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D-Link IP Cameras for Home => DCS series Network Cameras => Topic started by: egonvdv on July 16, 2012, 04:07:00 AM

Title: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on July 16, 2012, 04:07:00 AM

2x DCS-2121 camera

They both record to the same wireless hard disc via my router
(airport extreme, with external HD attached. )

but when both cameras are on at the same time, they seems to interfere with each other,
and regulary delete (all) older recordings of both cameras. (apparently as they "think" the HD is full)

This does NOT happen when only one camera is on.

I even tried to record at the lowest possible quality as not to take up too much bandwith,
but problem remains.

Can anyone help?

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on July 26, 2012, 07:07:09 AM

ok, i know this is a shameless bump, but can anyone assit me on the above matter  ???

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: JavaLawyer on July 26, 2012, 07:10:08 AM

Have you tried routing the images from each DCS-2121 to two different storage locations? Do you see the same results routing images to different directories on the same HDD versus two separate HDDS (or two partitions on the same HDD)?

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on July 26, 2012, 07:19:12 AM

the problem is that i can not have them record to 2 seperate folders.

my HD is connected to an airport extreme, to which i connect wireless.
(my pc is windows 7, the HD is in FAT format)

With the camera software i can only create a path to the HD itself (ie the root).
i'm unable to choose a specific folder on the HD and thus both cameras record within same folder.

pitty, cos this would indeed seems THE solution, because if i test each camera seperately they work fine
without deleting anything...

or could it be that, together, they take up too much bandwith & thus think the HD is full...?

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: JavaLawyer on July 26, 2012, 07:33:30 AM

One thought that comes to mind is creating two partitions on the HDD. The DCS-2121 should perceive each partition as a different HDD.

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on July 26, 2012, 07:40:44 AM

yes will give that a try. no idea how to do it, but am sure google will help me out with this. :)

appreciate yr help Java

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: JavaLawyer on July 26, 2012, 07:49:09 AM

When you format a new HDD you should have the option of segregating the HDD into multiple partitions. There are also third party products that permit the creation of partitions without reformatting.

I realize this isn't solving the problem, but rather working around it.  But it's the best I can offer right now.

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on July 26, 2012, 08:01:14 AM

i just hope that the airport extreme wil recognise it as 2 seperate discs
(cos the path really is PC to Airport & airport to HD)
iAnyway 'm gonna try this this weekend or next week.
so, i'll revert with the result, but it might take a while.
cheers, Egon

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: JavaLawyer on July 26, 2012, 08:10:38 AM

Best of luck.  ;)

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on September 17, 2012, 08:40:53 AM

Ok, a bit late but here I am.

I can not work it out;

partitioning has not affect.
(FYI also tried (as a simpler solution) to set one camera to date 2013 & the other 2012,
this way they record in seperate folders)

I THINK the problem is that i record to a wireless HD & for some reason the camera
can therefore not always properly read and/or write to the HD.
(IE; camera via wifi to router, router to Airport extreme via wifi)

But I only get to this conclusion because It SEEMS that the camera that is FURTHEST
away from my router deletes the files. (even switched them around to make sure)

But it might well be the airport extreme that's causing the problem...?
Maybe because the HD has to be formatted to FAT in order to work with an apple product...?

(On the other hand I also backup my Pc to the Airport without any problems..)

Question is: if I buy 2 new (generation) cameras, will that fix the problem?,

cos one way or another, i need to have a setup that guaranteed keeps my recordings!

 ???

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on September 21, 2012, 07:59:00 AM

I think i found the problem. Seems the USB port on the airport is underpowered which creates the
problem with a  selfpowered HD drive.

(More info: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3694392?start=0&tstart=0 )

now testing with a HD on netpower & so far all is well.

I do hope that this really is the ned of the story

Title: Re: Have 2 cameras, which randomly delete old recordings ("thinking" HD is full..)
Post by: egonvdv on September 24, 2012, 05:43:14 AM

forget the above post.....

I managed to hook up a NTFS formatted HD directly to my router & recording now works like a charm

unfortunately i did not manage to record/test to a FAT32 formatted HD.
This because the router labels the FAT HD as "no name", and thus it's impossible
to access it with the camera, due to the space between "no" & "name".
(in camera settings, under "Shared folder " you can not leave space or use "_")

But still; I'm now pretty sure it's the "FAT format" which is causing the problem
(maybe in combination with the way the airport extreme processes the information from the camera..?)

bottom line: I'm stuck with a useless airport extreme lol