One Hard drives works, two will not?

My DVR has two connectors on the main board for hard drives. The unit operates great with one drive. Install a second drive and the unit will not start. Both conectors are serial ATA. If I switch the cable from one drive that works to the other connector it will work there also. So both connections on the board are "live."

Plug unit in with both drives connected and it starts up for a few seconds and reboots. Is this some trick with the software from the manufacturer or something else?

Is not second port design to odd device like dvd recorder ?.

Is not second port design to odd device like dvd recorder ?.

Well, that is hard to say. Since the information in the manual leaves a person wondering just what was stated, it is hard to know. There is nothing in manual about adding second drive or any other devics.

What power supply are you using with that unit, how many volts/amps?

What power supply are you using with that unit, how many volts/amps?

Square block plug in, 12V 2.5A

I would try with another power supply; if possible, find one that is 12V 5A.

Are you sure that power supply is the one that came with the unit? 2.5A seems very low for a unit that supports 2 hard drives.

I would try with another power supply; if possible, find one that is 12V 5A.

 

Are you sure that power supply is the one that came with the unit? 2.5A seems very low for a unit that supports 2 hard drives.

I will give that a try if I can locate one around here that has that many amps.

Yes, that is the power block that came with the unit. The case only has mounting screw holes for one drive so it may not have been designed for two drives. Then again with two drive connections, maybe the manuacturer sells one for two drives in a different case but still uses the same main board and a better power supply.

Any thoughts on powering the second drive from a different source? Or could/would this cause problems with the two supplies not "happy" with each other?

I will not recommend using different power source. 2.5A is quite low for 2 hard drives and dvr. Hikvision use 2amp power supply in smallest 4ch units with one hard drive only.

I will run it on one drive until I can come up with a larger power supply to test it with.

Thanks for all comments.