Docking Station question

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Hi everyone

I had a beautiful system running nonstop for the past four years at a non-manned self storage facility. I had 40' telephone poles installed everywhere, and fancy cheap Chinese cameras tracking movement and recording when motion is sensed via blue iris.

So, late some night a few weeks ago, we think some big moving truck accidentally backed into our locked sliding gate. We think at this point, the driver realized that he was being recorded, because all the chinese PTZ cameras were pointed at him glimmering red IR light. This guy pulled away, but parked on a side street and jumped the fence (snow tracks confirmed this). This very observant guy then realized the daisy chain of wires going from each telephone pole, and followed them back to a single storage unit, this is where I kept the PC, switch and modem. This guy broke down the door and picked up the PC and threw it across the room, really messed up the computer. He unplugged all my IP cameras from the switch, and unscrewed the comcast cable connector outside the building. He didn't steal anything, and I'm still somewhat amazed of the intelligence of this perpetrator.

Trying to put the computer back together, I noticed both internal 2tb WD hard drives were just clicking upon startup. The computer won't even give me a blinking curser unless I remove the CMOS battery and jiggle the 20pin molex connector in some weird order. I built this computer when Sata 1 was in style, and USB2 was the only thing available. I just ordered a new motherboard that has USB 3.1 and SATA 3 goodies and will be in later this week.

I want to be a bit smarter with this next setup, and forgive me for asking silly questions as I haven't messed with BI in a few years and somewhat forget what I learned from the initial setup. So, I got a cheap 2 bay docking station with (2) 4TB WD purples inserted. I believe this docking station is either USB 3.0 or 3.1, either way it should work well with this faster motherboard. I have a 3rd hard drive inside the PC, which will only have the OS and BI program installed. This hard drive is only 200 some GB's.

My plan is to mount this docking station above the ceiling and have strain reliefs on the 10' USB cable leading back to the PC which will be at ground level. I'm hoping the thief will have his way with the PC, but all recorded video will remain safe above the ceiling (actually under the roof). I was trying to setup both hard drives in the docking station as one spanned volume, but failing left and right with error messages. I don't think windows 7 likes spanning external hard drives. After this fail, I ultimately just initialized both external hard drives and labeled them as Y and Z. Can Blue Iris split up recording paths so I can utilize both external hard drives? Does blue iris know to fill up hard drive Y and then start to fill up hard drive Z, and then once Z is filled up, go back and write over hard drive Y?

Thanks in advance.
 

Mr_D

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Why not put the PC and all of the network gear in a locked, steel cage? Do your cameras support SD cards? I'm putting SD cards in my cameras, set to record on motion, to thwart cases like this.
 
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The cameras are up 30-40' on telephone poles, we would need to buy a bucket truck just to retrieve the SD cards. Toward the steel cage, I believe that would just be a advertisement saying "I'm valuable in here", enticing a smart thief even more!

I really like the idea of a very accessible/stealable PC where a thief would think that if this PC is stolen or damaged, so is all the data. But, i would have the last laugh as all the video files are safe above the ceiling. I already have a ton of cat5 cables going up thru the ceiling, it would be easy to hide the USB cable and nest it inside with the other cables.
 

fenderman

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Clone the cameras and point them to a hidden secured network device...you should have at least one camera in the room where this is stored and record to sd card as well..
send the hard drive out for recovery...its a very worthwhile investment...get an alarm system for your location..
 
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We are still debating about sending the hard drives off to be recovered. There were 3 PTZ auto tracking cameras in the area where this all went down. This guy happened to do all this during a nasty winter storm, we got a few feet of snow that night. These cameras tend to fixate on the falling snow, there's a very good chance that these cameras didn't record what we wanted to see. It's a 1000 dollar gamble, so no green light was given yet to send off the hdd's for recovery.

I did order a ebay 49 dollar alarm system for this room last week. Still trying to learn how to decipher the poorly written installation manual. In addition to the loud siren, it does have a SIM card slot which enables it to group text when the alarm is tripped.

I also ordered a real hikvision 2032 to be installed in this room to record 24-7. I'm also considering replacing the fluorescent lighting to LED, and keep them on all the time, so the camera will stay in the daytime mode.
 

fenderman

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We are still debating about sending the hard drives off to be recovered. There were 3 PTZ auto tracking cameras in the area where this all went down. This guy happened to do all this during a nasty winter storm, we got a few feet of snow that night. These cameras tend to fixate on the falling snow, there's a very good chance that these cameras didn't record what we wanted to see. It's a 1000 dollar gamble, so no green light was given yet to send off the hdd's for recovery.

I did order a ebay 49 dollar alarm system for this room last week. Still trying to learn how to decipher the poorly written installation manual. In addition to the loud siren, it does have a SIM card slot which enables it to group text when the alarm is tripped.

I also ordered a real hikvision 2032 to be installed in this room to record 24-7. I'm also considering replacing the fluorescent lighting to LED, and keep them on all the time, so the camera will stay in the daytime mode.
The 2032 does not have an SD card slot... don't buy a cheap 49 dollar alarm...you can put together a decent system for 300-400....
 
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I hate spending other folks money. For a 1 zone alarm system, as long as it makes noise and texts us when something is up, I don't see the difference with that versus a more expensive Honeywell security panel that requires add on modules and a monthly service fee. Be that as it may, I think I found a answer for spanning both external hard drives to a single drive. I bought the wrong docking station last week. I just bought a new docking station, Xcellon HDD-202. Looks the same as the other, but it has dipswitches on the back of the unit so you can set it as Raid 0 or spanning. I'll update this thread when this docking station comes in.
 

fenderman

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I hate spending other folks money.
that is what got you into this predicament in the first place...cheap china "security" systems are just that...and you cant be available 24/7 to respond to texts..
 
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Very correct you are, my phone goes on silent after 10pm due to my 6month old being a super light sleeper. However, the other 4 people on the group text should hopefully respond. I do completely understand what you are saying though. I learned my lesson with them Chinese PTZ hikvision knockoff cameras, getting firmware updates is like pulling teeth with those folks.
 
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