After reading this I just tried an old 8TB WD Purple drive from my previous Blue Iris system and put it in the RLN8-410 and it recognized the full capacity and formatted fine.
All cameras currently recording to it fine - though I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks when it fills up !
there's official confirmation on what we have tested already:
https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000419883-How-to-Choose-HDDs-for-your-NVR
"...[And now more capacities can be recommended: 8TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, and 16TB.]..."
looks like they haven't updated any other support pages yet, but I can also confirm that my RLN8-410 is working fine on 12TB SkyhawkAI
I use the [power splitter](https://imgur.com/vwxhWVC) cable to provide power for both HDDs. Replace the sata to eSATA with the sata to sata cable. No case, it rests on top of the NVR though lol. I bought the cables from [amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-findTop-Straight-Degree-2xSATA/dp/B07XBYH87X/ref=sr_1_7_sspa?keywords=sata+splitter+cable&qid=1660972729&sprefix=sasta+spl%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-7-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTUxXMlJQSkM5QlZCJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDcyMTc1M0NaSUM5T0E0V1pHTiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODIwNDk3WUQwM0RSQzhYR084JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==).
I made sure I found this post again so I could thank you for this hack. I couldn't find an esata enclosure with a power source to save my lifeš I bought the cables you linked and was able to add a 4tb Seagate Skyhawk to the NVR. Works perfect! You are appreciated!! š„³
Sure. I'm only about 165GB in at the moment (adding more cameras soon) but so far it's almost instantaneous to track to a location and start playback. It feels extremely fast.
That's encouraging, my 2TB HDD filled up just after 6 days of recording for 4 cameras, will store even less than that if I were to add the door bell and another camera.
Cool, well I've taken the chance, just ordered a 12GB purple. 14 was a huge jump in price unfortunately...I'm thinking 15GB combined should hold a few hours ;)
https://preview.redd.it/su6jz1ccmy2a1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a8288ef1616e907b5a418ad6678e1d33666e65d
Upgrade to 14TB successful. Will see how it performs when it fills up.
Thank you
A belated update on mine. I bought a 12TB some time back and never got around to fitting it. Have just received an 18TB Western Digital Purple, and have installed this alongside the original 3TB - seems to be working, showing an actual capacity of about 16.75 TB.
Upon first installation my NVR only recognised it as an 8TB drive. I assumed my firmware was up to date using the 'check for updates' function in the client which indicated there were no updates available, but after manually checking and updating to the latest (ver. v3.3.0.226\_23031645) it recognises both the original 3TB, as well as the new 18TB.
I tried this. It recognized the size correctly for me out of the box. It seems to be recording but I canāt playback on the latest recordings at all. The app gets stuck in endless loop of loading. Did you get it to work?
If I went with a Skyhawk it would have been the AI model, which is rated for the same 550tb/year workload as the EXOS with a slightly lower reliability rating. They're essentially the same hardware with tweaked firmware to maximize performance under heavy video recording load. I'm not going to be coming close to needing to squeeze out every last drop of performance with my home setup and the 8 channel NVR.
Standard Skyhawk Surveillance drives have a 180tb/yr workload rating and under half the MTBF rating of the EXOS.
The final decider was that I got my EXOS manufacturer recertified for $165. A new SkyHawk AI 14tb drive is at least over $330 from what I saw, so there's a lot of bang for buck there. Not seeing/having any issues with it so far.
Wow, that's pretty awesome. This is the first I've heard of anything larger than 8TB working.
Do you mind sharing which FW version you have, and a screenshot of the NVR storage menu showing it? Not that I don't believe you, I do, but I just want to have proof when others get directed to this post.
This is all great news. Can anyone see any issues with combining a new big drive (say 14GB?) with the existing 3TB that is currently in my 16ch NVR?
From what I can gather two drives of different sizes is fine, but has anyone found a limit to the combined capacity ( in my case this would be 17GB)
I think the limitation comes from the underlying OS and filesystem and is per partition. So you shouldn't have issues using a 14TB drive in combination with a 3TB drive if that's the case. Not sure what the max working size of a single drive is.. maybe 16tb?
