Formatting memory cards on your video units

2016-08-25Last updated

If you are using your video unit’s memory card for the first time, or the write speed of the memory card seems slow, you can format the memory card before recording video on your edge recording video unit.

Before you begin

If you have already used the memory card, back up the recordings that are currently stored on your video unit.

What you should know

Formatting a storage device is different than erasing. When erasing files, you can choose to erase individual or multiple files from their directories, but files that are protected are not erased. Conversely, formatting deletes all files simultaneously, regardless of whether they are protected. Formatting also deletes the current file system on your storage device and creates a new one.

A camera that is connected to a single-channel input video encoder that supports edge recording uses the storage device on the video encoder. As a result, if you format the camera that is connected to a single-channel input video encoder, the recordings from the connected camera are permanently deleted. Edge recording options are not available during the formatting process.

Tip: To maintain optimal performance, it is recommended to format your storage drive occasionally.

Procedure

  1. If one is not present, insert a memory card in your video unit’s card slot.
    Important: For information about inserting and removing memory cards, always refer to the product documentation that is provided by your video unit manufacturer.
  2. Click Clients and then, from the Number of devices column, click the client account that the video unit is added to.
  3. On the client's Devices page, click the video unit whose memory card you want to format. If you have difficulty finding the camera, you can search for it by using the Search box.
    CAUTION: Formatting your video unit’s memory card permanently deletes all video recordings that are stored on it and they cannot be recovered.
  4. Click Format camera storage.
    The State field changes to Formatting camera storage, and then to Enrolled once the video unit has restarted.

The Edge recording status field changes to Formatting, and then to Ready once the formatting has been completed. Also, a progress indicator is displayed throughout the formatting process. If you experience issues when formatting, make sure that the memory card is properly inserted, restart your camera, and then try formatting again.

After restarting your camera, wait a few minutes for the camera to re-establish network connection.

Example

Watch this video to learn more. Click the Captions icon (CC) to turn on video captions in one of the available languages.