dopalgangr

The OS's on almost all DVR's (linux based stand-alones) are stored on the motherboard and not on the hard drive. The hard drives are used strictly for storage of the captured video.

I think he means something like this maybe?? http://www.linovision.com/pages/products/linux_dvr/software/index.php

Why note use an external USB DVD burner?

i posted that earlier with another link, just in case you missed it

Yea, that was just for maximum power scenario Not bad though $300 and thats 4gb of ram

WELL, if one wants a great Core 2 mobo in this form factor then I think the Intel DG45FC definitely fits the bill. http://www.silentpcreview.com/Intel_DG45FC_mITX Intels video demo http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboard/demo/demo.htm?module=media_series_dg45fc

I have had a Dewalt (Black and Decker) for many years and have never had a problem. I also like Hitachi. Ryobi is cheaper but I dont know how they hold up.

Well after replacing the fuse in my meter I was able to perform the test. It pulls 350mA

I use Norton Ghost or Acronis True image software. You can even make a boot cd/dvd that has the ghost software with your image on it to give the customer a way to get things back to the way it was when you shipped it to them. Norton Ghost also lets you hook up a bunch of pc's and push the image to all of them at once. This way you can increase production by hooking multiple pcs to a switch and sending the image across the network.

Thanks Rory, I actually have one like it from an alarm that I never installed but no way to charge it.

Well, I dont have a 12v battery to have a setup like you to tell you exactly. I did find the link though, looks like they went up in price. http://cgi.ebay.com/Outdoor-Light-Illuminator-for-CCTV-Camera-100M-IR-Led_W0QQitemZ260329350247QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3c9cd6a467

Come on, that is a serious answer Haven't your ever watched Ghost Hunters on Wednesdays on the SciFy Channel?? No, like Sawbones said, they are just bugs on the lens.

Hmm, minds a little different. Instead of the four IR leds like yours, mine has a whole array of them. Maybe thats why it cost more? (75)

NOOOOO, I purchased one of these off of EBAY too, I have not mounted it yet though. Is this what I have to look forward too? That damn thing was expensive.

Check out the specs on this board!!! And it comes with the power supply WIFI, and HD Decoding http://resources.mini-box.com/online/MBD-I-Zotac-ION-AU-N330-PSU/MBD-I-Zotac-ION-AU-N330-PSU-specs.pdf

It came with sp3 installed. But you have way more knowalge then I do with windows so any pointers you might have I would like to take a look at them. Do you know of any free programs that I can run to torch-er test the box? There is plenty of that type of software out there. Here is a good one with a free 30 day eval http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

Found these for you to check out http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10 and http://www.mini-box.com/site/index.html Oh yea and this looks interesting http://www.mini-box.com/M350-universal-mini-itx-enclosure

What power supply are you going to use with that? oops posted this before I looked at the second page of posts. I see you have already figured out where I was going

Or maybe its a ghost...

Most important - life expectancy of the IR's

Good points Soundy!! I prefer the WiebeTech with E-Sata connection. All you do here is through in a ESATA card and connect it to the unit. It does all the raid for you and is hot swappable so you dont have to shut down the system to switch out a drive. Also by using ESATA you get the benifit of a 3GB connection to the storage EDIT- My bad Drobo make enclosures but only up to Firewire 800 no ESATA yet

The purpose of RAID is to either make your data access faster, make your data more failure-proof, or both. The entire point of RAID 1 is data redundancy. While yes, RAID 1 does effectively give you half the storage space of the drives used, if one drive dies, your data is still intact on the second drive. Thus, if you have a hard drive die, it's not so big of a deal. You can just replace the dead drive, and go on with whatever you were doing. This scenario however effectively cuts your storage in half and if you are using 4 drives you will only get the benefit of storage from two of them. RAId 0 gives you more storage space and speed however no redundancy. So if you lose a drive you lose ALL the data. There are also more complex RAID options, to give both more speed and redundancy. My personal favorite is RAID 5, which uses one drive for redundancy, so out of a four-disk array, you get the storage space of three of the four disks. However if you lose more than one disk you will lose all of your data. This is uncommon as you would have replaced the bad disk (hopefully) before you lost another. You can also set these up with "hot spares" this would be a 5th disk that would not be used until one fails. The raid would immediately rebuild using the hot spare and when you replace the bad drive that replacement would become the spare. This raid setup is the best for protection of data and getting the most out of your storage. You can still use the storage while the RAID is being rebuilt. As for the raid cards I only use 3ware cards (generally Escalade models) but they are very expensive. I have had some luck with Rosewell and others. If this is not a totally custom system and maybe a Dell with your DVR cards in it, then just order it with the Dell PERC raid from the factory and go from there. Hope I helped ya.

I have Spinrite and have never had it work on any of the 20 or so drives that I have run it on (as far as fixing a drive).

I dont have a pdf handy but its actually quite simple. All you do is download the utility from the manufactures website and run that option. Each hard disk manufacture is different so you should only use the utility from the maker of the hard disk. Here are some links to the different utilities from the different manufactures: Seagate: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatools-win-eula&vgnextoid=d0d51d4dad651110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD Western Digital: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=611&sid=3&lang=en Maxtor: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=MaxBlast_5&vgnextoid=7add8b9c4a8ff010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

That was going to be my second course of action if the diag software passes the disk Cruelty, if it passes then perform a low level format (should be one of the options in the software), that procedure will restore a functional drive (that is, one that does not have mechanical problems) to the condition it was in when received from the factory. This means no partitons or file structure. Hope this helps, by the way do you have a link to the DVR manual or manufacture website?