Best way to save 10 days of footage from Hikvision NVR (DS-7616NI-Q2)?

[slicksilver79]

Hello Eveyrone. We’ve had an incident at our warehouse and need to immediately preserve 10 days of recordings from 5 cameras. All cameras record at 1080p / 25fps, and the NVR (DS-7616NI-Q2) currently has two 4TB hard drives handling a total of 15 cameras.


After checking through the web interface, it looks like each camera uses around 50GB per day, so we’re talking roughly 2.5TB total for the footage we need to keep.


The main goal right now is simply to secure the footage without it being overwritten, so we can review it later. I see two possible options:

1. Manual Export: Export the recordings for each camera via the NVR/web interface.
   
   • Downside: This would take a lot of time, and the USB 2.0 transfer speed makes it painfully slow.
2. Physical Disk Removal: Power down the NVR, remove both 4TB drives, and store them safely. Then install two new drives for ongoing recording.
   
   • My concern:
     
     • Can these disks be read on a Windows PC directly, or do they require special software or a Linux environment?
     • If we later reconnect the same drives to the NVR, will the original footage still be intact and viewable up to the point they were removed?

I’m leaning toward option 2 for speed and safety, but I don’t want to risk losing access to the footage.
Would really appreciate some expert input on which approach is best here ... and if there’s a smarter or faster way to do this that I’m missing.

Appreciate any help or advice you can share!

 

[johnfitzy]

I'm not an expert but until someone who may know more comes along... option 2 seems like the way to go to me...

If we later reconnect the same drives to the NVR, will the original footage still be intact and viewable up to the point they were removed?

Yes! I've done it. (Although, I never had the drives connected to a PC in the interim.)

Can these disks be read on a Windows PC directly, or do they require special software or a Linux environment?

Of course, do not let the PC format the drive if you are prompted!

This link explains how "disks can be read on a Windows PC directly"... I have not done it...

Can I remove HDD and keep footage intact

 

[trempa92]

If recording continuously is mandatory, id suggest getting a bigger nvr or nas storage. But since its low budget Q series nvr im not so sure it supports NAS