Advice re: hard drive management please.

mack100 · Nov 16, 2018

I've just "defected" to BlueIris from Hikvision NVR and their software by building a dedicated Win10 machine as advised on here, and I'm very happy to have done so.

I've even managed to do port forwarding and remote viewing is available to me but I'm not too happy with the android app I'm using, more work to be done on that.

My main concern is how to employ my 2x 3Tb Purple drives I've transferred from the nvr to the new pc. I would just like to fill up drive #1 first with recordings, automatically start on drive #2 and when that is filled have drive #1 wiped and the process started again. I'm not even sure if this is possible.
The BlueIris app is installed on an SSD along with the OS.

The only other issue is I haven't yet worked out how to view my recordings of events by using the panel at the bottom of the main screen, I'm having to navigate to the hdd in file explorer to view them.

SouthernYankee · Nov 16, 2018

Put windows os and bi on the SSD.
Assign 1/2 your cameras to one of the hard drives.
Assign the remaining cameras to the other harddrive.
I record continuously all cameras.

fenderman · Nov 16, 2018

There's nothing to figure out about the timeline just click on a time or event and watch the video you can drag timeline and scrub it for quicker review.... There's also Clips view on the right side... You can change the camera event colors in the general tab of each camera so that they appear independently on the timeline.

mack100 · Nov 16, 2018

fenderman said:
There's nothing to figure out about the timeline just click on a time or event and watch the video you can drag timeline and scrub it for quicker review.... There's also Clips view on the right side... You can change the camera event colors in the general tab of each camera so that they appear independently on the timeline.

Thanks, when I assign the clips panel to alerts I can see all the images but when I click on them I get "file not found".

SouthernYankee said:
Put windows os and bi on the SSD.
Assign 1/2 your cameras to one of the hard drives.
Assign the remaining cameras to the other harddrive.
I record continuously all cameras.

I'll have a go at that.

fenderman · Nov 16, 2018

mack100 said:
Thanks, when I assign the clips panel to alerts I can see all the images but when I click on them I get "file not found".

I'll have a go at that.

This could be because the video is already gone, did you allocate enough storage in the clips and archiving tab..the default is tiny.

mack100 · Nov 16, 2018

I'll check that, thanks

TonyR · Nov 16, 2018

+1 to @SouthernYankee said and...

Besides putting your OS and BI on the SSD, I suggest you also put BI's "Alerts" folder and "db" folder on the SSD.
That means BI's "New" and "Stored" folders go to the WD Purples.

mack100 · Nov 16, 2018

I'm certainly doing something wrong.
Options/Clips and Archiving/...in the Folders section I assigned
"New" to D:\BlueIris\New
"Stored" to D:\BlueIris\Stored
"Alerts" to C:\BlueIris\Alerts but C:\BlueIris\Alerts\ is empty.

Database Path C:\Users\computer name.
New,stored and alerts are limited in size to 20Gb, clip limit age is ticked and set at 7 days.
When I alert a camera the image is seen in the right hand pane, left clicking it gives "Sorry, the file could not be found". Right clicking it shows "open containing folder" greyed out.

fenderman · Nov 16, 2018

mack100 said:
I'm certainly doing something wrong.
Options/Clips and Archiving/...in the Folders section I assigned
"New" to D:\BlueIris\New
"Stored" to D:\BlueIris\Stored
"Alerts" to C:\BlueIris\Alerts but C:\BlueIris\Alerts\ is empty.

Database Path C:\Users\computer name.
New,stored and alerts are limited in size to 20Gb, clip limit age is ticked and set at 7 days.
When I alert a camera the image is seen in the right hand pane, left clicking it gives "Sorry, the file could not be found". Right clicking it shows "open containing folder" greyed out.

alerts folder should be empty...it only stores hi res images if you select that in the record tab, and you shouldnt. No need for it. The database stores low res alert images.
fix the storage limits...leave some empty space on the drive.
dont use a day limit.

davej · Nov 16, 2018

So does BI move files from "New" to "Stored?" Can you change the location of folders without screwing up the database?

SouthernYankee · Nov 16, 2018

If configured correctly BI will move files from new to stored.

