Dealing with a Full I Pro Storage Drive
A 'Storage Full' notification on your I Pro security system is a critical alert. It means your Network Video Recorder (NVR) or Digital Video Recorder (DVR) has run out of space to save new recordings, potentially leaving you without footage of a future incident.
Fortunately, managing your I Pro system's storage is straightforward. This guide will help you understand the causes of a full hard drive and provide clear steps to resolve the issue and optimise your system for the future.
Why Your I Pro Storage is Full
There are several common reasons why your recorder's hard drive has reached its capacity:
- Continuous Recording: Recording 24/7, especially with multiple high-resolution cameras, consumes a massive amount of data.
- High-Quality Settings: High resolution (like 4K), high frame rates (FPS), and low compression settings create larger video files.
- Overwrite Setting is Disabled: Your system may be configured to stop recording when full, rather than automatically deleting the oldest footage.
- Insufficient Capacity: The installed hard drive may simply be too small for your retention needs and camera setup.
Step-by-Step Guide to Freeing Up Space
Follow these instructions to manage your full storage and get your system recording again. You will need to access your I Pro NVR or DVR interface via a connected monitor or web browser.
1. Assess Current Storage Status
First, understand how your storage is being used.
- Log in to your I Pro recorder's main interface.
- Navigate to the Storage or HDD Management section.
- Here, you will see the status of your installed hard drive(s), including the total capacity and the amount of free space remaining. This confirms the drive is indeed full.
2. Back Up Important Footage
Before deleting anything, ensure you save any critical video clips.
- Go to the Playback or Search section of the interface.
- Find the footage you need to preserve.
- Use the Export or Backup function to save the clips to an external USB drive. This is a crucial step, as deletion is permanent.
3. Delete Unneeded Recordings
With important clips saved, you can now clear space.
- Return to the Storage or HDD Management section.
- Look for an option to Format the drive or Delete recordings.
- Some systems allow you to delete footage by a date range, which is useful for clearing old videos without losing recent ones.
- Formatting the HDD is the quickest way to wipe all data and start fresh. Select this option if you have backed up everything you need. Confirm any warning prompts.
4. Enable the Overwrite Function
To prevent this issue from happening again, you should enable the automatic overwrite feature. This tells the system to delete the oldest recordings to make space for new ones.
- Navigate to the Recording menu, then look for a subsection like Schedule or Storage Settings.
- Find the setting labelled Overwrite, Recycle Record, or similar.
- Enable this feature. Now, your system will record in a continuous loop.
Optimising Your System for Better Storage Management
After clearing space, you can adjust settings to make your storage last longer.
Tweak Recording Schedules
Instead of recording 24/7, consider setting your cameras to record only when motion is detected.
- Go to the Recording Schedule settings.
- Change the recording mode from Continuous (or Normal) to Motion (or Event).
- You can often set a schedule, for example, recording on motion during the day and continuously at night.
Adjust Video Quality Settings
Slightly reducing the video quality can dramatically increase your storage retention period.
- Go to the Camera or Encoding settings menu.
- For each camera, you can adjust:
- Resolution: Lowering from 4K to 1080p can save significant space.
- Frame Rate (FPS): Reducing from 30 FPS to 15 FPS is often sufficient for security purposes and halves the data usage.
- Bit Rate: A lower bit rate reduces video quality but also file size.
Consider a Storage Upgrade
If you require a long history of high-quality recordings, your current hard drive may be insufficient. Check your I Pro model's specifications for the maximum supported hard drive capacity and consider upgrading to a larger, surveillance-grade drive.