What to Do When Your Swann System Says 'Storage Full'
The "Storage Full" or "Disk Full" error on your Swann DVR or NVR system is a common issue that can stop your security system from recording new footage, leaving your property unprotected. This message indicates that the internal hard drive has reached its maximum capacity and has no more space to save new video.
Fortunately, this is usually an easy problem to fix. This guide will show you how to manage your storage, enable the crucial overwrite setting, and adjust your recording parameters to maximise your available space.
The Most Important Setting: Enabling Overwrite
For continuous security, your system should never stop recording. The 'Overwrite' (or 'Recycle Record') feature ensures this by automatically deleting the oldest footage to make room for the newest. For some reason, this setting is sometimes disabled by default. Enabling it is the number one solution to the 'Storage Full' problem.
How to Enable Overwrite:
- Access Your System's Menu: Using the connected mouse, right-click on the screen and log in to access the main menu.
- Navigate to Storage Settings: Look for an icon or menu option labelled "Device", "Storage", or "HDD".
- Find Advanced HDD Settings: Within the storage menu, you may need to go into an "Advanced" or "HDD Management" sub-menu.
- Enable Overwrite: Look for an option that says "Overwrite" or "Recycle Record". It will likely have a dropdown menu or a checkbox. Change this setting from "Stop Record" or "Disable" to "Enable" or "Auto Overwrite".
- Save and Exit: Be sure to click "Apply" or "Save" to confirm the changes before exiting the menu.
Once enabled, your system will now run in a continuous loop. When the hard drive gets full, it will seamlessly delete the footage from the oldest day to create space for the current day's recordings.
How to Back Up and Manually Delete Footage
Before you format a drive or clear space, you may need to save a specific incident.
Backing Up Important Video Clips:
- Connect a USB Drive: Plug a USB flash drive or a portable USB hard drive into one of the available USB ports on your Swann recorder.
- Use the Search/Playback Function: From the main menu, go to "Search" or "Playback".
- Find Your Footage: Use the calendar and timeline to locate the specific date and time of the video clips you want to save. Select the relevant camera channels.
- Select and Export: Select the clips you need. There should be a "Backup", "Export", or "Save" button. Click it, and the system will guide you through saving the files to your connected USB drive.
Manually Deleting or Formatting:
If you don't need to save any old footage and want to clear the drive completely, you can format it. Warning: This will permanently erase all recordings on the hard drive.
- Go to the "Storage" or "HDD" menu as described above.
- Select the hard drive you wish to clear.
- Click the "Format" button.
- The system will ask you to confirm. Once you confirm, the process will begin and may take several minutes.
Maximising Your Recording Time
If you find your hard drive is filling up too quickly (e.g., you are only getting a few days of recordings), you can adjust settings to increase storage duration.
- Record on Motion Only: The most effective way to save space is to change the recording mode from "Continuous" to "Motion Detection". This means the system will only record when it sees movement. You can find this setting in the "Record" or "Schedule" menu.
- Lower the Resolution/Bitrate: In the "Record" or "Encode" settings, you can lower the video quality. Reducing the resolution (e.g., from 4MP to 1080p) or the bitrate will result in smaller file sizes, allowing you to store more footage.
- Reduce the Frame Rate (FPS): Lowering the Frames Per Second (FPS) from 30 to 15, for example, will cut the storage space required in half while still providing a reasonably smooth video.