From my understanding, if you want a setup where you are actively monitoring (sitting there watching), you don’t need a hard drive.
If you want it to record so you can review things later, you need a hard drive.
Even in the one without the hard drive, you can add your own hard drive if you have one hanging around, want a larger drive, or want to find a better deal on one.
Not a statement to the value of the bundle price, but you need a Hard Drive installed if you want to view this system remotely i.e. on your phone, iPad or another computer.
ThunderThighs is correct…No, you do not need a hard drive to view remotely (at least on the other Zmodo dvr I purchased here a few weeks ago). You’d be limited to viewing live, real-time images of the neighbor’s cat peeing on your daisies, or the weird looking cloud roll by, you just wouldn’t have the ability to record any of it.
If getting / using your own drive, Zmodo recommends using a 24/7 rated HDD(eg. W-D AV series, Seagate Pipeline or SV35 series), as desktop rated drives might crap out on you prematurely due to the constant writing to disk. Keep in mind that it gets quite hot in the DVR, so choose something with a lower power profile, or even a 2.5" HDD rated for 24/7…smaller footprint, better airflow and less generated heat.
I can only wonder which HDD Zmodo bundles with these kits…is it an actual 24/7 enterprise rated drive or not?
I personally don’t think you need a 24 hr hard drive. I run a handful of computers and devices with hard drives 24/7 on “regular” HD and never (I mean never) had a problem. I even have NAS using the failure prone seagate 2T (early batches) and I never had an issue.
I’m one of the lucky ones I guess, but you definitely do not need a 24hr type HD. Sure, it can’t hurt…
I’m sure data centers around the world are using “regular” HD with no ill effect…
It’s a marketing gimmick… maybe…
Maybe they are downgrading and cheapening the “regular” hd now to make it lesser drives…
Actually, I’ve visited several large server farms, and I can assure you that they do not use ‘consumer’ rated drives.
I also run several computers and 2 NAS boxes…but the difference is that the DVR is writing to disk 24/7, constanty…whereas my equipment might be on 24/7, sure, but sitting idle for a good portion of that. I use enterprise drives simply because I value my stored data, and I feel more secure with drives that have been designed with a higher MTBF and better power/thermal profile for 24/7 usage. I don’t particularly enjoy having to re-build my disk arrays, so I opt to spend a few bucks more for drives that are built for the purpose.
I’m guessing Zmodo had to make this recommendation to cover their a$$ after some users probably called to complain about their drives burning out in a short amount of time?
There have always been different ‘qualities’ of drives out there…consumer / enterprise / special application…so I don’t think it’s a gimmick. But I agree that quality / warranties aren’t what they used to be a few years ago.
HELP HELP
someone please HELP. I should never have bought this thing. I tried hooking this up, but to no avail. I really don’t know much about it. The book is so hard to understand. Hey do you think support would help me out??? Probably not.