If you move a folder from one drive to another and have it configured correctly, Just rebuild the database, a one click operation.
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Just as a note: i do not used the stored folder, I do not move files after they are recorded. I seperate my cameras to different drives. So if a drive fails I do not lose that 100% of that times data.

I am paranoid I have 3 copes of all recorded video.

looney2ns · Nov 16, 2018

davej said:
So does BI move files from "New" to "Stored?" Can you change the location of folders without screwing up the database?

If new and stored are on the same drive, there is no point in moving a recording from new to stored.
See this: Blue Iris Video Tutorials
And this: Optimizing Blue Iris's CPU Usage | IP Cam Talk
No one advise's here to build a new BI server, when you can purchase a refurb from Ebay for $100-$350 some with remaining factory warranty.
Choosing Hardware for Blue Iris | IP Cam Talk

nbstl68 · Nov 19, 2018

I was thinking of adding a couple 3TB Purple HDDs and spanning them or whatever it is called, so they appear and work like one larger drive. Has anyone done this? Any pros\cons?

SouthernYankee · Nov 19, 2018

nbstl68

This is a bad idea if one drive fails you are in a mess.

The best way to use multiple drives is to assign different cameras to different drives, this is very simple to do in BI. If one drive fails you only lose some of the cameras

mack100 · Nov 20, 2018

Just an update:
I've re-installed Windows and installed Blue Iris and now it's all working fine, no problem with clips any more and cpu usage is fine recording direct to disk.
Following advice on video I've put "alerts" and "db" in BI on the ssd along with the OS and I've configured a storage limit on the ssd so that files are then moved. At this point I'm having a problem I want to set recording from cameras 1,2 and 3 to Drive D: and recording from cameras 3 and 5 to Drive E: as advised earlier in this post and have set this up in each cameras properties.
However, when I come to "clips and archiving" the options are global, I can only allocate (for example) New to D:Blue Iris\ New and Stored to D:\Blue Iris\Stored. What about the 2 cameras that I've set to record to Drive E:\?

bob2701 · Nov 20, 2018

I believe you can change each cameras location in the cameras properties.

SouthernYankee · Nov 20, 2018

In the system options under clips and archives you have the ability to define 10 storage locations. Set one drive to define new. Set another drive to define AUX1. Then in the camera definition under record set each camera to the desired folder.

mack100 · Nov 21, 2018

SouthernYankee said:
In the system options under clips and archives you have the ability to define 10 storage locations. Set one drive to define new. Set another drive to define AUX1. Then in the camera definition under record set each camera to the desired folder.

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to post those screenshots, very helpful.
What I've done is to follow BlueIris advice and leave "Database" and "New" in C:\BlueIris which a 250Gb SSD. "New" is set to a 50GB limit with "Limit clip age" unchecked. It will then "Move to folder" which is D:\BlueIris\Stored which is on a 3Tb HDD, size limit set to 2750GB. When full that will move to "Aux 1" E:\BlueIris\Stored which will then delete at the 2750GB limit.
I fully understand the reason to divide the cameras between the drives but still cannot see a way to do this without moving "New" and "Database" away from the SSD with BI and the OS installed.
Thanks all for the advice, now I shall try and configure remote access which thus far has been a resounding failure

SouthernYankee · Nov 21, 2018

You can assign any camera to any folder.

On the SSD when used as a new folder. You are doing a lot of read and writes to the SSD. This may ware out the SSD. Just my paranoid thinking.

Do not confuse the name of the folder with it's use.

You can have some of you cameras write the new data to Aux1. Then other cameras write to aux2. Never using new and stored.
I only write data once, I do not move it. This saves on cpu, I/o, disk ware.

Bi folder and use mapping is very flexible.

looney2ns · Nov 21, 2018

Ideally, only BI, OS, and DB remains on the ssd. All recordings go to the hard drives.

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Advice re: hard drive management please.

mack100

Young grasshopper

SouthernYankee

fenderman

mack100

Young grasshopper

fenderman

mack100

Young grasshopper

TonyR

mack100

Young grasshopper

fenderman

davej

Getting the hang of it

SouthernYankee

looney2ns

nbstl68

Getting comfortable

SouthernYankee

mack100

Young grasshopper

bob2701

Getting comfortable

SouthernYankee

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mack100

Young grasshopper

SouthernYankee

looney2ns