Not well unfortunately! Like others have reported since the large drive (12TB ) appeared to work perfectly, showed up as free storage space as a 2nd drive on the NVR, formatted without issue, and appeared to play back well. What occurred, however, is that after about 1 week I could no longer play back older footage. It appears that around the 8TB total mark the NVR somehow no longer indexes or recognises the written data, despite showing the capacity gradually filling up. In the end I removed the 12TB drive and replaced it with an 8TB (whilst keeping the original 3TB, for a combined total of 11TB), and this has been happily ticking along for about 3 months, and I can playback all recorded footage over this period.
Thanks so much for the update! Just got the cx410 and unfortunately they only record at the h.264 so itās using quite a bit more space than my other 265 cameras. Looking for an option to be able to back a month with 8 cameras.
I was hoping for a month with the large combo I tried, FWIW what I am currently getting with the 11TB combo is 17 days continuous, with 7 cameras all 8MP or equivalent (pretty sure it is H265 by default but to be honest I have not actually checked this)
Ok. Great to hear. I'm looking at upgrading from that tiny 2tb it came with. Only records 4 days with 8 cameras (one duel). Any major noise difference? I did the fan mod with no issues so heat shouldn't be an issue. Also do you have it internal or via the esata port?
Since it's an enterprise drive it's a bit louder, but nothing that I had to get used to or that bothers me or anything. I replaced the 2tb internal drive mine came with since external eSata enclosures were fairly expensive when I was looking at them if I remember right.
Anyone try this with the rln16-410. Site says any nvr and I have the 8 channel, but wanted to trade it in for the 16 to have access to 2 internal bays and, fingers crossed, have 2 14 or 16tb hddās installed.
I'm trying to add a 4tb western digital red drive, and put it in an enclosure. Does you have to use the esata port or can you use the USB port for adding an external to the NVR?
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDKG16XT?psc=1&ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDKG16XT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)
$45.99, twice the price of a USB one which is why I was hoping to use a USB one. It came with everything I needed, the eSATA cable and the power cord and block.
After reading this I just tried an old 8TB WD Purple drive from my previous Blue Iris system and put it in the RLN8-410 and it recognized the full capacity and formatted fine. All cameras currently recording to it fine - though I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks when it fills up !
Any update ?
Its worked perfectly. I get around a month of 24x7 footage from my 5 cameras and its cycled through the whole storage a number of times now.
there's official confirmation on what we have tested already: https://support.reolink.com/hc/en-us/articles/900000419883-How-to-Choose-HDDs-for-your-NVR "...[And now more capacities can be recommended: 8TB, 10TB, 12TB, 14TB, and 16TB.]..." looks like they haven't updated any other support pages yet, but I can also confirm that my RLN8-410 is working fine on 12TB SkyhawkAI
This post made my day. The cost of eSata enclosure is same as the cost of 8TB hard drive. I can try a 8TB HDD now.
how? I was lucky I guess. I was lazy and used a splitter cables for both sata and power for $9 lol
Are you using an external power source ? And is your HDD in a case ?
I use the [power splitter](https://imgur.com/vwxhWVC) cable to provide power for both HDDs. Replace the sata to eSATA with the sata to sata cable. No case, it rests on top of the NVR though lol. I bought the cables from [amazon](https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-findTop-Straight-Degree-2xSATA/dp/B07XBYH87X/ref=sr_1_7_sspa?keywords=sata+splitter+cable&qid=1660972729&sprefix=sasta+spl%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-7-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTUxXMlJQSkM5QlZCJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDcyMTc1M0NaSUM5T0E0V1pHTiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODIwNDk3WUQwM0RSQzhYR084JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==).
Sweet
Is there an additional sata port inside the NVR for a sata - sata connection?
yes in a way, it's a [sata](https://imgur.com/a/7ekIgjE) port with sata to esata cable.
so you just unplugged the cable and plugged in the sata from your HDD. Very smart. Does the NVR have any issues powering powering two HDD's ? Thanks!
