Do you hide your hard drive?
- Thread starter dudemaar
- Start date
A lot of people will stick em in a closet, I don't hide mine. I know if somebody REALLY wants it they will find it, That being said in my house they will have to bring a ladder and take the sd cards out of the cameras too.
Mine isn't hidden, per se, but by the time you get to it the odds are great I already have several pictures of who/what's going on.
SouthernYankee
IPCT Contributor
My BI computer is in my man cave along with my other computers and Big screen TV. I also have WD 4TB Purple drive in a USB enclosure connected to a ASUS router (Access point) that acts as a real time backup for my cameras. The drive is in the top of a kitchen cabinet.
Note the man cave and it contents are covered by multiple cameras.
Note the man cave and it contents are covered by multiple cameras.
mat200
IPCT Contributor
- Jan 17, 2017
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Hi @dudemaar
Just do not leave it next to your media center - that is a main target for thieves when the get inside.
If you want, you can buy a cheap NVR and place it there - and use it to display the videos on your TV, then find a nice less noticeable location for the PC / NVR doing the recordings.
A lot depends on the size of your home. Some places are too tiny to find many good spots, and you do not want to place it in a location which has extreme temp and / or humidity.
( so uncondition attic is not a good idea. )
This is in our living room. Thieves would probably think that this laptop is the computer recording cameras. If they take it, no big deal...there is nothing on it but Chrome.
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I have a similar PC for BI. It sits on a shelf under a desk in my home office. I also have 4 other desktop PCs here at the moment (2 running) so the odds of someone taking that one are somewhat low because desktop PCs aren't known to be worth a lot of money. I also have an SD card in each camera.
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So how does that work when there is a SD card in the camera and you are also recording to your hard drive with BI? Does it record to the SD and the hard drive at the same time, and just overwrite sooner on the smaller SD card? Also what size SD cards do you all use? Can the SD cards be just cheap ones or do they have to be the faster writing higher end SD cards?
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,892
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They are completely independent. The camera has no idea you are recording to a pc. It is simply sending the stream. You need to setup sd recording in the camera itself. The cheap small ones will die early.
looney2ns
IPCT Contributor
Stick with good well known brands of cards, such as the Samsung Evo Plus cards. Be sure to purchase from a reliable source, as there are lots of fakes out there. 64 or 128gb are good sizes.
I am glad I read this. I really like the idea of having SD cards as backup. As you all said, I think most crooks might steal the NVR or even computer, but I would never think to check the individual cameras for a SD card. Good to know!
tangent
IPCT Contributor
- May 12, 2016
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Even if it isn't that hidden, you can secure the computer or nvr with locks and cables or secure an NVR to something with screws.
A locking rack like enclosure also works. Other options have been discussed in the past like a USB hard drive backup hidden in a wall or a redundant nvr in a hidden location or a sacrificial piece of shit nvr in an obvious location (more practical for a business).
A locking rack like enclosure also works. Other options have been discussed in the past like a USB hard drive backup hidden in a wall or a redundant nvr in a hidden location or a sacrificial piece of shit nvr in an obvious location (more practical for a business).
I'm not running continuous recording, just motion alerts. Right after BI captures, the files are sent to various raspberry pi's via wireless networking. It is a work in progress right now as I'm new at this stuff.
in a robbery, the electronics equipment goes first, that includes PC/NAS and recording NVR/DVR. Stick with cameras with SD cards. In one occasion, a special request from a designer to include a 16-channels nvr inside a custom build wood entertainment center. Using an external 3.5" HDD enclosure with eSATA, allow me to hide the unit below the NVR (a hidden secret pocket with a hole, just to pass the eSATA cable). Normally, the robbers just disconnect the cables to steal the NVR, leaving the hard drive inside the safe secret pocket.
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
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no one takes pc in a robbery. if you are paranoid use a pc lock. They are not messing with it while the alarm is going off.