

OK you are running substreams, but the rest of my post is still valid.

You do not have enough headroom for the drive to operate properly.

Regarding the comment about the 2.5" HDD, the comment "I have read plenty of posts from people who have managed to use them successfully on smaller setups" doesn't carry much weight. We don't really know if it works - maybe they are pinging out 100% HDD but are not in the system scrutinizing every aspect like you are....

Many here have said they have used USB drives successfully as well for camera storage as the NEW drive in BI. I tried that once with a USB 3.0, which rated at 4.8 GB/s (600MBps) and for only one camera. It couldn't keep up with the sustained constant writing and started pooping out after a few minutes.

Now the only reason I know it wasn't able to keep up was because I was watching it like a hawk and watching the transfer speeds and watched it drop below what the camera was sending.

But I was getting no warning errors and would have thought it was working fine. Then one day I would need the footage and find out it wasn't available. That may be what happens to those saying they can run all their cameras on a USB drive...

 

[Corvus85]

Post the latest clips storage image.

but I thought you decided not to run substreams?

I don't ever remember saying that. This was always a requirement.

the HDD is in overdrive trying to figure out what to write over once full.

It's not close to full.

Your 2TB drive shows actual available capacity at 1.81TB.

Check clip storage image. No longer true.

For kicks and grins change NEW to 1500GB and Alerts to 1GB and see if that calms it down.

Changed.

And change clip and combine in each camera to 1 hour.

That was one of the first things I set when I installed BI for the first time.

We don't really know if it works - maybe they are pinging out 100% HDD but are not in the system scrutinizing every aspect like you are....

The system was quite literally inaccessible. Clips were straight-up not loading, and it would cause the livestream to hang. I think they'd notice if their 2.5" drives were doing this.

 

[wittaj]

I guess now we wait and see if the allocation change worked.

Not that it matters, but your 2TB drive shows an actual capacity of 1.8TB - drives never give you the full rated capacity.

You would be surprised how many people set this up and never look at it unless they need to look something up because they noticed their car was rummaged through. Somebody that isn't pulling up their feeds constantly may not notice.