What to Do When Your Uniview Storage is Full
A 'Storage Full' or 'HDD Full' error on your Uniview (UNV) NVR or camera is a critical issue. When the storage is full, your system will stop recording new footage, leaving your property unprotected. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to manage your storage, fix the problem, and optimise your system to prevent it from happening again.
The most common reason for this issue is a simple settings misconfiguration, but it can also indicate a problem with the hard drive itself.
## The Most Important Setting: Enabling Overwrite
By default, Uniview systems should be set to 'Overwrite' mode. This means that when the hard disk drive (HDD) becomes full, the system will automatically delete the oldest recordings to make space for the newest ones. If this feature is turned off, recording will simply stop.
How to Enable Overwrite:
- Log in to your NVR's local interface (connected to a monitor) or web interface.
- Navigate to Storage > Schedule.
- Look for a setting called Overwrite or Recycle Record. Some interfaces may show it as a checkbox or a dropdown menu.
- Ensure this option is enabled or set to 'Yes'.
- Save your settings.
This single change will resolve the 'storage full' issue for the vast majority of users.
## Managing Your Storage Space Manually
If you need to free up space immediately or save important footage before making changes, you'll need to manage your recordings.
### Backing Up Important Footage
Before deleting or formatting, always back up any incidents you might need later.
- Go to the Playback menu on your NVR.
- Find the specific date and time of the footage you need.
- Use the 'Clip' or 'Export' function to save the video files to a USB flash drive.
### Formatting the Hard Drive
Formatting is the quickest way to erase all data and start fresh. This can also resolve underlying file system errors on the disk.
Warning: This will permanently delete ALL recordings on the hard drive.
- Navigate to Storage > Disk Management.
- Select the hard drive you want to format.
- Click the Format button.
- The system will ask for confirmation. Once you confirm, the process will begin and may take several minutes.
## Optimising Settings to Increase Recording Time
If you find your hard drive is filling up too quickly even with overwrite enabled, you can adjust settings to make your storage last longer.
### Adjusting Video Quality
The higher the video quality, the more storage space it consumes.
- Navigate to Camera > Video (or similar menu).
- You can adjust several parameters for each camera:
- Resolution: Lowering the resolution (e.g., from 4MP to 1080p) will significantly reduce file sizes.
- Frame Rate (FPS): For most scenarios, 15 FPS is smooth enough and uses half the space of 30 FPS.
- Bitrate: This controls the overall quality and file size. A lower bitrate will reduce quality but save a lot of space.
### Using Motion Detection Recording
Instead of recording 24/7, you can set your system to record only when motion is detected. This dramatically reduces the amount of storage used.
- Go to Storage > Schedule.
- Select the Motion option instead of Continuous.
- You can then 'paint' the schedule grid to apply motion recording to specific hours or entire days.
- Ensure you have properly configured motion detection zones for each camera under the Camera > Motion menu.
## Troubleshooting Hard Drive Errors
If you see errors like 'HDD Not Found', 'Disk Error', or 'Uninitialized', it may be a physical problem.
- Power Down: Turn off and unplug the NVR completely.
- Check Connections: Open the NVR's case. Check that the two cables (the SATA data cable and the power cable) connected to the hard drive are pushed in firmly on both ends (at the drive and on the motherboard).
- Reboot: Close the case, plug the NVR back in, and turn it on. If the error is gone, it was a loose connection.
- Listen to the Drive: If the drive is making unusual clicking or grinding noises, it is a strong sign that the drive has failed and needs to be replaced.
By properly configuring the overwrite setting and optimising your recording schedule, you can ensure your Uniview system operates reliably without running out of space.