Nowadays, many brands of mechanical hard disks have classification labels for desktop computer mechanical hard disks and monitoring hard disks, and there is no significant difference in the price between the two. Is the monitoring hard disk good for use as a normal hard disk, and will it perform well if used in various aspects of household use?
1、 Can an ordinary hard disk be used as a monitoring disk
Generally, people use computer hard disks for monitoring, and computer hard disks are not suitable for the monitoring industry, because the hard disks we use for monitoring the industry require 356 days a year, running 24 hours a day, while ordinary household hard disks, even if you use them frequently, cannot be turned on 24 hours a day, and not turned off 365 days a year! This is the biggest difference between hard disks in the monitoring industry and domestic hard disks. Due to this difference, hard disk manufacturers have produced professional hard disks suitable for the monitoring industry, commonly known as dedicated hard disks for monitoring.
We also mentioned in “The Difference between Monitoring Hard Disks and Ordinary Hard Disks” that if you use ordinary hard disks for all-day video recording, it is equivalent to making ordinary hard disks “work overtime all night” every day, and the service life will inevitably decrease accordingly! Moreover, monitoring the low power consumption of hard disks not only reduces the pressure on the power supply, but also reduces the pressure on heat dissipation. The monitoring panel is easier to maintain “calm” work!
Therefore, it is not recommended to use ordinary hard disks as monitoring disks. It is recommended to use dedicated disks. For example, Seagate’s Kuying series is a hard disk designed for HD monitoring, with a capacity of up to 10TB. ImagePerfect technology supports recording of up to 64 HD cameras, ensuring the integrity of image storage. In addition, it can support 7 * 24 hours of work, with a 180TB/year workload rating, and is designed for multi disk monitoring systems. With a mean time between failures of 1 million hours and a three-year warranty, it is more reassuring to use.
2、 Is the monitoring hard disk used as a normal hard disk
“Not recommended, because monitoring level hard disks focus on constant speed recording, their magnetic heads and calculation methods are quite different from other hard disks. If used in ordinary computers, their write speeds are not fast, their transmission interfaces are very low, and because magnetic heads and motors are” crudely “used to seek readings, exceeding their design limits, problems are likely to occur.”. If it weren’t for this, there wouldn’t be a situation where a 3T monitoring hard disk only needs more than 700.
Monitoring systems generally do not require high transmission speeds for hard disks, but they frequently read and write small amounts of data. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the structure of the magnetic head reading and writing mechanism based on the reading and writing characteristics of the monitoring system to extend the life of the magnetic head. The theoretical mean time between failures of monitoring hard disks is much longer than that of ordinary disks, with higher stability and reliability.
Unlike the mechanical hard disk we use daily, in order to maintain continuous readability in the monitoring hard disk, a “skip error correction” plan is usually added, which allows continuous reading without consuming time to correct errors when data occurs. This result is difficult to detect in video monitoring, as the effect embodied in the video may be a few frames missing, As a daily user who wants 100% data transmission, if a desktop computer uses a monitoring hard disk, it will not be able to ensure that the transmission data is 100% transmitted. Although such events are small probability events, this is also the reason why most users are unwilling to try.
An ordinary hard disk will start at full speed when powered on, and the instantaneous current may reach more than 2 amperes. When the monitoring hard disk starts, it will slowly accelerate and the starting current will be controlled below 2 amperes. Due to the fact that multiple hard disks are usually installed in the monitoring system, a large startup current will be generated at the moment of startup. If it is a normal hard disk, the power supply will be difficult to withstand, or even burn out.
Therefore, although the monitoring of hard disks, both in terms of performance and energy consumption, is superior to the ordinary hard disk of a computer. However, in terms of price, read/write, and image transmission, it is not recommended to use a monitoring hard disk as a normal hard disk. There is no need to use a dedicated monitoring hard disk for household use. If you just want to increase the speed of your computer, it’s better to use a solid-state drive.