Unable to Access Video Backed up to USB External Drive

[Andyh747]

Hi All,
I really need some help with this as have tried everything.

I used an external USB drive to backup a few days of video from a Dahua NVR. The backups were selected in MP4 format and seemed to backup fine. I then tried to access these backups by plugging the USB drive into a Windows PC but the drive isn't recognised. Plugged it back into the NVR and I can see all the backed up MP4 files but can't play them or do anything with them.

So the question is how do I get the backed up video files off the USB and onto a PC hard drive or even view them? If I can get them onto my PC HDD then that would be ideal but at present the drive simply isn't showing up in Windows.

Thanks for any help.

PS Yes I know I could have used SmartPSS but I had the USB drive connected and thought I'd use that while it was there.

 

[TonyR]

Can you try the USB drive in another PC?

 

[Andyh747]

I’ll try that today but this was in a brand new PC so I couldn’t understand it not being recognised. I usually use Macs and know the drive won’t be recognised in that.

I’ll update later when I’ve tried it on another older PC. In the meantime I’ve backed up using SmartPSS.

 

[Andyh747]

OK tried in another PC with same result, it doesn't show up as a drive.

I connected it back up to the DVR and it recognises the drive and allows me to backup files to it without problem. I can also see the files backed up yesterday but can't play them back as they don't list on the playback screen only when you browse the USB drive through the DVR.

Looks like the backed up files from yesterday and previous backups aren't going to be accessible unless anyone knows any other way to try accessing them?

 

[IAmATeaf]

Did you format the drive when connected to the NVR?

In Windows have a look within Disk Manager to see if it can see the drive when plugged in and if it can see and what it makes of any partitions in the drive.

 

[Andyh747]

It was originally formatted when connected to the NVR yes. As mentioned it shows fine within the NVR and I can backup to it but it will not playback any of the backups yesterday or most of the prior backups even though they are showing when browsing the hard drive through the NVR.

Already done that in disk manager and the disk doesn't even show there. When plugged into a windows PC it is detected and is shown as a SATA bridge. It's not showing as a drive though.

 

[IAmATeaf]

The NVR probably formatted it in a format that Windows might not recognise.

As a test if you have a spare flash/pen drive, make sure it’s formatted in Windows and detected and then try plugging that into the NVR and see if it will export the clips to the flash drive. Then back to the Windows PC to see what happens.

 

[Andyh747]

OK many thanks for that advice. I'll try that. I assume it must be formatted in FAT32 for the NVR to recognise it? I don't think the Dahua NVRs recognise any other format, is that correct?

 

[IAmATeaf]

OK many thanks for that advice. I'll try that. I assume it must be formatted in FAT32 for the NVR to recognise it? I don't think the Dahua NVRs recognise any other format, is that correct?

No idea to be honest but worth trying FAT32 and then maybe NTFS just to confirm what the NVR is happy with.