Costs
CCTV hard drive cost and sizing
Surveillance hard drives are priced by capacity, and the right size comes from your retention target rather than the budget. Four 2MP cameras need roughly 1 TB per 15 to 20 days, so a month of footage means about 2 TB. Always specify a surveillance-rated drive.
Surveillance drives are different
They are built for continuous writing. A desktop drive in a recorder fails far sooner, and it is a substitution some quotes make quietly.
Work backwards from retention
Decide how far back you need to look, then buy the drive that delivers it. Buying the smallest drive that fits is how people end up with a fortnight of history.
Drives wear out
Three to five years of continuous writing is typical. Replacing on a planned visit is far better than discovering it after an incident.
How much is a CCTV hard drive?
Can I fit a normal computer hard drive?
It will work and it will fail early. The cost difference is small against the risk of losing the footage, so we always fit surveillance-rated drives.
How do I know when the drive is failing?
Stuttering playback, gaps in recordings and recorder alarms are the usual warnings. A health check at each maintenance visit catches it earlier than that.
Need this doing?
CCTV installation covers surveying your premises, choosing camera positions that actually cover your entrances and till, running cable in conduit, fitting the recorder with enough storage for your retention needs, and setting up phone viewing before we leave. A four-camera system typically costs PKR 45,000 to 70,000 installed.
CCTV installation — what it costsRelated pages
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We walk the premises, mark up a plan and give you an itemised quote in rupees. No obligation to buy from us afterwards.