NIKKAI cctv dvr help

[birdman20uk]

Hi I have a NIKKAI compact 4-channel digital video recorder hooked up to 2 cctv cameras and after a power failure it cannot detect the HDD installed. I have tried 3 different HDD's that I know work fine and still the same problem just says no HDD installed.
Any help would be gratefully received.
cheers keith

[khye]

Have you tried to format the drives again using the DVR's menu?

[birdman20uk]

Originally Posted by khye

Have you tried to format the drives again using the DVR's menu?

Hi khye, yes i've tried to format the drives again using the dvr's menu and says error unable to format drive no drive detected.

[iStorm]

The power failure may not of just been a failure, you may of had a power surge that would of blown the board on the dvr!!

[birdman20uk]

Originally Posted by iStorm

The power failure may not of just been a failure, you may of had a power surge that would of blown the board on the dvr!!

Hi istorm thanks for the reply, the dvr lets me set the time, date etc and shows live footage of the cameras but as soon as I try to press record it just says no HDD detected. I have a pre paid meter for my electricity supply and that ran out and I encountered the problem when turning the dvr unit back on so I don't think there was a power surge.

[iStorm]

mmmmm.....Without looking at the dvr its hard to tell, have u changed the settings in the menu from a sata drive to an ide drive?

[birdman20uk]

Originally Posted by iStorm

mmmmm.....Without looking at the dvr its hard to tell, have u changed the settings in the menu from a sata drive to an ide drive?

The dvr only takes IDE HDD's and i've tried a few drives incase its the drive thats causing the problem but got the same results.

[iStorm]

is it still under warranty? send it back............otherwise i dont see what more you can do other than send it for repair.

[ukdude]

Dumb question you indicated it worked before but if it didn't then try.

Can you hear and feel the drive spin up I know it's difficult with the fan on the unit, best tried with drive caddy out.

I had a couple of ATA drives which which wouldn't let me plug the cable in due to the tab on the cable fouling the back of the drive, so I plugged it the wrong way round "yea I know!!".

So the drive label writing should be upwards with the red pin 1 cable indicator to the left, again drive master/slave pins to the left when looking from the front of the unit, normal no master slave tabs required.

P.s just got one of ebay "ex shop demo etc" and from what I hear it could be a pile of pants!
Having problems interfacing PC with unit, indicates I cant see the HD drive from pc but am able to record/playback locally on monitor fine.

Tried both vista & xp PC's, factory reset unit & formatted units HD lost count number of times, only thing I can see different is indicating my HD is slave rather than master? Should be master by default i.e no jumpers on drive but also tried cable select!

Lastly unable to list all recorded files like indicated in manual just have to play each one in turn also unable to search by time also indicated in manual? Is it because my drive indicates slave? Will open a new thread if I find an outcome!

Think I know why it's on the bay!!!

Nice idea but like a lot of things from Nikkai/Maplin seem to have problems!