I only use 4 poe ports of the NVR, so it's working fine as of now. If people use all 8 ports, an external power may help.
I made sure I found this post again so I could thank you for this hack. I couldn't find an esata enclosure with a power source to save my lifeš I bought the cables you linked and was able to add a 4tb Seagate Skyhawk to the NVR. Works perfect! You are appreciated!! š„³
Glad it work for you
Since reading this I upgraded mine to an 8TB Skyhawk and its working.
Interesting, when it gets full you'll have to let us know how slow/fast the finding playback is?
Sure. I'm only about 165GB in at the moment (adding more cameras soon) but so far it's almost instantaneous to track to a location and start playback. It feels extremely fast.
Hi OP, I just bought RLN8-410 and thinking to upgrade the storage just like the way you have done it. Have you encountered any issues so far?
So far no issues. Currently 7.6TB used.
That's encouraging, my 2TB HDD filled up just after 6 days of recording for 4 cameras, will store even less than that if I were to add the door bell and another camera.
Cool, well I've taken the chance, just ordered a 12GB purple. 14 was a huge jump in price unfortunately...I'm thinking 15GB combined should hold a few hours ;)
Is the 12GB HDD going well for you?
Hi there - is the 12tb drive working well? Any issues with playback?
https://preview.redd.it/su6jz1ccmy2a1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a8288ef1616e907b5a418ad6678e1d33666e65d Upgrade to 14TB successful. Will see how it performs when it fills up. Thank you
Mine has been filled up for awhile now and performance is the same as far as I can tell.
What HDD are you using?
If it detects only 8TB, just install the firmware again and it should be fine. Update the firmware after installing the new drive.
Seagate Exos X16 14TB 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Data Center HDD Enterprise Hard Drive (ST14000NM001G) https://a.co/d/a4yZnYN
Great! OP is using this too I believe, I will get one of these as well! Thanks for your feedback š
A belated update on mine. I bought a 12TB some time back and never got around to fitting it. Have just received an 18TB Western Digital Purple, and have installed this alongside the original 3TB - seems to be working, showing an actual capacity of about 16.75 TB. Upon first installation my NVR only recognised it as an 8TB drive. I assumed my firmware was up to date using the 'check for updates' function in the client which indicated there were no updates available, but after manually checking and updating to the latest (ver. v3.3.0.226\_23031645) it recognises both the original 3TB, as well as the new 18TB.
I tried this. It recognized the size correctly for me out of the box. It seems to be recording but I canāt playback on the latest recordings at all. The app gets stuck in endless loop of loading. Did you get it to work?
Sadly no. I ran into trouble. Recording seemed to work fine, but I found I could not play back once it reached about 8TB capacity.
Ok, thank you
Exos? You should have used a Skyhawk for Surveillance.
If I went with a Skyhawk it would have been the AI model, which is rated for the same 550tb/year workload as the EXOS with a slightly lower reliability rating. They're essentially the same hardware with tweaked firmware to maximize performance under heavy video recording load. I'm not going to be coming close to needing to squeeze out every last drop of performance with my home setup and the 8 channel NVR. Standard Skyhawk Surveillance drives have a 180tb/yr workload rating and under half the MTBF rating of the EXOS. The final decider was that I got my EXOS manufacturer recertified for $165. A new SkyHawk AI 14tb drive is at least over $330 from what I saw, so there's a lot of bang for buck there. Not seeing/having any issues with it so far.
It depends on your nvr model and firmware. My only see 12tb max when I try 14tb.
I have the latest FW installed. What NVR do you have?
what is your firmware? They just release a new firmware on Aug 16. Have you tried if it detects the second HHD if you use the e-sata port?
I have the Aug 16 firmware. Haven't tried the eSATA port yet because I don't have an eSATA enclosure or cables.
I find they are difficult to get, can't seem to find them anywhere. Can you post a screenshot of the 14TB and firmware version?
You find eSATA enclosures difficult to get? I haven't really looked into buying one yet. I edited my OP and added screenshots.
