Do I need to format the hard drive on a new Digital or Network Video Recorder?

When you are setting up your new recorder, proceed to Startup Wizard >> Disk

If your DVR or NVR recorder came with a pre-installed Hard Disk Drive,

it would appear on the Disk screen.

Check the ‘State‘ column; if it’s ‘Normal,’ click Next. Otherwise, click in the HDD checkbox and then ‘Format HDD.’ We recommend having ‘Overwrite‘ set to ‘Auto.’

Enter the DVR’s password to confirm; once the HDD is formatted, its State will turn to ‘Normal.’

Adding NetHDD requires a file server on your LAN with NFS or SMB enabled, NFS requires an IP and Directory on the file server, and limiting disk size is optional.