How to Choose the Right Hard Drive Size for Your CCTV System
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How to Choose the Right Hard Drive Size for Your CCTV System
When it comes to building a reliable CCTV system, one of the most overlooked—but most crucial—elements is storage. Choosing the right hard drive size isn't just about capacity; it's about ensuring you retain footage for the right length of time without overspending or running out of space.
At BCE Direct, we've made this process easy with our Surveillance Hard Drive Calculator, which gives you a precise estimate of your storage needs.
Why Hard Drive Size Matters
Surveillance footage can quickly eat up space. The higher the resolution and the more cameras you have, the faster your hard drive fills up. Key factors influencing storage requirements include:
Number of cameras
Resolution (e.g., 1080p, 4K)
Recording hours per day
Retention period (how many days of footage)
Compression type (H.264 vs H.265)
Getting this wrong can mean lost footage or overspending.
Using the Hard Drive Calculator
Our Surveillance Hard Drive Calculator takes all variables—number of cameras, resolution, frame rate, daily recording hours, retention days, and compression type—and delivers an estimate of your required storage in TBs, helping you choose wisely.
Real-World Example
Say you have:
4 cameras
Recording at 1080p (Full HD)
15 FPS
12 hours per day
Storing 30 days of footage
Using H.265 compression
The calculator might recommend around 1.5–2 TB. From there, you could choose a Seagate SkyHawk CCTV Surveillance Hard Drive, available in 1 TB–10 TB options, designed specifically for 24/7 video use: https://www.bcedirect.co.uk/products/seagate-cctv-surveillance-hard-drive-1tb-2tb-4tb-6tb-8tb-10tb-options (bcedirect.co.uk, southwestautomated.com).
Why Choose a Seagate SkyHawk Drive?
Built for continuous, 24/7 surveillance workloads, supporting up to 64 camera streams (seagate.com).
Includes ImagePerfect™ firmware and RV (rotational vibration) sensors to maintain smooth performance in multi-drive systems (seagate.com).
Offers Rescue Data Recovery options — a safety net if data loss occurs (seagate.com).
Available in capacities from 1 TB up to 10 TB — ideal for any system size (bcedirect.co.uk).
Tips for Picking the Right Drive
Always round up your storage estimate to avoid unexpected shortfalls.
Choose surveillance-grade drives (like SkyHawk), not desktop variants, for reliable 24/7 recording.
Plan for growth, whether adding more cameras or extending retention time.
Consider RAID or dual drives if your budget and NVR support it for redundancy and reliability.
Still Not Sure? We Can Help You Calculate
Use our Surveillance Hard Drive Calculator to get started, or contact us for friendly advice — we’re always happy to help.