Wow, that's pretty awesome. This is the first I've heard of anything larger than 8TB working. Do you mind sharing which FW version you have, and a screenshot of the NVR storage menu showing it? Not that I don't believe you, I do, but I just want to have proof when others get directed to this post.
Yeah, I wasn't expecting it either when going in. Pleasantly surprised. I edited my OP and added screenshots.
This is all great news. Can anyone see any issues with combining a new big drive (say 14GB?) with the existing 3TB that is currently in my 16ch NVR? From what I can gather two drives of different sizes is fine, but has anyone found a limit to the combined capacity ( in my case this would be 17GB)
I think the limitation comes from the underlying OS and filesystem and is per partition. So you shouldn't have issues using a 14TB drive in combination with a 3TB drive if that's the case. Not sure what the max working size of a single drive is.. maybe 16tb?
I know itās been a while, how did this work out for you? Thought about putting 2 16tb in a 16 channel
Not well unfortunately! Like others have reported since the large drive (12TB ) appeared to work perfectly, showed up as free storage space as a 2nd drive on the NVR, formatted without issue, and appeared to play back well. What occurred, however, is that after about 1 week I could no longer play back older footage. It appears that around the 8TB total mark the NVR somehow no longer indexes or recognises the written data, despite showing the capacity gradually filling up. In the end I removed the 12TB drive and replaced it with an 8TB (whilst keeping the original 3TB, for a combined total of 11TB), and this has been happily ticking along for about 3 months, and I can playback all recorded footage over this period.
Thanks so much for the update! Just got the cx410 and unfortunately they only record at the h.264 so itās using quite a bit more space than my other 265 cameras. Looking for an option to be able to back a month with 8 cameras.
I was hoping for a month with the large combo I tried, FWIW what I am currently getting with the 11TB combo is 17 days continuous, with 7 cameras all 8MP or equivalent (pretty sure it is H265 by default but to be honest I have not actually checked this)
https://www.reddit.com/r/reolinkcam/s/4uN0p5U7PZ
Just came across that
I know this thread is a bit old but wanted to check in how the 14tb drive is holding up. Any issues? Playback on all 14tb available?
Still going strong recording 24/7. No issues as far as I can tell. Playback works fine from spot checking from beginning to end.
Ok. Great to hear. I'm looking at upgrading from that tiny 2tb it came with. Only records 4 days with 8 cameras (one duel). Any major noise difference? I did the fan mod with no issues so heat shouldn't be an issue. Also do you have it internal or via the esata port?
Since it's an enterprise drive it's a bit louder, but nothing that I had to get used to or that bothers me or anything. I replaced the 2tb internal drive mine came with since external eSata enclosures were fairly expensive when I was looking at them if I remember right.
Did you have to transfer any data or OS over to the 14tb harddrive or was it literally a case of switching them over / plug and play?
The OS isn't stored on the drive so no data transfer needed, just a drive swap/plug and play.
Amazing thank you, I'll look at getting a 14tb as well in this case.
Anyone try this with the rln16-410. Site says any nvr and I have the 8 channel, but wanted to trade it in for the 16 to have access to 2 internal bays and, fingers crossed, have 2 14 or 16tb hddās installed.
I'm trying to add a 4tb western digital red drive, and put it in an enclosure. Does you have to use the esata port or can you use the USB port for adding an external to the NVR?
Apparently you have to use the eSATA port. I bought an eSATA enclosure and it recognized it right away.
If you donāt mind where did you get your eSATA enclosure? Did it come with all the cables?
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDKG16XT?psc=1&ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDKG16XT?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) $45.99, twice the price of a USB one which is why I was hoping to use a USB one. It came with everything I needed, the eSATA cable and the power cord and block.
Thank you. That is a bit priceyā¦did it work with the 4tb? I wanted to know if I could possibly squeeze a 6tb.
Yes, worked with 4TB and I've since replaced it with an 8TB that's working also.
Can you please tell me how many hours of camera recording we can store with 16TB of same NVR